Operators have to make some tweaks to get into a shared kitchen space successfully. It can be easy for the right brands, but even those with small menus and few ingredients will have things to learn. Melissa Surby-Curtin, the director of franchise operations at The Halal Guys, shared her insight on what it’s like to get into a shared kitchen space like the one she now oversees at the Kitchen United facility in Pasadena, California. It is the brand’s first foray into a shared space, but Halal Guys will soon […]
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Providing on-demand, human-powered meal delivery at major airports is a niche category of food on demand that’s heating up, with New York-based AtYourGate joining Grab in bringing meals directly to both weary travelers and airport employees. The goal, says CEO and founder P.J. Mastracchio, is to reduce the time everyone spends in slow-moving lines between flights or over lunch breaks. “A lot of those things change the dynamic in the airport,” he said of taking employees out of the queue and also bringing meals directly to travelers at their gates. […]
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Fresh home from the Franchise Finance & Growth Conference in Vegas, I tallied the number of times I heard third-party delivery during the countless brand presentations throughout the three-day event—and it was a lot. The audience heard everything from “all in” to “not interested.” Here are a few of the most notable snapshots: Naf Naf Grill CEO Paul Damico said the brand is years ahead “some more established brands” in terms of delivery and online ordering tech. It just spent about $20,000 in each restaurant to create a full second […]
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Data firm Thinkum put together an interesting map of the global delivery land grab, with a unique look at how big this industry has gotten in just a few years. The company scraped web data about restaurants and other foodservice retailers listed on the services compiling them into a series of maps to show who’s really leading this delivery land grab. In all, 700,000 individual outlets offer delivery through one of the third-party networks. In the U.S., it’s the big players that the industry knows well battling for scale. As […]
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Waitr, one of the few public delivery companies (for now), just released some mixed, but mostly rosy, results from the first quarter of 2019. The big numbers, revenue and active diners, both rocketed skyward. Revenue was up 287 percent over last year and its active diners, the measure of users in the system, rose by 309 percent. That, of course, came from its still-fresh acquisition of Bite Squad. “We kicked off the year with the acquisition of Bite Squad, an online ordering and food delivery platform, more than doubling the […]
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If you’ve never eaten at Shaw’s Crab House in downtown Chicago, you’re missing out on one of the best restaurants this food reporter has ever experienced. After the Food On Demand edit team demolished a chilled five-pound Alaskan red king crab, we chatted with manager Megan Jacob who told us all about delivering a fine dining experience with a menu of delicate fish, steaks and oysters. First, the best part: In the shadows of The Wrigley Building near the Chicago River, Shaw’s has the ideal atmosphere, especially after a long […]
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With its landmark Pizza Tracker feature that changed the delivery market years ago—but is only based on timing estimates—Domino’s is taking its tracking even further with a pilot test of GPS driver tracking that it’s testing in 27 company-owned stores in the Phoenix market. Phoenicians who order from one of the participating stores can track the location of their order and driver via a map from the order confirmation page of the Domino’s site or mobile app. They will also receive an estimated delivery time and can opt into SMS […]
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Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has partnered with DoorDash to offer hotel meal delivery in more than 4,000 cities across the U.S. and Canada. To juice the launch of this co-branded promotion, hotel guests will get free delivery on all DoorDash orders, while also receiving Wyndham Rewards points as a bonus with the order. Customers new to DoorDash can also get $5 off their first order, in addition to free delivery, with the use of a promo code (WR5). Matt Rotella, DoorDash’s head of corporate development, said the Wyndham partnership was […]
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Postmates has teamed up with Square to offer on-demand delivery to Square’s small business sellers. Square sellers now have the ability to offer deliveries that can be scheduled and tracked with the new Postmates integration. “By partnering with Square to offer on-demand delivery, together we are enabling millions of small businesses to extend their reach and grow their business using our delivery platform,” said James Butts, SVP, product, Postmates. “Demand for Postmates Delivery as a Service has been growing quickly as all types of merchants look to add an on-demand […]
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With approximately 300 attendees representing 185 foodservice brands, ezCater hosted its first CaterUp conference in New Orleans with two days of education.
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