In case you had any doubt the "Pokemon Go" fad had officially taken over the planet, here's yet another solid indicator: The Yelp Pokestop filter helps "Pokemon Go" players find Pokestops near places listed in the business locator's database. This is not a drill, people — I repeat, this is not a drill: You can figure out which restaurant near you has the best burritors and find where to stock up on potions, Pokeballs, and eggs, all at the same time. What a time to be alive, am I right?
You know how Yelp works, right? Let's say you're looking for a killer spot to have some sushi and sake on a Friday night. You might hop online and zip on over to Yelp, plug in your city or zip code, and peruse reviews of sushi restaurants in your vicinity in order to find the best sake-bomb for your buck. In order to pinpoint this perfect sushi joint, you can choose from a bevy of filters — think neighborhood, price point, whether it's pet friendly, meals served, parking offered and, now, whether or not there is a Pokestop nearby. So while the website touts itself as "the best way to find great local businesses," the addition of this fun new filter may mean they'll be adding "who will happily indulge your 'Pokemon Go' obsession" to that tagline.
If you are one of the millions of people worldwide walking your little legs off in wild pursuit of Rattatas or Electabuzzes, you may very well find this service to be ingenious, not to mention thoughtful. After all, you've got to take a break to fuel up every now and then, so why not get your grub on somewhere you won't skip a beat? You can also spread the "Pokemon Go" love along by reviewing restaurants and businesses in your neck of the woods — users are reporting that Yelp now asks if there is a Pokestop nearby in the barrage of questions included when you leave a review on the site. The filter also made its way to the iOS and Android app versions of Yelp, if that's more your jam.
Either way, using Yelp's "Pokemon Go"-friendly filter is incredibly easy. It's merely a matter of checking the corresponding box in the features section, and then giving the results a quick gander to figure out where you want to go. While I'm still very much a "Pokemon Go" novice, I was pleased to discover there are many, many local businesses in my neck of the woods with Pokestops nearby.
Basically, once I double down on this "Pokemon Go" stuff, I should be able to become a Pokemon master in no time ... at least that's what I'm telling myself. In the meantime, I suppose I'll have to do a little restaurant research (hellooooooo, lunch) in the name of alerting Yelp to prime spots central to Pokesops. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.
Images: Julie Sprankles/Bustle (2)
