Worcester restaurants embrace, eschew online delivery services
Photo | Matt Wright
Panagiotis Georgiadis, an employee at Meze Greek Tapas Bar & Grill, packs up an Uber Eats order before taking it outside to a waiting driver.
Photo | Zachary Comeau
Sotirios "Sam" Georgiadis uses Uber Eats to create complementary revenue for his Shrewsbury Street eatery.
Jared Forman, chef and co-owner of deadhorse hill
At first, Sotirios “Sam” Georgiadis was skeptical about partnering with Uber Eats, a new service from San Francisco-based ride-hailing giant Uber delivering food to customers.
The tech company's commission – 30 percent – was too big for Georgiadis' appetite.
“That's a little too much,” Georgiadis remembers thinking.
Despite his reservations about the commission, his restaurant, Meze Greek Tapas Bar & Grill on Shrewsbury Street was one of 24 Worcester restaurants to appear on Uber Eats when the service launched in Central Massachusetts last month.
“They've actually been pretty good,” he said, commenting on the number of Uber drivers already in a city like Worcester. “They're very fast.”
New customers, extra revenue
The service allows any and all restaurants to offer delivery without having to pay an hourly employee to deliver food.
That means the opportunity to reach new customers without having to take on more employees.
“For regular customers, it's a convenience for them too,” Georgiadis said.
Uber Eats or Grubhub customers can't order any drinks or alcohol, which can make up a huge portion of a restaurant's revenue.
But if those customers aren't going to get off the couch, they aren't going to spend their money on good Worcester restaurants, said John Piccolo, owner of Piccolo's Italian Restaurant.
“If they're not coming out, I'm not going to sell them a drink,” he said. “If they don't come out, I'm not going to sell them any food either.”
On a particularly busy night, extra orders from Grubhub could back up a kitchen, threatening to impact the customers in the restaurant that have ordered drinks and tipped a server.
Piccolo's doesn't do much business with Grubhub, he said, unable to quantify how many customers have ordered a dish from the restaurant.
But, it's still extra business.
“I'd rather have that extra money at the end of the month,” Piccolo said.
The hospitable hands of a restaurant
Despite the notable list of restaurants signing onto Uber Eats – Compass Tavern, Worcester Sandwich Hut and British Beer Co. – and the dozens of others using Grubhub, food delivery services are met with hesitation by some of the city's top restaurants credited with placing Worcester on the foodie map.
Main Street favorite deadhorse hill was working with the Dashed/Foodler partnership before the driving and software company was acquired by delivery giant Grubhub last June.
The restaurant didn't pursue working with Grubhub after that.
“We were doing such little business with them anyway that it hasn't affected us either way,” said chef and co-owner Jared Forman.
He recalled the ownership group's initial hesitation due to the service's large commission.
“It's a ridiculous amount,” Forman said. “When you're dealing with an industry with 5-percent profit, giving away 30 percent of that to a delivery service is not justifiable.”
The restaurant only used the service during lunch hours to keep those commission costs at a minimum while finding its way into Worcester offices and homes for its frequent and repeat customers.
“If it's raining and someone doesn't want to leave the office, we're eliminating one person from eating our food,” Forman said. “We want people to be able to access what we do every single day.”
At a restaurant like deadhorse hill, however, customers aren't just paying for the food. They're paying for the entire experience.
Restaurants are part of the hospitality industry, and food is just a fraction of that business.
“When you go to a restaurant, things should be happening for you, not to you,” Forman said. “Things can't happen for you if you're having a meal alone at home on the couch in the dark. Things happen for you if you put yourself in the hospitable hands of responsible restaurant owners.”
Using the service, deadhorse hill just about broke even, Forman said, but making money wasn't what the restaurant aimed to do.
“We just wanted to be able to service our customers better,” he said.
Incremental revenue
The Worcester Restaurant Group, owners and operators of Via Italian Table, 111 Chop House and The Sole Proprietor, don't use any delivery service and never have.
Chief Financial Officer Kevin Hunt did, however, disclose in an email the Worcester Restaurant Group has been approached by a service, but he did not name which company.
Like others, the group cited the 30-percent bounty, but also the inability to control the quality of the food once it leaves the restaurant's door destined for a customer's home.
“Our No. 1 concern is the integrity of our product when it reaches our guests,” Hunt said.
The quality of service is out of a restaurant's hands, Hunt said. Adding a third-party vendor may just be too risky for high-end restaurants like the three Hunt works for.
Despite the uncertainties, Hunt and company executives are considering it.
“If it truly brings us incremental business, it would be foolish to not seriously consider getting into the delivery game,” he said.
Is it even worth it?
Some restaurants, like Depot Street Tavern in Milford, are already booming with business and wouldn't be able to keep up with demand if the popular eatery offered delivery.
“I don't think I'm equipped to produce that much food,” said owner Adam Hicks.
The small Milford restaurant is popular in town, and now Hicks is bringing some of the same food and themes to Worcester with Maddi's Cookery and TapHouse in the Canal District, expected to open this summer.
Delivery is on the table once that location opens, he said.
Depot Street has a robust takeout operation, and takeout customers can order one of the restaurants many craft beers while waiting for food.
“You'd lose the social aspect of people coming in and enjoying the atmosphere, which is an integral part of a restaurant,” Hicks said.
Hicks has neither ruled it out nor has he actually looked into delivery services in Worcester, he admitted.
“I don't love it, but I don't hate it,” he said. “You're getting more business, but if you're paying 20 to 30 percent off the top when your margins are already so slim, is it worth it?”
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments