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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

off premises ordering

Shake Shack Will Teach You How to Run a Lemonade Stand This Summer

Shake Shack, the same chain that recently brought us DIY meal kits and to-go-only stores, this week introduced what’s maybe it’s weirdest pandemic offering yet: summer camp in a box.

Dubbed the Shack Camp Box, the kit contains a bunch of supplies with which to do craft-y activities, including food-related ones. The brand will run a virtual camp via its Instagram channel where folks can follow along through the summer. Build your own lemonade stand (complete with prompts on how to run a business), create ice cream sundaes, and other activities are on the agenda. The “camp” website also notes $75 worth of exclusive offers as a perk, so there’s doubtless some Shake Shack grub thrown into the mix, too.

Considering the various and strange ways restaurants are currently employing to connect with customers they can’t serve in dining rooms, a box of glorified swag doesn’t actually seem that outlandish. For those with kids, it might actually prove useful, since many summer camps have been cancelled and more kids are staying at home this year. 

There’s also a philanthropic angle to it, which means it’s hard to get too cynical here. The campaign supports The Fresh Air Fund’s virtual summer program that brings virtual camp activities to underserved children in NYC.

The Shack Camp Box is available as of today. Each box includes six activities and goes for $79 via the Shack Camp’s site. Corresponding Instagram videos start on July 13.

Shake Shack needs as much customer connection as it can get right now. Despite its efforts around improving its off-premises strategy during lockdown, the chain reported this week that second-quarter sales were down 49 percent as a result of both the pandemic and nationwide protests. In a business report released Tuesday, the company noted that “Shack sales were estimated to be negatively impacted by approximately $3.2 million in the fiscal period June due to nationwide protest activity and resulting curfews causing temporary Shack closures and reduced operating hours.”

The company has also had to re-close some stores because of the rise in coronavirus cases of late.

Virtual summer camp won’t be able to fix all the brand’s problems, but it is another example of a restaurant trying to redefine what the restaurant experience means, both right now and for the future. 

Domino’s Takes a Cue From Grocery With Its New Carside Delivery Feature

Mega pizza chain Domino’s today launched yet-another way for mobile order customers to retrieve their pies. “Domino’s Carside Delivery” is now available across the U.S., according to a company press release. 

The carside delivery option functions just as you would expect. It works only for those ordering via the Domino’s mobile app, right now between the hours of 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. Customers order and pay for their pizza, and also give their vehicle color, make, and model, which Domino’s will use to identify them when they arrive at the store. Customers also note where they want the order placed: trunk, back seat, etc. Upon arriving, they can hit the “I’m here” button on the Domino’s Tracker app and a staff will bring their pizza out. 

“It’s carryout, delivered,” Dennis Maloney, Domino’s senior vice president and chief innovation officer, said in today’s press release. 

But could it be simpler? Over in the grocery sector, major retailers like Safeway and Walmart have seen demand for their versions of carside pickup spike during the pandemic. My colleague Chris Albrecht has tried a bunch of them and found that Walmart’s is the fastest and simplest because of the geofencing technology the company adds to the pickup process. There is no number to call, no “I’m here” button to hit. Walmart’s system simply knows when you’ve arrived and alerts the staff so they can bring out your groceries.

Panera has also implemented geofencing for its curbside pickup process, which suggests there’s a future for it in the restaurant industry, especially with dining rooms closing again and off-premises still being the major lifeline for business.

One of the perks of geofencing technology is that restaurants (or grocers) can move more customers through faster. For Domino’s, that would translate into selling more pies. It could also help the chain better predict demand because geofencing would give it access to data that says how far people are traveling to get to the store, how long it takes them, etc.

Domino’s made no mention of geofencing tech in today’s announcement, but it would not be surprising to see the chain adopt it in the future to remove an extra step — the “I’m here” button — from the curbside process.

Ok so having to hit an “I’m here” button is not an actual problem to have in the grand scheme of things, which is to say, I doubt it will hinder customers from ordering carside via Domino’s. But the quest for simplicity in the curbside/carside pickup process grows every more important for restaurants, and before any technology around it gets standardized, we’ll see many different features claiming to be the simplest solution out there.

