Saint Paul Restaurant Resiliency Project
The RRP Tech Guide
Every restaurateur's ultimate guide to restaurant tech.
This is the complementary technology information and resources that you need to succeed.
Welcome to the Saint Paul Restaurant Resiliency Project, an initiative that supports local restaurants. The City of Saint Paul, in partnership with NCXT, a local consulting firm, supports local restaurants by providing no-cost support for locally-owned restaurants.
Note: The technology vendors listed on this page may charge fees that are not associated with RRP.
Saint Paul restaurants are cooking up a three-part recipe for success.
-JOHN GLEASON, Owner BAP AND CHICKEN
"We were on a pretty good track shortly after the pandemic, but being part of the project and a community of restauranteurs reassured me that I was going in the right direction. Without that support, I would not have had knowledge of the opportunities that were available."
Reach more customers by digitizing in-store and online orders, shortening process times, and monitoring operations with restaurant technology.
Get it delivered
1. Streamline your workflow and optimize every aspect of your restaurant with third-party delivery options.
2. Keep costs low by utilizing your point of sale’s delivery integrations.
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DoorDash is an excellent, user-friendly food delivery service with helpful recommendations for discovering restaurants. It features easy ordering with options to track delivery, pick up food or schedule deliveries for the most convenient times. A $9.99-per-month DashPass helps customers save on delivery fees.
Grubhub is the best food delivery service. It partners with an incredible variety of restaurants. It features a quick food order from the menu and tracks orders from the app, all hassle-free and without extra charges. While the app is free, signing up for Grubhub+ is a $9.99-per-month subscription that lets customers enjoy free delivery.
Postmates is a round-the-clock food delivery service that offers a no-contact delivery option. It does include a delivery charge and surge pricing during peak hours, but a $9.99-per-month Postmates Unlimited service removes surge pricing and delivery charges for orders greater than $15.
ChowNow is suitable for local restaurants with the convenience of having meals dropped off at customers' doors. It allows customers to discover good, local eats nearby, even if they are stuck at home. It promises commission-free ordering, so the final bill isn't loaded with unexplained fees.
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Toast Delivery Services™️ allows restaurants to dispatch local drivers through an on-demand network to service any delivery order.
Square offers commission-free online delivery through a partnership with DoorDash.
TouchBistro is best for low-volume, self-managed delivery.
Revel has online delivery through a partnership with Grubhub, CheckMate, Deliverect, and Chowly.
Lightspeed Restaurant integrates with SkipTheDishes, Uber Eats, and DoorDash for easy delivery.
Lavu has online ordering integrations, including Chowly, CheckMate, and Mobi2Go.
“Diversify your social presence by utilizing new and different engagement features to reach the community.”
digital marketing
Telling your story online can make all the difference.
1. Increase your customer base, get consumer feedback, and forge a deeper connection with consumers by having a digital presence.
2. Automate tasks, streamline your marketing efforts and reach the right audience by utilizing a POS system with marketing capabilities.
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LOCL helps businesses that serve visitors, meetings and conventions improve their presence in mobile web searches by allowing you to more easily:
Update hours across listings to reflect special holiday hours and closures
Use Posts to promote holiday events and offers
Upload holiday-specific photos
BentoBox is a website builder software designed for restaurants. With the software, you can establish an online presence to widen your reach and attract more customers by:
Easily connecting with guests via its event and promotion feature.
Posting events in your restaurant and inform customers about upcoming promotions or discounts.
Improving your local search rankings with its SEO features.
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Toast has native email marketing (additional cost) and integrates with several cloud-based marketing apps.
Square has native email and text campaigns to keep your customers engaged.
Lightspeed lets you launch digital ads from the POS.
“53% of global transactions running through Point-of-Sale (POS) systems will be contactless within five years, compared to just 15%, and contactless payments will triple to $6 trillion worldwide by 2024, from about $2 trillion in 2020.”
point of sale
Restaurants like yours need a no-hassle POS that supports all of your digital restaurant operations.
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A cloud-native restaurant point-of-sale with mobile, kiosk, and app-based ordering options that is a good fit for midsize-to-large restaurants, coffee shops, bars and fast-casual dining venues. There are better options for restaurants that can only commit to a contract that lasts a year or longer.
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A POS system designed to help many different businesses sell in-store and online seamlessly with built-in tools for simple and advanced functions. It offers valuable features, including table and menu management capabilities and multi-location setups. Square also lists its fees for software, hardware and payment processing online, making it possible to do some preliminary comparison before getting a full quote.
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Handles tables, in-house and takeout orders, delivery options, tabs, bills and payments. It also has many add-ons (for an extra fee) to boost efficiency. It supports different or expanded business models or provides additional analytics. It can also integrate with third-party delivery services like UberEats and DoorDash.
RESERVATION SYSTEMS
Maximize your table turnover with reservation technology.
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Tock is a cost-effective platform that helps small independent restaurants manage reservations, event sales, and online orders. It has expanded customer profiles, supports tailored marketing campaigns and allows you to offer perks and special events to select customer groups. It works best for restaurants with a high-profile or loyal customer base.
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Tablein is a user-friendly and cost-effective reservation platform that is good for small restaurants. It has modern capabilities to help them attract diners and book more reservations online compared to traditional booking processes such as phone calls and actual logbooks. It helps small restaurants enhance their booking workflows, saving them a lot of time and resources while decreasing instances of no-shows.
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Yelp Guest Manager is a free platform for managing and contacting restaurants on the go. It helps restaurants manage all of their front-of-house operations across the entire dining experience through one fully integrated solution — by bringing together Yelp Waitlist, Reservations, Kiosk, Takeout, Table Management, online brand building and more into one product. The review feature is very handy.
The Restaurant Resiliency Project has been boosting the local restaurant community by providing specialized digital technical assistance to their needs to gain more customers and grow revenue with a no-cost technology advantage. We've engaged over 70 local restaurants by bringing new tech capabilities into their business and helping them succeed.
