There is no more loyal fanbase than those who play the New York Times word games. A faithful player’s morning is measured in Wordle attempts, Mini Crossword times, and usually, Connections failures — just to wait a painstaking 24 hours before reliving the experience again. Hoboken locals now have one more game to add to their morning lineup. Meet Hoboken Eatle, a Wordle-style guessing game centered around Hoboken restaurants. The app was created by resident Matt Carlo (not affiliated with NYT) and gives users ten tries to guess a designated Hoboken restaurant. Hints are limited to the restaurant’s type of cuisine and geographical location. It’s harder than it sounds, but incredibly addictive. Read on to learn more about Eatle, a Hoboken-based guessing app designed by resident Matt Carlo.
The Inspiration
Wordle has captivated audiences since it first launched in 2021. If you haven’t played, the concept is pretty easy: users have six tries to correctly guess a five-letter word. On each guess, any letters that are in the designated word appear yellow, and any letters that are placed correctly in the designated word appear green.
In the fall of 2021, Wordle was inescapable — traditional text messages were replaced by white, yellow, and green emoji blocks, and major news outlets were sharing answers daily. The craze was so intense that the New York Times acquired Wordle in January 2022.
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Then, of course, the spinoffs came: there’s the Dordle, Trordle, and Quordle, which have multiple puzzles at once. There’s the Fibble, a Wordle-like game with a lie in the middle. There’s even the Absurdle, which is basically just a grumpier version of the NYT game.
Spotle, a Wordle variant centered around musicians, struck a particular chord in Hoboken resident Matt Carlo. Matt wanted to create a similar guessing game for the Hoboken community, something that ” highlighted the Hoboken restaurant scene and provided a new way for residents to explore the area further,” he shared with HG. Thus, Hoboken Eatle was born.
Matt drew on his experience in the tech industry (and many YouTube videos) to start developing the mobile game. He shared with HG that “this is just a side project,” so he’s “been working after work and on weekends to get the app where it is today.”
Right now, Matt is still working out the kinks. He’s unsure where the game will go from here but isn’t putting too much pressure on himself. “Since this is just a fun project, I haven’t put much thought into local business partnerships but I’m excited to see where it goes as it grows,” he shared with HG. “For now, I just have a link to the restaurant’s website when you win.”
Matt’s favorite restaurant in town is Rosario’s on Willow — but don’t be fooled, that is not today’s restaurant. Or is it?
How to Play
Opening the app, users are met with a challenge: “Guess a restaurant, my boy!” The directive is simple enough, but it’s worth taking a moment to read the directions (as told by a woman who did not read them).
The screen displays a text box and a map of Hoboken. Users can type their guesses directly into the text box, which will then populate the cuisine of their guess and locate the restaurant on the Hoboken map. It’s sort of like a hot-or-cold guessing system. Each restaurant will appear on the map in a different color depending on its proximity to the correct restaurant: “very far away” guesses will appear in red, while guesses “very close to the correct restaurant” will appear in forest green. There is no spectrum for the cuisines — all cuisines except the correct choice will appear in red.
^ One hint for today, since we’re feeling generous.
Users have only ten tries to guess the restaurant of the day. On the ninth attempt, there is a hint, but use it wisely: as we all know, there are a lot of restaurants in Hoboken.
One of our favorite features is that the app’s database seems to exclusively highlight locally- and/or independently-owned businesses in town. Restaurants like Shake Shack or McDonald’s don’t populate in the search function, a choice that was likely intentional by founder Matt Carlo. The game’s tagline reads “Made in Hoboken, For Hoboken.”
Right now, the game is only available on a browser at hobokeneatle.com. Expect to see most of your favorite restaurants in the queue, but if you know of one that’s missing, the team encourages players to let them know at hobokeneatle@gmail.com.
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We’re already jonesing for our next attempt at guessing the Eatle. While we wait for midnight tonight, be sure to follow @thehobokengirl on Instagram + TikTok for the latest happenings, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