Most Restaurants Will Mimic Shake Shack’s Digital-Centric Store Format in the Future

Shake Shack is modifying some store formats to be more off-premises friendly as the chain prepares to reopen dining rooms. These “Shack Track” stores, as they’re being dubbed, will include things like walk-up windows and more drive-thru lanes meant to encourage increased digital ordering, according to the company’s Q1 2020 earnings call this week.

Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti said on the call that the chain will start opening dining rooms regionally, though with reduced capacity to ensure social distancing guidelines are in place. There will also be fewer cashiers and kiosks in stores, and the chain plans to “shift guests to mobile and contactless pre-ordering.”

Hence the new store formats the company will test as it reopens restaurants. On the call Garutti also mentioned interior and exterior pickup windows and, where space permits, curbside pickup and drive-thru lanes, which is new for Shake Shack. The company has been testing these formats over the last several weeks while dining rooms remain shuttered. Garutti said the current pandemic has “reinforced how necessary and beneficial this strategy will be for Shake Shack.” 

It has also reinforced how necessary digital ordering and payments will be to the future restaurant experience in general. On that front, Shake Shack is better prepared than most restaurants. As of April 29, digital channels represent roughly 80 percent of total Shake Shack sales. Garutti said on this week’s call that digital sales are “very literally keeping us in business.”

The new store formats will encourage this digital preordering, and Shake Shack said it will continue to improve its digital properties and eventually integrate delivery into those interfaces, which means less reliance on third-party services Shake Shack currently has partnerships with. 

“Contactless” is definitely the buzzword du jour in the restaurant industry right now as businesses look to reopen while maintaining social distancing requirements. Not every restaurant has the cash or resources to double-down on expensive mobile apps made in-house, and so some are turning to restaurant tech companies for those digital capabilities.

Meanwhile, Shake Shack isn’t the only major chain tweaking its store format to fit our to-go-centric times. Chipotle was testing new store types long before the pandemic and will continue building those out. McDonald’s had to step on the brakes a little in terms of its Experience of the Future stores but will continue building some of those, as well. 

These redesigns matter because they could set standards for the rest of the industry in the future. Smaller chains and independent restaurants have neither the time nor the money to extensively redesign their restaurants. But as states mandate reduced capacity in dining rooms, these smaller businesses may look to the major chains for guidance on how to incorporate off-premises ideas into their business. In time, a new, standardized restaurant format (or several) could emerge that no one would have predicted two years ago — and everyone will expect a decade from now.

ChowNow Launches a Loyalty Program Designed to Get Struggling Restaurants Paid

Digital restaurant ordering platform ChowNow unveiled its Loyal Local Membership program this week. The restaurant-to-diner service gives customers ongoing discounts on their orders while simultaneously funneling a little extra money to the restaurants themselves, according to a company press release. 

ChowNow quietly launched the service at the end of March before making a more official announcement this week. Like many other restaurant industry initiatives these days, Loyal Local was developed because of COVID-19’s ongoing impact on the restaurant industry and the precarious financial positions many restaurants now find themselves in thanks to dining room closures.

Customers can sign up for the program by pre-paying a one-year membership fee through the ChowNow site that goes directly to the restaurant. Based on the level of membership they select — bronze, silver, or gold — they then receive up to 25 percent off on every order they make at participating restaurants for a year. A bronze status membership is $25/year and gets users a 10 percent discount. Silver is $40/year for 15 percent, while gold is $100/year for 25 percent.

Highly important is that this membership only works for orders made directly through the restaurant, either through its website or mobile app. Doing so not only builds a more direct relationship between restaurants and their customer; it also reduces the commission fee restaurants owe third-party delivery services. Usually, restaurants pay a service like Grubhub a fee per transaction based on marketing, order processing, and the actual delivery of the food. Knocking two of those elements (marketing and order processing) out of the equation cuts down on those fees, which, if you haven’t heard, are currently gutting restaurants. Most restaurants, though, will still need to use some third-party service capabilities for the actual delivering of the food.

