“Attention is great. We have to be sure to be ready for that attention,” said Black & Mobile co-founder David Cabello, right, with Tom Kaiser, Editor of Food On Demand. David Cabello is co-founder with his twin brother of Black & Mobile, the first food delivery service catering exclusively to Black restaurant owners. He’s appeared in a video with Jay-Z, been featured in People and Fortune magazines, and even got a call from rapper Waka Flocka looking to invest. But he puts the attention in perspective. “You get an email […]
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Citizens New York food hall is the creation of C3 and described as “a flagship shopping center of all our brands,” said C3’s Joey Simons at the Food On Demand Conference. C3 showed off its new Citizens New York food hall, which combines brick-and-mortar operations with virtual restaurants from C3’s collection of digital brands, including Umami Burger, Sam’s Crispy Chicken and the wildly popular Krispy Rice. “Krispy Rice just launched with all the TGI Fridays locations,” added Joey Simons, SVP of operations for C3, on a panel yesterday exploring the […]
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Delivery executives, an operator and a corporate buyer talk discuss the challenges that faced corporate meal delivery during COVID-19.
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Restaurant industry veterans shared what works and what doesn’t at the Enterprise VR/Ghost Kitchens Strategies Panel at FODC.
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As third-party delivery continues to grow and evolve, many big questions remain and many more have emerged as business-critical topics the industry struggles to understand. Seeking to answer some of those questions, a Food On Demand conference panel tapped into the massive amount of data for answers. Moderated by Carl Orsbourn, the author on the recent book exploring the industry, Delivering the Digital Restaurant (and a recent FOD podcast guest). “This past year has taken us to a whole new level,” said Orsbourn. Digging into the graphs and spreadsheets, he […]
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“If I may say, we’re here to disrupt the food delivery industry,” said Ben Thein, left, of Flytrex, which makes food delivery drones. Andy Rebhun, El Pollo Loco, is one of Flytrex’s first customers in the United States. “Food delivery has reached new heights” intoned the video played with dramatic music at the Food On Demand Conference today. People look skyward, gasping, from atop a horse or in their car, then customers make a mad dash to their backyard as an El Pollo Loco-branded drone lowers their food via a […]
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Michael Beacham of REEF Technology, Corey Manicone of Kitchen United and Alex Canter of Nextbite discussed the future of virtual and ghost kitchens with moderator Tom Kaiser at the Food On Demand Conference. The young virtual restaurant and ghost kitchen business is in a “huge experimental phase,” said Alex Canter, CEO of Nextbite, on opening day of the Food On Demand Conference. He considers that a good thing. “We’re seeing lots of restaurants try to do their own brands, lots of restaurants partnering with other people’s brands. It’s not a […]
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Speaking on opening day of the Food On Demand Conference, Sam Nazarian, CEO of global food tech platform C3, says one of his goals is to have a complete ecosystem that helps facilitate direct communication with customers. C3 counts hundreds of “digital brand kitchens,” 40-plus virtual brands, a digital ordering app and, as of this morning, a joint venture with actress Sofia Vergara’s Latin World Entertainment to develop digital culinary brands as components of its global food tech platform. But, as CEO Sam Nazarian noted in today’s opening session at […]
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Robert Earl, co-founder and president of Virtual Dining Concepts, talked about being ill-prepared for MrBeast Burger’s overnight success on the first day of the Food On Demand Conference at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. From leading the famed Hard Rock Cafe as CEO to founding Planet Hollywood International, Robert Earl knows a thing or two about the hospitality, food and beverage industries. Earl, who hails from North-West London, ventured into the off-premises space with his son Robbie in 2018 when they launched Virtual Dining Concepts, which features mainly celebrity-backed concepts […]
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Senior VP Kevin Kearns, right, today introduced Grubhub’s new service, Supplemental Delivery, on opening day of the Food On Demand Conference in Las Vegas. He also reflected on the past 18 months. “It’s an honor to serve the industry,” he said, in discussion with Food On Demand Editor and conference master of ceremonies Tom Kaiser. “This industry is not done changing the world,” declared Editor Tom Kaiser as he kicked off the Food On Demand Conference at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas today. Grubhub exec Kevin Kearns recalled a […]
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