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Andrew Simmons Shares Lessons Learned as He Launches New Pizza Subscription Platform

A couple of years ago, Andrew Simmons had big plans for his restaurant subscription business.

And why not? After experimenting with a wide range of technologies in a San Diego-area pizza restaurant, Simmons had launched a pizza subscription model that helped him generate $30,000 in a single-day Black Friday sale. Confident in his approach, he figured he could replicate the model in new markets.

But as it turns out, expansion proved more difficult than expected. According to Simmons, the challenge wasn’t the technology or the concept of subscriptions; it was moving too quickly into markets where his restaurants hadn’t yet built relationships with local diners.

“We believed that the pizza subscription program would carry us through,” said Simmons. “But when you move into a brand new market where nobody knows your brand, it doesn’t really matter what you’re offering until people have a chance to try your food and try it for a while.”

The subscription idea was simple: sell a year’s worth of pizza upfront. Customers could purchase a plan, like $197 for 52 pizzas, and redeem one each week. It created recurring revenue and served as a buffer against unpredictable walk-in traffic.

While the concept didn’t translate as well in new locations, Simmons believes it could work for restaurant operators who already have a strong local following. That’s why he’s launched a new venture and website to help established restaurants offer their own subscription plans.

He says the key to a successful subscription business goes beyond the initial funding. Operators need to manage the funds wisely, track redemptions and subscriber communications, and plan inventory accordingly. His new platform is designed to handle all of that.

“This is crowdfunding meets foodservice,” Simmons said. “You raise money upfront, but you also take on the responsibility to deliver that product across 52 weeks. You have to be smart. Or you’ll crash the car.”

You can listen to my full conversation with Andrew to hear about his plans for his subscription business below or on The Spoon Podcast.

Andrew Simmons Reflects on Past Year, Talks New Pizza Subscriptions Platform

Restaurants Offering Subscriptions Up 54% Over Past Year According to Square

According to a new report from payment processing company Square, the number of restaurants offering some form of active subscription plan to its customers has grown by 54% over the past year. These subscriptions – anything from a wine club to a taco lover’s pass – have become increasingly popular (among some, at least) in recent years as restaurants look for ways to create more stable revenue through automated payments and increase customer loyalty.

According to Square, over three-quarters of restaurant subscriptions remained active after one month, and 57% remained active after six months.

Of course, it should be noted that Square doesn’t represent the entire point-of-sale market for restaurants so the data might be somewhat skewed. While other POS players like Clover also offer support for subscriptions, Square has been probably the most active in building out subscription functionality over the past year. That said, given the success Square has had and the continued challenges restaurant operators face in the form of rising costs and constrained labor markets, my guess is most major POS providers will begin to offer this feature sooner rather than later.

The Square report also showed data that pained a picture of a slowly recovering, perhaps permanently changed, restaurant industry post-pandemic. Square data shows that while many urban work centers have seen their share of food and beverage transactions increase slowly since the early days of the pandemic, overall activity has largely flatlined. According to Square, downtown dining is at about three-quarters of what it used to be, a number that is primarily a reflection of a reshaped workforce that has seen many office workers continue to work from home for the bulk of the workweek.

However, Square data shows that one city has proven to be a significant outlier to the trend of decreased downtown dining traffic. According to Square, Detroit has seen its downtown dining jump an eye-popping 75% increase in traffic compared to 2019, something that’s likely attributable to strong hiring by US automakers, particularly as they look to build out their EV strategies over the past couple of years.

Food Tech Weekly: Restaurant Subscriptions, DeSci + Food, Microreactor-Powered Unagi

Is it me, or does every restaurant have a subscription program nowadays?

Some, like Panera, have been at it for years, but last year seemed to be when restaurants caught membership fever. Taco Bell kicked off 2022 by announcing its Taco Pass. Soon after, Subway launched its subscription for half-price footlongs to its 10 thousand biggest fans. P.F. Chang’s soon joined the party with its points-driven Platinum program.

And then there are those going the web3 route. Gary Vee’s Flyfish Club had the restaurant world abuzz after raising $14 million via an exclusive NFT membership program. A little later, we scratched our collective heads at Starbucks Odyssey, the Web3 extension of their popular loyalty program. Others, like Chubby Cattle and Wow Bao, also got into the act.

But it’s not just the chains that have subscription fever. Smaller restaurants, like Mamma Ramona’s, also see memberships as a way to drive repeat business and access potential new customers,

Food delivery exec Andrew Simmons purchased the Italian restaurant in Ramona, California, in early 2020 and soon set about completely reinventing the restaurant’s operations through technology. He not only refreshed the joint’s digital stack with a combination of Toast, Ovation, and Incentivio, but he also layered automation into both the front and back of house.

Today the Dinerbot T5 robotic server helps the wait and bus staff haul large orders to tables and bring dirty dishes back to the kitchen, and a Picnic robot pizza topper in the kitchen spits out pies at a pace of up to 130 per hour. In addition, Simmons added a new dough press, a couple of new Turbochef pizza ovens, and new refrigerators to help keep up with his higher pizza production volume. 