It’s also a way for restaurants to boost mobile ordering and contactless payments, both of which will be important to the overall restaurant reopening process.  

The program also provides something of a cash infusion to restaurants. ChowNow doesn’t charge restaurants to participate in Loyal Local, and customers pay upfront for the membership. All proceeds from membership fees go to the restaurant. A post by ChowNow has an extensive breakdown of the purported financial benefits for restaurants.

The company said in its press release it has added over 670 restaurants to the platform over the last couple weeks across California, Illinois, New York, and other states. 

Restaurants need all the help they can get right now, but they’re not the only ones struggling to stay relevant. Restaurant tech companies are now having to prove that their products and services have real value to restaurants and not, as an industry friend of mine likes to say, a solution in search of a problem. The more a company can draw a direct line between its tech and a restaurant being able to keep its lights on, the better.

‘Make Technology Your Friend’ and Other Advice on Reopening a Restaurant

One of the big discussion topics this week at The Spoon has been around the reopening of restaurant dining rooms. When will it happen? How will it happen? Will anyone even want to go out to eat?

Answers will be ongoing and, like everything else in the last six weeks, will probably change regularly. And here’s one more to add to the mix: What do restaurants need to do to prepare for as smooth a reopening as they can possibly accomplish?

I’ll answer that with a line from The National Restaurant Association’s newly released “Reopening Guidance” report: “Make technology your friend.”

Fear not. This isn’t the part where I tell you to hedge all your bets on a piece of software (or hardware) and pile on a bunch of extra solutions your already trimmed-down staff will have to learn. Instead, consider which tools will help your business communicate as directly and efficiently as possible with guests about what to expect at a reopening.

As The Association says:

“Contactless payment systems, automated ordering systems, mobile ordering apps, website updates and simple texts can help you to communicate and conduct business with reduced need for close contact. As you begin to reopen, keep communicating with customers (your hours, menu items, reservations, etc.), and help promote your social distancing and safety efforts.”

Some of these will be easier to implement than others. I was just talking to a family member of mine who is as we speak trying to set up contactless payments for her hospitality company, and she is definitely losing sleep over it. In a separate conversation, someone on the task force in charge of Georgia’s restaurant reopenings admitted that contactless payments will be one of the more difficult things to put in place for restaurants. 

But this task force person also said restaurants should be “embracing technology wherever [they] can.” Looking again at The Association’s guidelines, there are simpler tech tools restaurants can use to communicate reopen dates and any accompanying changes. Consider email updates or social media posts to tell folks about adjusted hours, new policies (e.g., “make a reservation”), and safety protocols. Use the humble text message to notify guests when their table is ready. And talk to your existing restaurant tech providers, like your POS vendor, to see if they can help you set up some of the more complicated tools like contactless payments and mobile ordering.

At the end of the day, tech should be the means to the end, not the end itself. Bear that in mind as you explore ways to integrate it into your reopen strategy, whenever that happens to be.

Maybe We Should All Look to Fat Brands to Figure Out a Ghost Kitchen Strategy

Ghost kitchens are not top of the priority list for restaurants right now, but as demand for off-premises orders goes up, they will be. As we’ve discussed before, restaurants need a certain (and rather high) level of demand to justify using a full-on ghost kitchen facility. Otherwise the economics don’t make sense.

That said, a good ghost kitchen strategy can actually start right in your own kitchen before growing into the kind that needs a dedicated facility to function.

Look at Fat Brands. This week, the company, which owns Fatburger, Hurricane Grill & Wings, Elevation Burger, and other chains, announced its first-ever ghost kitchen facility in Chicago. The location, done in partnership with Epic Kitchens, will be for delivery-only orders, and will house a number of virtual restaurants.

Fat Brands was doing ghost kitchens before they inked a deal with Epic, though. Last year, the company started using Fat Burger locations to double as mini-ghost kitchens for the company’s sister brands. Customers on one side of the country could suddenly order from the menu of Fat Brand restaurants historically only available on the other side. Doing so let the company test the waters, so to speak, with virtual restaurants and ghost kitchens before signing a more official deal with a dedicated space.

