Erewhon gets talked about for $20 smoothies and celebrity collaborations. The part restaurant operators should study is quieter: its app, which connects ordering, loyalty, and the in-store experience so a customer never has to become a stranger again. Here’s what an independent restaurant can realistically borrow, and why not every restaurant needs an app at all.
Independent operator Hot Potato Pie was losing time managing delivery platforms across separate tablets. After consolidating onto one system with Orders.co and adding a commission-free ordering website, direct online ordering grew into a top revenue channel, generating more than $66,000 across the restaurant’s two locations.
Restaurant technology has solved individual problems but left operators connecting the systems by hand. A connected restaurant links those tools around the customer and the order—turning every transaction into both today’s operation and tomorrow’s growth.
Forget robot waiters. In 2026, the most popular restaurant AI request is a plain daily briefing. Here’s what 125,000+ restaurants reveal about how owners actually use AI
A seafood restaurant POS case study: how Bayshore Fish & Grill put 74% of its orders through the Orders.co point of sale system and started keeping more direct revenue.
Great food can leave the kitchen perfectly and arrive home completely different. Here’s how restaurants can design takeout menus around the way customers actually eat them.
A customer sees “Tetela — $14” and nothing else. Do they order it, or scroll back to tacos? As Mexican menus get more regional, your digital menu has to explain the food your server would.
Most restaurant POS systems now offer the same headline features, so the real question for a small or midsize operator isn’t what’s on the spec sheet — it’s what you’ll end up buying, connecting, and managing around it. We compare Orders.co, Toast, Square, SpotOn, and Lightspeed on total cost and stack.
Old Jerusalem, a 50-year-old family restaurant in Chicago, generated over $72,000 and 1,623 orders through its Orders.co direct online ordering website — out-earning Grubhub and beating the delivery apps on average order value.
Most pizzerias don’t fail on the food. They fail on the numbers and the operations behind them. These ten lessons from New York City’s crowded pizza market cover what it actually takes to run a successful pizzeria — from menu design and cost control to delivery, marketing, and keeping customers coming back.
Sam’s Pizza waited over a year for a delivery feature a major platform never delivered. Orders.co had it ready to go — plus a separate catering menu and every ordering channel in one system. Here’s how the Paterson pizzeria now manages 5,000 orders and $106K in sales.
A restaurant business plan is the cheapest place to find out whether your idea holds up — before the lease, the buildout, or the equipment. Here’s every section a plan needs, what belongs in each, and how to write one lenders take seriously.
