latest posts

Nextbite Expands Virtual Portfolio with George López Taqueria

By Tom Kaiser | May 6, 2021

Comedian and restaurateur George López is the latest celebrity in the virtual restaurant scene through a new partnership with Nextbite who will bring his “badass” street tacos to a range of cities.

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DoorDash Eliminates One-Plan-Fits-All Pricing Model

By Tom Kaiser | April 29, 2021

DoorDash COO Christopher Payne had a bold message for merchants: “You’ll never have to pay 30 percent again if you don’t want to.” The company’s new three-tiered pricing starts with a Basic plan that charges a 15-percent commission.

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For Halal Guys Operator, Customer Engagement is Social First

By Nicholas Upton | April 29, 2021

Customer engagement doesn’t always require a suite of smart software, even when most of a restaurant’s business is digital. For Halal Guys franchisee and restaurant consultant, Paul Tran, it’s all about personal touches. As we covered recently, there are a ton of software tools that can help push customer engagement to the next level. Tran said that for his 10 restaurants, personal connections come from managers, providing extra things like napkins and sauce and outreach from across the planet. Tran is a big fan of virtual assistants, or VSAs. Those […]

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Deliverect Raises $65M After Surpassing 30M Orders

By Tom Kaiser | April 29, 2021

Deliverect, a Belgian startup that integrates Uber Eats, Deliveroo, DoorDash, Just Eat Takeaway.com and other providers into restaurant point-of-sale systems announced it has raised $65 million in a Series C funding round.

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Olo and DoorDash Consciously Recouple, Sign Multi-Year Agreement

By Tom Kaiser | April 29, 2021

After two of the biggest players in delivery sued each other, Olo and DoorDash announced they have dismissed their recent contract dispute, agreed to a settlement, dismissed all of DoorDash’s outstanding legal claims and signed a new, multi-year agreement.

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FOD Undercover: MrBeast Burger and Reef Kitchens

By Nicholas Upton | April 28, 2021

MrBeast Burger has proven to be one of the most interesting virtual restaurant operations out there, but Food On Demand wanted to finally experience the hype first hand.

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Nearing 100 Units, Halal Guys CEO Talks Ghost Kitchens, Real Estate

By Tom Kaiser | April 22, 2021

The Halal Guys is closing on 100 locations as opens 30-40 units over the next five years. The New York-based brand is continuing testing inside three ghost kitchens and is exploring new drive-thru locations.

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Uber Eats Adds Instagram, Merchant Stories Features

By Tom Kaiser | April 22, 2021

Uber Eats is giving restaurants new, more visual ways to connect with hunger-strolling customers with a direct Instagram integration and a new Merchant Stories feature.

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Kiwibot Sets Stage for Massive (and Adorable) Growth

By Nicholas Upton | April 22, 2021

Kiwibot unveiled new partners and an updated robot that the company says will help propel them to massive scale. The land-based delivery robot announced a handful of new delivery partners, new city testbeds and new manufacturing partners that will push the company further out of a working concept to what could be major and speedy rollouts of the adorable robot. “Our delivery infrastructure and integration methodology will allow us to deploy service in just weeks,” said Deigo Prada, chief operating officer at Kiwibot. “By the end of 2021, we want […]

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ChowNow Sees No Delivery Slowdown, Few Closures

By Nicholas Upton | April 22, 2021

Even as the vaccine rolls out, warmer weather returns and pandemic-fatigued consumers seek to dine out however they can, the volume of delivery orders remains high. That’s according to ChowNow CEO and co-founder, Chris Webb. The leader of the online food-delivery platform for small chains and independent restaurants said the company now generates about $2.5 billion in gross order value across its 20,000 restaurant partners. Webb shared some insights David Palmer. Palmer, a financial analyst and industry watcher at the investment bank Evercore wrote in a report that the company […]

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