Starting small and in the confines of your own restaurants’ kitchens is definitely a lower-risk way of trying out a ghost kitchen. Restaurants can test and learn about some of the operational differences between off-premises and in-dining-room models, and they’re not locked into a long-term contract if the plan proves unfruitful. Speaking of which, in-house ghost kitchens are also a way to gauge just how much off-premises demand you really have from your customers and project whether that will grow enough to warrant a bigger operation, as Fat Brands has done.

The pandemic’s effect on the restaurant industry will almost certainly ensure demand for off-premises orders keeps rising, even after dining rooms reopen. Even as you’re trying to keep the lights on, consider whether you’re on the path towards using a ghost kitchen, and if taking the first small steps in your own kitchen makes sense as a starting point.

More Notable Restaurant News

Low-tech drive-thru innovation: Today, Taco Bell’s Southern California HQ is doubling as a giant drive-thru for large trucks carrying essential items across the supply chain. The chain is giving away free meals to truckers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and others driving vehicles that wouldn’t fit through a normal drive-thru lane.

QSR, meet the sewing machine: Employees of quick-service chain Raising Cane are now sewing masks to donate to hospitals while dining rooms remain closed. While the chain’s drive-thrus remain open, at sit-down locations, it is paying its staff to learn how to sew these masks instead of just furloughing people. Raising Cane donated 600 masks after the first week of production and said it expects to crank out even more “as Crewmembers get more proficient.”  

Big chains aren’t necessarily reopening. States like Georgia and South Carolina are set to reopen their economies next week, but not everyone is on board. Among restaurant brands, TGI Fridays and Starbucks are not necessarily ready to fling back their doors immediately. Instead, their reopening plans will factor in not just state/local laws but also infection rates and their own market analysis. So while all this talk of reopening is exciting, it realistically will be a long while yet before many food businesses turn the lights back on in the dining room. 

McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Other Major QSRs Suspend Dine-In Service Across the U.S.

McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A, and several other major restaurant chains have suspended dine-in service for the foreseeable future across all of their brands. The moves come as cities and states across the country are mandating restaurant closures to help slow the spread of coronavirus.

Starbucks was one of the first, announcing over the weekend it will “temporarily change” to a to-go-only model in all U.S. and Canada stores. The news was quickly followed by Atlanta-based chain Chick-fil-A saying it will completely shutter some locations while the bulk of its stores will shift to an off-premises-only model.

More have made similar moves in a very short time:

McDonald’s announced Monday that “company-owned restaurants will close seating areas, including the use of self-service beverage bars and kiosks,” and that the company will shift those stores to drive-thru, takeout, and delivery formats. The chain said it expects its franchise operators to do the same very soon.

Taco Bell has closed dining rooms at all company-owned locations. In a letter, company CEO Mark King said the chain is “equipping our restaurants to serve our guests via drive-thru and delivery only where necessary.”

Shake Shack has closed down dining rooms at all of its corporate-owned stores. Customers can still place orders at the restaurant as well as through the usual delivery channels.

Effective today, chicken-centric QSR Zaxby’s will limit service to drive-thru only. The brand is encouraging customers to use its online ordering feature to further increase social distancing and limit the amount of person-to-person contact needed when picking up food.

Today, Chipotle announced that all of its 2,600 restaurants will suspend dine-in service and will focus on takeout and delivery.

There are others: Dunkin’, Panda Express, Arby’s Sonic . . .

I could go on, but the reality is that more states will almost certainly mandate restaurant closures, and those moves will encompass all restaurants, from mom-and-pop stores to QSRs to massive chain brands like The Cheesecake Factory.

Most of these brands will offer some form of off-premises ordering to keep business going for the foreseeable future.

Philz Coffee Pilots a Mobile-Order-Only Location in San Francisco

Some restaurant chains are responding to the rising demand for off-premises orders with drive-thru lanes dedicated to mobile customers. Philz Coffee, a San Francisco-based chain, just took things a step further and opened an entire store dedicated to mobile orders. The shop opened Wednesday in S.F.’s Salesforce Transit Center, where Philz also opened a full-service location.

