Case Studies
Dado’s Pizza Drives 5x Commission-Free Ordering with Takeout & Delivery
How a classic New York slice shop is using technology to reclaim its customers, boost margins, and run a smarter restaurant.
- Cuisine type:
- Pizza
- Locations:
- 1
- Founded:
- 2021
- City:
- New York City
On the outside, Dado’s Pizza & Taproom looks like a simple neighborhood slice shop. Under the hood, technology makes the whole place go.
“I think we have a great setup,” says owner-operator David Edelman. “It’s a balance of high-touch connection with our guests and high-tech, which has allowed me to grow the business.”
Edelman’s team loves interacting with customers who walk in for a slice. But when it comes to taking online orders, BentoBox’s Takeout & Delivery does the heavy lifting.
First 6 months of Takeout & Delivery on the BentoBox Marketing & Commerce Platform:
5x
Revenue
9
Days to Positive ROI
+10%
Average Order Value
It wasn’t always like this. When Dado’s opened in June 2021, Edelman “signed up for all the apps,” he says. “We didn’t have a marketing strategy, so it opened us up to customers we never would have found.”
But Edelman quickly grew leery of the third-party delivery apps’ tactics. “They take over your Google listings!” he says. “In my mind, it was like, ‘These people were looking for Dado’s, but they just became someone else’s customer.’”
The commission fees were unsustainable, too. “I was giving up 51% on some of these orders. There were a few where I lost money.” When the apps bumped their fees even higher in response to minimum-wage legislation, Edelman decided he’d had enough.
He turned to BentoBox, his website provider, to set up an owned ordering channel — one that put his site right at the top of Google listings, charged zero commission, and let him keep his customer data for the first time.
With BentoBox’s Takeout & Delivery module up and running, orders started flowing into a system that not only saved money, but worked better operationally. “Everything is integrated through BentoBox and Clover. When you place an order on our website, it goes right to the kitchen printer, with all your specifications, and the guys start to make the pizza. It’s just like how the bigger corporate restaurants do it.”
Edelman wanted to funnel as many of his orders through the website as possible. To do that, he’d need to retrain customers who were used to going to third-party apps.
He figured that “if I’m losing 30–50% of the gross to Grubhub or DoorDash, I might as well give part of that back to the customer.” Edelman used BentoBox to create a promo code offering a discount for ordering direct — and noticed it starting to work.
“When I switched over to BentoBox,” he said, “I could clearly see my sales on DoorDash and GrubHub going down and sales through the website going up.”
From there, Edelman declared war. He put the promo code in his Instagram bio. He started posting videos shedding light on the impact of third-party apps. He even promoted it in the text of his app listings. “A lot of customers found it hilarious,” he laughs.
Edelman wrote attention-grabbing item descriptions on third-party apps to promote direct ordering discounts.
The effort has been worth it. “You’re really clawing back your customers from these big tech companies that aren’t interested in you as a business,” Edelman says. “But once they’re comfortable with your platform, you end up netting more on each sale.”
Dado’s workers love the change, too. “Their tips have basically doubled since I've gone onto BentoBox,” says Edelman. “No longer are those delivery tips going to DoorDash or Grubhub. It increases employee compensation without coming out of my pocket.”
Six months after launching Takeout & Delivery, Edelman is exploring even more ways to leverage the BentoBox Marketing & Commerce Platform. The order-taking Kiosk allows Edelman to price dynamically and take pressure off his cashiers.
“If wings double in price next week, I can make a quick change. I think it also helps people see our full menu — like, Oh, I didn’t even know you had a chicken parm hero — and it’s been a really useful line-buster on busy nights.”
Dado’s Pizza is a tech-forward spin on the traditional neighborhood slice shop. With a small team and big plans, David Edelman is eager to put his restaurant even further ahead of the curve.
“I’m a passionate small business guy,” he says. “That’s what I want to see more of in this city. We try to utilize the same tech as the big corporate chains, but still provide the sincere and authentic customer experience you expect from the neighborhood slice joint.”
I think we have a great setup. It’s a balance of high-touch — interpersonal connection with our guests — and high-tech, which has allowed me to run this business.
David Edelman
Dado's Pizza & Taproom
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