Customer Snapshot
| Restaurant | Alfredo’s of Summersville |
| Cuisine | Italian & Greek family restaurant |
| Location | Summersville, West Virginia |
| In business | 11+ years |
| Team size | 15 employees |
| Footprint | 2 locations, with a 3rd in progress |
| Customer rating | 4.7★ (1,039 reviews) |
| Live on Orders.co | In 2 days |
| Reported result | 12–15% revenue growth in the first month |
Alfredo’s of Summersville has run a family restaurant in West Virginia for more than 11 years, and the growth that comes with a decade of loyal customers created a problem few operators plan for: too many separate places to manage orders. With a team of 15 and business coming in across several third-party platforms, the day-to-day work of running the restaurant kept getting pulled toward the technology instead of the food.
Adding a direct ordering channel and pulling those third-party orders into one place changed that. In its first month on Orders.co, Alfredo’s reported a 12–15% increase in revenue while cutting down the operational work that had been eating into the owner’s time.
The Challenge: Growth Spread Across Too Many Platforms
Before Orders.co, most of Alfredo’s online business ran through third-party delivery apps. Those platforms are good at putting a restaurant in front of new customers, but that reach came with real costs.
Alfredo’s had no direct ordering website of its own, so every online order arrived through a third party, and provider fees came off the top of each one. Without a direct channel, the restaurant also had no easy way to offer delivery on its own terms or to keep the customer relationship after the first order.
The operational side was just as demanding. Each ordering platform meant another tablet on the counter, and staff had to watch and reconcile orders across separate devices. That added time and room for error to every shift, and it pulled the owner’s attention toward managing screens rather than growing the business. Between the fees and the fragmentation, Alfredo’s had fewer chances to keep the revenue it was already earning.
The Solution: One System and a Direct Channel
The feature that stood out most to Alfredo’s was the Orders.co ordering website.
A direct online channel gave the restaurant a way to take orders that customers place with Alfredo’s directly, rather than only through the apps. That opened up a new source of orders and, over time, a direct line to the customers behind them.
Consolidating incoming orders into a single system addressed the other half of the problem. Instead of several tablets to monitor, staff worked from one place, which cut the reconciliation work and the mistakes that came with juggling devices. The third-party apps still do what they do best — bringing in new diners — while the direct site gives Alfredo’s an option those customers can return to.
The Results: Measurable Growth in the First Month
The impact showed up quickly. Within its first month on Orders.co, Alfredo’s reported revenue growth of roughly 12–15%.
For a restaurant that had already operated successfully for more than a decade, growth of that size in a single month was a clear signal that a direct ordering channel and a single order view were worth the switch.
The operational payoff mattered just as much. With fewer systems to watch, the owner was no longer tied to the day-to-day work of managing tablets and could spend that time on the parts of the business that drive growth.
Onboarding: Live in Two Days
Getting started was fast. Alfredo’s was up and running in two days, and the team described the setup as clear and easy, without a drawn-out implementation.
A short setup window meant the restaurant started seeing value from the platform almost immediately, rather than waiting weeks to go live.
Built to Grow Alongside the Business
The results have held up well past the first month. Alfredo’s now operates two locations and is adding a third, and the owner has referred several other restaurants to Orders.co based on the experience.
For Alfredo’s, the value went beyond adding one more piece of restaurant technology. Consolidating online ordering gave the business a more efficient day-to-day operation, a new source of direct revenue, less complexity to manage, and more of the owner’s time back to focus on expansion.
The Takeaway
After 11 years in business, Alfredo’s of Summersville wanted to modernize its ordering operation without adding more complexity to the floor. With Orders.co, the restaurant gained a direct ordering website, brought its orders into one system, and reported 12–15% revenue growth in its first month. Two locations later — with a third on the way — that setup is still part of how the business grows.
If your restaurant is managing online orders across a stack of tablets and losing margin to third-party fees, a direct ordering channel and a single order view may be worth a closer look. See how Orders.co works for independent restaurants.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most full-service restaurants aim to keep food cost between about 28% and 35% of the revenue a dish brings in, and Italian menus usually land in that range. Pasta and pizza built on flour, tomatoes, and cheese tend to carry lower ingredient costs, which helps offset higher-cost items like veal, seafood, and imported cheeses. Tracking food cost dish by dish, rather than only as a whole-menu average, shows which items actually drive profit and which ones need a price or portion adjustment.
Restaurant profit margins are thin across the board, and independent full-service Italian restaurants typically net somewhere between 3% and 9% after all expenses, often toward the lower end. The biggest levers are prime cost — food, beverage, and labor combined — along with average check size and how many covers the dining room turns. Because margins are slim, small gains in food cost, labor scheduling, or check average can have an outsized effect on what the owner actually takes home.
A common starting point is to set each price so the ingredient cost lands at roughly 28–35% of the menu price, which usually works out to marking a dish up to about three times its food cost. From there, operators adjust for what the local market will pay, what nearby competitors charge, and how many dollars of profit each dish contributes rather than just its percentage. High-margin staples like pasta and pizza can help carry lower-margin specials, so pricing is best viewed across the whole menu rather than one dish at a time.
The largest expense is almost always prime cost — food and beverage (cost of goods sold) plus labor — which together usually run about 55–65% of revenue. After that come occupancy costs like rent and utilities, with rent often falling in the 5–10% range, followed by marketing, insurance, equipment, and software or technology fees. Keeping prime cost under control is where most operators find the difference between a profitable month and a break-even one.
Start by setting par levels for perishable items so you order closer to actual demand, and rotate stock first-in, first-out so older ingredients get used before they spoil. Cross-using ingredients across the menu helps too — the same tomatoes, herbs, and cheeses can appear on several dishes so nothing sits unused. Standardized portioning keeps plates consistent and predictable, and tracking what gets thrown out each week shows where the biggest losses are so you can adjust prep, ordering, or menu design.