As the mobile-only label suggests, you have to download the Philz app and place all orders through it in order to pick up a coffee at this particular location. When an order is ready, a customer will see their name appear on a board above one of the three counters in the store where drinks are made. There is no indoor seating, and minimal outdoor patio seating.

San Francisco’s Salesforce Transit Center, which is still a work in progress, is a major bus terminal for the city as well as a hub for restaurants and events. By offering a to-go-only store in this location, Philz is clearly capitalizing on the rush-hour foot traffic and number of customers wanting a fast, easy way to grab their morning beverage on the way to work.

The mobile-only format for coffeeshops isn’t unique to Philz. Starbucks unveiled to-go-only stores in China and NYC last year that are similar in that orders are placed through the mobile app and the physical locations have a much smaller footprint due to limited seating. 

One thing that isn’t clear about the new Philz location is whether it will accept cash if all orders have to be placed through the mobile app. Much ado has been made over the exclusionary nature of cashless businesses, and San Francisco is among the cities considering a ban on that particular business model. 

Another issue this new Philz location will have to contend with, at least for now: the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, the Salesforce Transit Center has suspended events at Salesforce Park, a public space located within the Transit Center complex. While both the park and Transit Center remain open for now, this is hardly the optimal time to be opening a new coffee shop in a crowded urban location. Right now, more than three in 10 customers plan to leave the house less often to go out for food and beverages according to a recent survey from Technomic. Work-from-home mandates from major companies will also reduce the number of people moving in and out of public spaces like the Transit Center for the next while.

A spokesperson for Philz told Restaurant Dive that the chain is planning to open more of these mobile-only locations if this pilot location is successful in terms of business. Both the debate over cashless business models and the increasing restrictions on public places due to COVID-19 may very well affect that success, at least in the near future.

Chipotlanes, New Store Formats, and Personalization Are Driving Chipotle’s $1B Digital Business

Chipotle outlined big plans for its digital business, which surpassed $1 billion in sales in 2019, according to the company’s Q4 earnings call this week. 

The fast-casual chain saw digital sales in Q4 alone jump 78 percent to $282 million, and Company CEO Brian Niccol said on the call that digital orders made up one-fifth of Chipotle’s sales during the same quarter. He also recapped the company’s efforts around delivery, off-premises ordering, and other digital-focused initiatives, including the one everyone seems to be really excited about — the Chipotlane.

These are drive-thru lanes dedicated to customers ordering ahead via the Chipotle mobile app. Like digital drive-thru efforts from other chains, Chipotlanes are meant to speed up service for this particular order channel, which has seen wait times get progressively longer over the last several years. The tactic is clearly working: Niccol said on the call that Chipotle will more than double the number of Chipotlanes in 2020 “because our guests love the convenience and it strengthens our economic model by making our highest margin channel more accessible.”

The other big area of focus Niccol and Chipotle outlined on the call was the new store design, which the company unveiled in December and is trialing in a few different U.S. cities. This new design is Chipotle’s take on the express store format, which many QSRs and fast-casual chains are pursuing these days to cater more to the ongoing demand for delivery and takeout orders. These restaurants have fewer seats, and, in the case of Chipotle, digital pickup shelves where customers can simply grab their order and go. The company is currently monitoring the performance of the new store design’s initial locations.

Niccol hinted at personalization on the call when talking about the company’s loyalty program, which it has grown to 8.5 million members over the last few years. While he didn’t dive into much detail, saying only that “personalization and engagement are cornerstones of our evolving loyalty strategy.” But we’ve already seen what more personalization can look like in the restaurant world, from McDonald’s installing Dynamic Yield’s AI tech in drive-thru lanes last year to Taco Bell’s recent push to make recommendations via its app more personalized to each customer. 

Niccol said he expects it “to become a bigger driver in the future as we gain more experience gathering customer insight, while continuing to expand our digital ecosystem.”

