Author: Brandon Barton

This episode starts with a lawsuit and an upset: Uber sues DoorDash in San Francisco, and New York Magazine declares all the cool restaurants are on OpenTable now. The drama! (Kind of.) Then, Michael Osanloo, president and CEO of Portillo’s — now a fast-growing, publicly traded restaurant company — joins the Simmer to talk marketing, loyalty, third-party delivery, and Chicago street food.

Topic Time Stamps:

1:12: Big news: Uber sued DoorDash over direct delivery practices in California court. 

6:01: Are all the cool restaurants (in New York) moving to OpenTable? 

10:40: Welcome, Michael Osanloo! What does the revenue of two McDonald’s drive-thrus, one Chipotle, and a Domino’s have to do with Chicago-based Portillo’s?

17:57: How does a Chicago brand expand in places like Dallas? Is it still a Chicago brand?

21:03: Marketing efforts through partnerships, collaborations, and more

22:23: Per Michael, “Third-party delivery… would love to disintermediate every restaurant company from its guests.”

26:26: What about loyalty? 

36:33: Facial recognition: cool? Creepy? Too much? How to get it right?

We’re back on the restaurant loyalty beat this week with Abhinav Kapur, who’s led Bikky for nearly a decade. In this episode, we talk about developing loyal diners, email (and text!) marketing, and “tendies” from a new KFC spinoff, whatever those are. 

Topic Time Stamps:

1:36: More generative AI chat (and some shade)

4:26: Brandon plugs his appearance on a different podcast. (What’s a tendie?!)

6:34: Welcome, Abhinav! What’s Bikky? And how has it evolved over the last decade?

12:51: What makes a loyal guest? Who comes back? Why?

19:30: Email marketing, email open rates, email conversion rates

20:45: Back to “tendies” at Saucy, a tech-infused KFC spin-off in Orlando

25:30: A detour to talking about facial recognition in kiosks and biometrics

28:00: What do the next 12-24 months in restaurant loyalty look like? 

31:57: Which is more valuable to a restaurant: a phone number or an email address?

Finally, Resy CEO Pablo Rivero joins The Simmer, completing our trifecta of interviews with leaders of the country’s largest reservations providers. In his role as SVP of global dining, he also oversees Tock, the reservations and ticketing platform Amex acquired last year for $400 million. It was a smart acquisition: American Express cardholders spent a staggering $100 billion (!!!) on dining in 2023. In this episode, we discuss artificial intelligence, bots, exclusivity, and the future of the reservations business.

Key Takeaways

1. The O’Neal Secret Family Menu: A Big Win for Bite and Big Chicken
2. Maximizing Digital Opportunities for Small Chain Restaurants
3. A Maniacal Focus on Franchisees Unit Level Economics

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Brandon Barton, CEO of Bite, recently joined host Gregg Majewski of Craveworthy Brands, on the Room For Seconds podcast to discuss the transformative impact of technology in the restaurant industry. From innovative digital kiosks to the role of AI in delivery services, Barton shares his insights on how technology is reshaping the dining experience, particularly for smaller chains looking to stay competitive.