This automation – alongside the restaurant’s digital makeover – is the enabling lever for the restaurant’s subscription program. The restaurant started preselling subscriptions in late 2022 for $149 per year (or $99 on Black Friday), entitling subscribers to one pizza per week for 52 weeks. Simmons says this faster production speed and the lower per-pie cost – both enabled by automation – allow him to handle the weekly surge in volume.

And there are surges. According to Simmons, on a Friday in January, he served 183 customers in three hours, the restaurant’s busiest night ever. By the close of January – the first month pizza subscription members redeemed their awards – business was up 12% over the previous January.  Out of a total of 1,197 pizzas that were redeemable, Simmons said that they dished up 611 pizzas to subscribers, a 51% redemption rate. 

Can the growth last? One positive sign pointing to yes is the sustained success of other restaurants that have launched subscription programs. For example, Panera says that its coffee subscription program accounts for 25% of the brand’s transactions, and Pret-a-Manger’s program in the UK is used 1.2 million times per week. 

While it may be too soon to say if Mamma Ramona’s will see sustained growth, early indicators are good. According to Simmons, February is seeing a 6% increase in order volume over January. 

I’ll be interviewing Andrew later today at our virtual event, the Spoon Food Robotics Outlook 2023. If you want to listen in or ask Andrew a question, you can sign up here. 

Umami Meats Partners with TripleBar to Accelerate Cell Line Development for Cultivated Fish

Triplebar, a biotechnology company, and Umami Meats, a cultivated seafood company, have signed a letter of intent to collaborate on developing cell lines for sustainable cultivated seafood, starting with the Japanese eel according to a release sent to The Spoon.

Triplebar utilizes a microfluidics platform that it says can process thousands of complex assays per second with the noise characteristics of a liquid-handling robot. According to Triplebar CEO Maria Cho, these assays are processed using what she calls microreactors.

“The way to think about this is we take the test tube, and we miniaturize it to this very tiny microreactor that’s smaller than a human hair,” Cho told The Spoon. “And we’re able to put the thing that we want to test into this microreactor, and then the assay reagent that tests the thing that we’re looking for.”

With Umami, that “thing” they’ll be looking for is whether the cell line has the properties that it needs to grow in a bioreactor versus in an animal. That animal, in this case, is the eel, or unagi, a fish hugely popular in Japanese cuisine worldwide. Unfortunately, because of its popularity, unagi has become endangered due to overfishing. While much of the unagi sourced for human consumption is now produced via aquaculture, eel fish farms are incredibly inefficient due to the highly carnivorous nature of eels (researchers say it takes 2.5 tons of wild fish to make 1 ton of eel).

To read the full story about Triplebar’s microreactor tech, head over to The Spoon.

Spoon Partner Event

It is best to reduce wasted food early in the supply chain as it gains more of a carbon footprint the more it is transported, processed, purchased, and taken to the consumer home. This looks like harvesting everything that is grown, finding new markets to sell produce that does not meet buyer specs, and improving systems of communication that relay forecasted demands back up the supply chain to producers. Solutions may include: Imperfect & Surplus Produce Channels, Buyer Specification Expansion, Gleaning, Partial Order Acceptance, Field Cooling Units, In-Field Sanitation Monitoring, Innovative Grower Contracts, Labor Matching, Smaller Harvest Lots, and more. 

Don’t miss out and register today to learn more about the latest innovations to reduce food waste!

Podcast: How the DeSci Movement Will Change The World of Food

Do you know what DeSci is?

Don’t feel bad if you don’t, especially if, like me, food is your primary focus.

A16Z’s publication Future describes DeSci as a movement in which “a growing number of scientists and entrepreneurs are leveraging blockchain tools, including smart contracts and tokens, in an attempt to improve modern science. Collectively, their work has become known as the decentralized science movement, or DeSci.”

If you haven’t heard of DeSci by now, the reason is that while the trend’s caught the attention of the biotech and research funding worlds, it hasn’t entirely made its way into the future food conversation just yet. 

But it’s only a matter of time, so I figure there’s no better time to learn than now. To help us do that, I invited Dr. Jocelynn Pearl, a biotech scientist, entrepreneur, podcaster, and DeSci expert, onto the podcast. 

In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Pearl and I discuss the following:

  • What is DeSci?
  • How DeSci is changing the insular and outdated world of research publishing
  • The benefits of using Web3 tools like DAOs, blockchain, and NFTs in science research
  • Why DeSci hasn’t yet reached the future food industry just yet and why that may soon change
  • What the future of science research may look like with these types of tools

To listen to this podcast, listen here or get it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. 

Vertical Farmer Oishii Doubles Down on Unique Japanese Varietals With the Introduction of the Koyo

Vertical farming startup Oishii has introduced another strawberry cultivar, The Koyo Berry, which will join the brand’s Omakase Berry offering introduced in 2018.