Chicago Considers a Ban on Foam Takeout Boxes for Restaurants

Chicago introduced an ordinance this week that would ban restaurants from using polystyrene (aka foam) to-go containers and also limit the amount of disposable plastics they use.

The “Plastic-Free Water” ordinance, introduced by Alderman (32nd) Scott Waguespack and Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10th), calls for a total ban of polystyrene packaging that would go into effect on January 1, 2021. Restaurants would have to substitute with reusable dishes for dine-in orders and recyclable or compostable ones for takeout and delivery orders.

The ordinance also calls for a limit — though not a total ban — on single-use plastics like to-go cutlery. Restaurants would give these items out if requested or have them available at self-service stations, rather than packaging them with each order by default. Additionally, customers would be able to bring their own reusable cups.

Restaurants that do not have the space to wash dishes and can’t contract out that work (think food trucks or mall kiosks) would be able to request a full or partial waiver.

To help restaurants understand the kinds of alternative packaging available to them, the city of Chicago would provide a list of businesses that sell recyclable and compostable materials, and would also give restaurant printable signs to put up directing customers where to properly dispose of their items (e.g., in the compost bin versus the one recycling).

Providing restaurants with a list of available alternatives to polystyrene is an important step in the industry, as one of the issues businesses face when making the switch to sustainable to-go packaging is even knowing what else is out there. Whether these alternatives will actually be realistically affordable, especially for smaller, independent restaurants, remains in question. To that end, the Illinois Restaurant Association released a statement on Wednesday that more or less supports these efforts but also points out that the ordinance could drive costs for restaurant owners higher.

Chicago is just the latest city to consider a ban on single-use packaging in the restaurant industry, following similar moves by New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, and others.

P.F. Chang’s Joins the Growing Pack of Restaurants Opening To-Go Focused Locations

P.F. Changs’s China Bistro — better known as simply P.F. Chang’s — is joining other major restaurant brands in opening express locations of their full-service restaurants that focus on takeout and delivery orders. The chain plans to open the first of multiple P.F. Chang’s To Go locations in Chicago in February, according to an article from the Chicago Sun-Times.

The first location is set to open February 3, following the closure of a 20-year-old traditional P.F. Chang’s location in the same area. That closure, which happened January 14, is said to be one of the main catalysts for the chain choosing to open an express location, according to the Sun-Times.

Chris Demery, P.F. Chang’s senior vice president of off-premises dining, told the paper that customers “want their food faster and more readily available than ever before” and that “the business of eating off-site is growing at two to three times the pace of the business of eating in restaurants.”

P.F. Chang’s To Go will offer guests roughly 80 percent of the usual menu items found in traditional sit-down locations of P.F. Chang’s. Customers will be able to order delivery via both the P.F. Chang’s app as well as those of third-party services including Uber Eats, DoorDash, Postmates, and Grubhub.

P.F. Chang’s is just the latest of many brands offering slimmed down, off-premises-focused versions of their traditional sit-down restaurants. Fast-casual chain IHOP unveiled a sister chain for express orders called Flip’d in 2019. Restaurants like The Cheesecake Factory and Famous Dave’s have also launched their own quick-service concepts.

Even quick-service chains, where fast order fulfillment is a core part of the business model, are experimenting with ways to make the express concept even speedier. Shake Shack opened a NYC location with minimal seating and separate entrances for delivery and takeout orders. Starbucks is testing off-premises-focused locations in China and New York. KFC is trying to expedite the drive-thru, and those are just a few names on the steadily lengthening list. With off-premises ordering expected to drive the bulk of restaurant sales for the next decade (at least), that list is going to keep growing.

For its part, P.F. Chang’s has To Go locations planned for NYC, Washington, D.C., and Houston, in addition to more stores in Chicago.

Chowly and ezCater Team Up to Integrate Catering Orders Into Restaurant POS Systems

Restaurant tech company Chowly, which integrates third-party delivery orders with restaurant POS systems, officially announced today its partnership with online catering marketplace ezCater. Chowly restaurant customers interested in adding catering as another ordering channel will now be able to do so through the ezCater integration, according to a press release from Chowly.

