Happy Thursday, Loopters! Today we’re exploring Dallas with our new Texas Community Manager, Melody! Melody had so many rave reviews of her fave Dallas hot spots that we might have to make her blog entry into a two (or five)-parter. We love that! Here are some of her favorite places right now:

Q1: Best place to break it down?

Melody: The Slip Inn and Rio Room. The Slip Inn is a narrow, dark and easy-to-miss space that serves up some of the best hip-hop, booty shakin’ tunes in town. Sometimes I just want to throw on my Vans and jorts and shimmy down to Biggie Smalls. NAWWHATIMEAN? Other times I want to brush my hair and pretend that I do it every day. Those nights are reserved for Rio Room. If there’s a popular musician in town, they’re probably performing intimate DJ sets at this exclusive little spot after their show. Diplo, Chromeo, Vice, Robyn, Erykah Badu and a whole bunch of other people who are much cooler than me have all caused a dance party here.

Q2: Best Place to Watch Miami Vice on the Big Screen?

Melody: Texas Theatre. No, I am not kidding. I would not joke about Don Johnson or his sweet sport coats. This newly-ish refurbished historic theatre in Oak Cliff, owned and managed by some super cool local dudes, just started hosting two hour showings of Miami Vice episodes for free at 8 p.m. on Sundays. You’re encouraged to dress in appropriate costume. Ease any shoulder pad anxiety with a rare brew or movie-themed cocktail at the bar.

Q3: Best hair of the dogs?

Melody: Sunny’s Bloody Mary at The Magnolia or Brandon’s Michelada at Sfuzzi. The Magnolia is one of my favorite spots to watch an indie flick. You MUST get there with plenty enough time before your show on Sunday to have a drink with Sunny, the uber friendly bartender who dons red suspenders. He’ll tell you all about your zodiac sign while mixing up the best Bloody Mary in town. If beer is more your thang, Brandon’s Michelada, available at Sfuzzi during brunch on Saturdays and Sundays, is amazing. Why? Beef. Jerky. AMIRITE?

Q4: Fastest way to gain back any weight lost during a crash diet?

Melody: The red velvet cupcakes at Society Bakery. The perfect amount of buttercream frosting balances atop these fluffy and moist (sorry, I hate that word too) big-enough-for-two-but-I’m-gonna-eat-one-by-myself-don’t-judge cupcakes. I’m normally a chocolate kind of gal (Hellooo Dude, Sweet Chocolate), but these bad boys are hard to deny. So hard I have to run extra bleachers at SMU. (Okay, I’ve only done that once and my calves still hurt.) Sigh. Bikini season is almost over, right?

Q5: Best place to be on the first Thursday of the month?

Melody: Bishops Arts District! Head to Oak Cliff the first Thursday of every month (aka, today!) from 6-10 p.m. Purchase a glass of wine for just ten bones, then take a stroll around the area. The galleries, shops, restaurants, and bars all stay open late, and they’ll top off your wine glass for free. Don’t skip the Soda Shop Gallery, Zola’s Everyday Vintage or Eno’s. Or Oddfellows or Tillman’s Roadhouse or Zen Sushi or Lockhart Smokehouse or…

Um, who else is ready to move to Dallas, like, tomorrow? If you’re local (lucky!), go check out Melody’s awesome recs and, as always, fire up that Loopt app while you’re there and get to checkin’ in! You can also connect with Melody on Twitter and get her updates (& more!) by liking Loopt on Facebook.

5Qs here! This week, Loopt user Betty N. gives us the low-down on her fave summer hot spots around San Jose, California.

Q1: Where’s your fave place to grab happy hour when the weather gets hot?

Yard House at Santana Row. Good pizzas and salads and a nice selection of discounted beers.

Q2: Pour us a tip on your fave refreshing chardonnay around SJ?

Enoteca La Storia—Great tapas and selection of wines.

Q3: Where’s the best spot to relax on an outdoor patio?

El Jardin Tequila Bar. On Fridays, there is a mariachi band and fantastic margaritas!

Q4: Where’s your fave place to cool off with a frozen treat?

Willow Glen Frozen Yogurt—the best vanilla custard in the world.

Q5: Where do you go for the wardrobe to match the season?

Pink Stripes at Santana Row! They have fabulous dresses and shoes to suit the weather.

Thanks for the 411, Betty! Her insider tips should inspire all of us to get out of the A/C and hit the town. Now, get out there and answer some Qs!

Q1: What’s your fave bar in San Francisco for after work drinks?

Connie: Bloodhound is one of my go-to spots after work. I’ll be the one playing Big Buck Hunter while kicking back a Recoil cocktail.

Q2: What’s the best late-night grub spot in San Francisco?

Connie: After a long night, I’m usually craving the curry duck and crab fried rice from Osha Thai Noodle Cafe. Plus, they’re one of the few spots downtown that is open until 3am on the weekend!

Q3: Who’s servin’ up truly yummy, finger-lickin’-good chicken in San Francisco?

Connie: Wayfare Tavern – I could eat their fried chicken as my last meal on earth and die a happy woman.

Q4: Who’s got the best breakfast in San Francisco?

Connie: I heart Mission Beach Cafe – the wild mushroom benedict is AMAZING!

Q5: What’s your favorite food truck in San Francisco?

Connie: If I could, I’d have a pork belly bao from Chairman Bao every day.

Do you agree with Connie’s recs? Where are your fave spots? Feel free to share with us in the comments below, or, better yet, stop by Connie’s faves and answer some Qs!

San Francisco’s Mission District couldn’t have been a better place to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, and Public Works couldn’t have been a more popping place that day – we were there to celebrate the SF Bay Area launch of Loopt Qs! Being the very first to uncover local insights about the places in the Bay Area through Qs, the community came together for an exclusive fiesta where many donned sombreros and downed cervezas while checking out the cool new feature on iPhones.

While DJ Spark spun fun Latin house beats, guests enjoyed festive bevvies from Blue Angel Vodka, distinctive local wine tastings from The Winery SF, and a liquid buzz from Hawaiian Energy Shotz.

Frozen Kuhsterd kept everyone cool with scoops of their delectable Spicy Mexican Chocolate and Four Barrel Coffee frozen custard and the MoGo BBQ truck came just in time to fill everyone’s bellies with delicious Korean tacos and burritos. Mythbusters’ Grant Imahara also came by to get geektastic with us!

The SF Giants’ Orange and Black Attack Team was in the house and gave complimentary tickets to the June 24th Giants Tweetup Game Night to the two lucky winners of our AT&T Loopt Q-Off challenge. The race to the finish was a close one! People also got silly with The Laugh Box, as guests were provided with fun keepsakes from their awesome flipbook photobooth.

If you missed getting loco with us, peep the flicks captured by the talented Henry Lee of Woodson Photography. Special thanks to the staff of Public Works and all our amazing sponsors for making it one fantástico fiesta!

-Connie Chang, SF Bay Community Manager

– Connie Chang, SF Bay Community Manager

Start your iPhone engines: it’s time for the first-ever Loopt Q-off to celebrate National Hamburger Week in the SF Bay Area. Yes, Hamburger Week is for real, and so is this competition. We want you to spread your knowledge on Bay Area burgers all…week…long. Qs is a great way to do this! It’s a new feature in Loopt where you can answer short, common questions about a place. It’s super-simple, fun and social — and it’s the best way to get the bite-sized info on burgers, from fries to patty size.

We just officially launched Qs — it’s brand new in the Bay Area.

Here’s the competition rundown:

• In honor of National Hamburger Week, answer as many Qs as you can at burger joints in the Bay Area.
• The three lucky Loopt users who answer the most Qs this week (by Sunday, May 15) will get a big juicy gift certificate to one of the hottest Bay Area burger joints: Roam Artisan Burgers (SF), The Counter (Palo Alto/San Jose), or TrueBurger (Oakland). Mmm… burgers.
• You have until 11:59pm on May 15th to get your Qs in and we’ll contact the winners directly on May 16th.

Well, what are you waiting for? Fire up those Qs!

And what better way to celebrate than to get together with fellow Loopt members for burger bashes around the bay area! Come meet me, your SF Bay Area Community Manager, on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday and we’ll chow down on some of the best burgers around and have fun getting to know one another. Stop by anytime between 6-8pm and your first drink is on me!

• Wednesday, May 11 @ St. John’s in Sunnyvale, CA: FACEBOOK EVENT
• Thursday, May 12 @ Urbun Burger in San Francisco, CA: FACEBOOK EVENT
• Friday, May 13 @ TrueBurger in Oakland, CA: FACEBOOK EVENT

If you have any questions or need clarification on Loopt Qs or anything in general, you can find me (Connie) on Twitter, @LooptSFbay, or on email: sf.bay@loopt.com.

The Loopt Rewards Wagon and reward alerts at SXSW Interactive were a hit. We’ve talked and talked…and talked about it on the blog (because $50,000 in prizes is somethin’ to talk about). Now we FINALLY have a video that shows the whole thing in action. The hunt for the Loopt Rewards Wagon, the joy of winning a high-value prize, and then the body-rocking, drama-filled last hurdle before ultimate triumph.

Man, that was a fun week. Congrats to all the winners — you deserved everything you got!

Update on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving (aka #touchedbyTSA day): We are watching lots of people check into their airports on Loopt with #touchedbyTSA. What fun! We’re tracking all of these, and we’ll be getting in touch with the 10 iPod Touch winners (picked at random) on Monday, November 29 — because we want to catch all the time zones, and don’t want to miss you over the holiday. We’ll then contact you via Twitter to get your shipping info, and we’ll get your iPod Touch in the mail ASAP.

National Opt-Out Day – the day before Thanksgiving – is the busiest travel day of the year. In light of recent controversy, many plan to refuse a backscatter scan at airport security, and instead choose a (fairly invasive) pat-down. Either way, people can count on longer-than-usual airport lines.

As a slight gift to opt-outers out there, Loopt is giving away 10 iPod Touches for TSA touching. Just check into your airport on Loopt* on Wednesday, November 24 (with iPhone, iPod Touch or Android), share a bit about your experience, push it to Twitter with the hashtag #touchedbyTSA, and you can win an iPod Touch. That simple.

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*make sure you also push your update to Twitter (you can do this within Loopt) and use the hashtag #touchedbyTSA

We had such a great time on Wednesday for our first lunchtime concert! Thank you to all of the Hedley guys – Jake, Dave, Tommy and Chris. Our office has been abuzz all week, the video doesn’t come near to capturing our excitement.

If you are super jealous right now… maybe we’ll consider inviting you to our next show Shout at us on facebook.com/loopt and let us know what you thought.

Pho Garden in downtown Mountain View has a challenge. Eat food that’s bigger than your head. You get a t-shirt.

What we learned? The noodles expand.  No matter how much you appear to eat, and the level in the bowl DOES go down, the noodles keep coming.

Neither of our brave boys made it to the bottom. In the battle of Man v. Pho. Pho won (but they both got great t-shirts, so it’s all good.)