Now that the dust has settled from this year’s Food On Demand Conference, we reached out to our moderators and panelists to answer any outstanding audience questions we weren’t able to cover during the live Q&A sessions. If you have any additional questions for us or individual panels, please send them my way at [email protected]. Tracking the Shift in Consumer Expectations NA: I find that the older demographic thinks about food tampering more than other age groups. Sam Acuna, Gallup: With safety concerns today and other liability in general, […]
Fifty restaurant brands in one kitchen. That’s the model The Local Culinary launched last year in Miami, which is now calling itself the first ghost kitchen franchise to hit the market. The company finalized its franchise disclosure document earlier this month and is seeking first to work with restaurant owners who are fighting to stay in business during the coronavirus pandemic, said founder Alp Franko. These owners, he continued, are dealing with limited dine-in service and other restrictions, and many aren’t equipped to simply convert their concepts to a delivery […]
About 18 months ago, Brinker International had something like 50 delivery partners across its 1,600-plus Chili’s and Maggiano’s locations, didn’t want to sign an exclusive deal with a third-party delivery service and didn’t even believe in the incrementality of delivery. That’s how Toby Espinosa, VP of business development at DoorDash, remembered it as he recounted the first meeting between the two companies “in a conference room that the sun has never seen” at DoorDash’s San Francisco office. Despite that inauspicious start, the groups emerged from that meeting with a shared […]
The talk was all tech at the Restaurants of the Future panel at the virtual Food On Demand Conference. But Editor Tom Kaiser ended with a “sentimental” question for the panelists. Does all the technology take the human element out of the dining experience? “Am I getting a little too emotional to be worrying about that sort of thing?” he asked about an experience where you’re picked up by your driverless Uber and whisked to the restaurant where there’s no line, and they already know what you want to eat […]
Uber Eats is rolling out a new way for restaurants in the U.S. to promote themselves through its new Sponsored Listings feature that marks the company’s first advertising format for restaurants on the platform. This new marketing push also includes promotions as well as new loyalty programs that have already attracted more than 36,000 restaurants. Along with the sponsorship news, Uber Eats also announced $25 million in marketing credits to qualified U.S. restaurants. Restaurants can set up Sponsored Listings in their Uber Eats dashboards, which allows them to set an […]
We recently posted the story about Franklin Junction, which is bringing virtual brands into Ruby Tuesday kitchens that have excess capacity to power off-premises orders. As NRD Capital spins up the “host kitchen” concept, it has partnered with Qu to aggregate digital orders from third-party delivery companies. Franklin Junction and Qu are leveraging their respective restaurant and technology expertise in launching what it calls a first-of-its-kind marketplace “driven by fast, efficient ordering and omni-channel commerce capabilities.” The new partnership gives restaurants the ability to quickly and easily manage orders through […]
Getting your boardgame or iPhone case via Amazon drone is one step closer to reality. The FAA announced that Amazon was awarded the highest tier of certification for aerial drone operations, known as Part 135. The certification means Amazon now has no limits on the size or scope of operations. That’s a big deal, and Amazon follows only UPS (the first recipient) and Google’s Wing as certified companies under the ridged certification that examines safety and drone operations. “This certification is an important step forward for Prime Air and indicates […]
Taco Bell unveiled its new Go Mobile store prototype, which is a lean off-premises machine designed to be heavy on drive-thru and digital orders. The new model contains a secondary drive-thru lane for digital-order pickup and dedicated spots for curbside pickup or carryout orders. Mike Grams, global COO at Taco Bell, said a lot of this has been in the works for years, but COVID-19 prompted a shotgun marriage of all the technologies and low-friction ideas. “The roadmap was established as customers converted to digital,” said Grams. “As digital opened […]
Just Salad, the green-minded greens concept based in New York, is embracing residential delivery with a new model that makes self-delivery more efficient for staff and exceptionally convenient for customers. The company is partnering with residential building managers to install building-specific, digital-delivery-only outlets dubbed “The Hub.” Founder and CEO Nick Kenner said things are getting notably better in New York, where COVID-19 rates have remained low and people are happy to make salad runs. The key business centers that had lines out the door, however, remain pretty quiet. “We’re all […]
It doesn’t take many contactless meal deliveries to realize that a paper bag left on your driveway, front stoop or your building’s front desk isn’t exactly the pinnacle of technology or food safety. Looking to provide a safer, more secure experience and better food quality with its insulated meal pods, Minnow has plans to install better infrastructure for off-premises meals—at restaurants, as well as the final destination whether that’s a house, high-rise residential building or office. Founded in Seattle three years before the pandemic upended the restaurant industry and rocketed […]