Since catering is yet-another type of off-premises ordering, restaurants typically have to manually input those orders into the main POS system — a time-consuming process that’s also highly susceptible to human error. That issue isn’t unique to catering, but since the ticket size of catering orders tends to be much higher (around $283), making a mistake gets costly much faster.

At least on the order processing side, Chicago-based Chowly solves that issue by taking the takes the human out of that equation. The company’s software automates the process of getting catering orders into a restaurant’s main POS system. When a customer places an order via a third party, whether it’s DoorDash or ezCater, that data gets automatically transmitted to the restaurant’s in-house POS system and enters the main ticket stream. All this happens in about 30 seconds, according to Chowly’s website, and for restaurants, there’s no additional hardware needed to use the system.

Chowly’s software is already well known in the restaurant biz for automating the process of getting third-party delivery orders into the POS system. The company partnered with DoorDash in September and also counts Jet’s Pizza, Branded Restaurants, and other chains among its restaurant partners (not to mention, some ghost kitchens).  

ezCater, meanwhile, raised $150 million earlier this year to expand its online catering marketplace. Its integration with Chowly adds another off-premises ordering channel for restaurants to utilize. Charlotte, NC-based Clean Juice is one such chain doing that. According to the press release, Clean Juice, who was already a Chowly customer, started offering catering at all 80 of its locations after adding ezCater as an ordering channel. 

Catering juice and catering full meals are two different things, of course, and the latter takes more time, money, and manpower than some chains have, POS integration or no. Nonetheless, the online catering world is growing. For example, EAT Club is a “virtual cafeteria” serving corporate offices in the San Francisco Bay Area. City Pantry, which Just Eat acquired in July, has a similar service in London.

Off-premises orders expected to make up the bulk of restaurant sales over the next decade. As companies like Chowly work to make the tech side of processing catering orders easier for restaurants, we’ll likely see more of those catering options at schools, universities, and in the workplace in the future.

Olo and BMW Partner for In-car Restaurant Food Ordering

As the restaurant industry continues searching for ways to serve up off-premise meals at faster speeds, in-car ordering is one approach becoming more common. BMW is the latest automaker to join this conversation, having just partnered with restaurant-tech company Olo to make food ordering available directly from its vehicles.

According to an Olo press release, the two companies are currently running a pilot program for select BMW vehicles in the U.S. from 2015 onwards. BMW car owners can check their car’s compatibility with the new food ordering program and register for it on the BMW Labs site. 

Once the software is enabled in the vehicle, users can send orders to participating restaurants directly from their car, pre-configure favorite orders, and pay instantly. The system is similar to the one Domino’s currently has underway with Chevrolet: once a user links their restaurant account to it, they can order favorite meals via touchscreen on the car dashboard, re-order recent ones, pay via credit card (which is on file with the restaurant), and follow driving directions to the restaurant to retrieve their food.

As of now, you can’t browse menus or input payment information directly from your dash. While that’s certainly safer (I can barely pick a Spotify song on my dash without running the car off the road), it also limits what users can order and customize.

Two restaurant chains, Nektar Juice Bar and Portillo’s Hot Dogs, are the first to participate in BMW’s pilot program, and there are bound to be others that follow. With more Americans spending more time behind the wheel these days, in-car ordering provides yet-another channel through which restaurants can reach more people. It’s also potentially, though not totally, safer than someone using their phone while driving to order food. BMW isn’t alone here. As mentioned above, Chevy and Domino’s partnered this year to bring the Domino’s AnyWare platform to vehicles. GM’s Marketplace system has been in cars since 2017 and lets users order from Starbucks, Wingstop, and other chains.

BMW may have an advantage here in that its system is powered by Olo, which specializes in making the order process from third parties a simpler experience for restaurants and customers alike. That said, the in-car order concept as of right now is still pretty bare bones — for BMW and everyone else. Ultimately, though, that probably won’t stop your average non-foodie citizen from re-ordering their favorite pizza or hot dog on the way home from work, and for in-car ordering to become a regular part of the car experience in the future.