The Koyo Berry is a Japanese varietal grown outside Tokyo during winter. The berries will be grown first in Oishii’s east coast vertical farms, which use advanced robotics and traditional Japanese farming methods to produce the fruit. The Koyo Berry will be available through online grocer FreshDirect in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut for $15 MSRP per tray. The product is expected to expand to other markets, including Los Angeles, later this year.

Oishii introduced its first strawberry, the Omakase Berry, in 2018. Oishii founder and CEO Hiroki Koga decided, when building out his vertical farm, to attempt to replicate the elements of a perfect day in Japan (e.g., humidity levels, light) inside a controlled-environment farm in the U.S. This allows the company to grow the Omakase – and now the Koyo – Berry 365 days per year.

Find out by reading the full story here on The Spoon.

This Finnish Company Uses Radio Waves to Monitor and Reduce Dairy Waste

Dairy plants around the world are facing a new set of challenges as they grapple with rising raw milk costs and increasing pressure to reduce their carbon footprints as plant-based competitors try to draw a contrast with animal milk. A Finnish startup named Collo wants to help on both fronts using what it describes as liquid fingerprint technology.

According to the company, its technology can detect any type of liquid in pipes in real-time, giving companies a way to optimize production and cut product losses. Collo says its technology can keep track of the liquids in the pipes, showing exactly where the leakage is occurring. This enables dairy plants, breweries, and other liquid processors to address the problem at the point of origin.

Collo’s technology is based on an electromagnetic resonator that emits a continuous radio frequency field into the liquid. The signal reacts to interferences caused by different components, chemicals, and phases in the liquid, and the Collo analyzer immediately warns of any disturbances so that the process can be adjusted.

Read the full story at The Spoon.

Taco Bell is Testing a Taco-a-Day Subscription Program

Making a fourth meal run every day?

If so, what’s wrong with you? you can now get a heavily discounted daily taco if you happen to live in an area where Taco Bell is trialing a new Taco Lover’s Pass.

The pass, according to QSR Magazine, is available in select Arizona markets through November 24th. Subscribers, who will pay $5 to $10 depending on location, can choose from seven tacos: Crunchy Taco, Crunchy Taco Supreme, Soft Taco, Soft Taco Supreme, Doritos Locos Tacos, Doritos Locos Tacos Supreme, and Spicy Potato Soft Taco.

While that’s probably a little too much Taco Bell for most people, there’s no doubt enough deal-seeking customers who would embrace the idea of a Taco Bell subscription. For Taco Bell, it’s an innovative way to create loyalty and predictable revenue.

Taco Bell is tapping into a trend that’s gained traction over the past year as restaurants have looked for creative ways to drive more predictable revenue during what has been an extremely unpredictable time. Many in the restaurant business noticed when Panera saw huge success with their subscription program, and now everyone from tapas restaurants to brewpubs is dabbling in subscriptions.

While Taco Bell isn’t saying whether it will try its subscription program in markets outside of Arizona, I predict we’ll see the Taco Lover’s Pass become a regular offering on the menu if uptake is strong in the trial.

Territory Foods Lets Restaurants Package Pre-Made Meals for Subscription Delivery

A byproduct of this global pandemic is that restaurants are being forced to try new models to stay in business as people are increasingly told to shelter in place and social distance.

We’ve seen dine-in restaurants pivot to delivery and curbside pickup. But Territory Foods this week launched a new initiative to give restaurants another possible sales channel in the form of weekly subscriptions.

Territory Foods may sound familiar to Spoon readers. They took over serving Kettlebell Kitchen’s customers after Kettlebell abruptly shut down last year. Territory provides an operations and logistics platform for restaurants and chefs to manage the ordering and delivery of pre-packed, ready-made meals.

Basically, instead of a customer ordering one meal one evening from a restaurant, they could order a number of meals in advance and have them packed up, kept cold and delivered all at once. Restaurants just prepare the meals and hand them off to Territory, which handles all the ordering and distribution.

“Through our platform, folks can order meals direct to their home,” Stefan Niemczyk, Head of Culinary for Territory Foods told me by phone this week.

This type of subscription approach offers restaurants a few benefits, according to Niemczyk. First, obviously, it’s another sales channel for restaurants in these troubled times where every dollar counts. Plus, that revenue is frontloaded and gives restaurants an accurate sense of how much food they need to prepare. Second, Territory can expand the geographic footprint of a restaurant, so a restaurant in LA can serve people in San Diego.

Additionally, Territory has a full culinary team on staff. They can help restaurants put together menus based on data from existing customers, cater to specific diets, and also figure out how to design and prepare each meal for optimal travel.

Right now, Territory is available in the Bay Area and all of Southern California, as well as Washington DC, Baltimore, Virginia, parts of New York City including Manhattan, parts of New Jersey, and Dallas and Houston, TX. Niemczyk wouldn’t get specific about pricing, saying only that it’s a revenue share on a per meal basis that changes depending on the meal concept.

While this pandemic is pushing restaurant owners into new avenues of revenue, the biggest barrier to trying something like Territory might be the restaurant business itself. Faced with a revamping of their businesses, can restaurants stay alive long enough to even try something like Territory?

At least Territory seems to be giving restaurants one more way to get a fighting chance.