Eight Websites. One Brand. How H-Town Restaurant Group Drives Success Online.

H-Town Restaurant Group is one of Houston's most iconic culinary institutions, with award-winning concepts such as Backstreet Cafe, Hugo's and Xochi helping to define the city's restaurant scene for decades.

However, H-Town's digital presence didn't always run as smoothly as its restaurants do. In 2016, it had just four websites managed by a New York-based contractor. With 1,630 miles separating them, the long-distance relationship created issues: delayed menu updates, infrequent website maintenance, clashing design aesthetics and unclear technical ownership. 

Within months of adding BentoBox in 2016, the group launched four websites with brand-enhancing design, valuable marketing features and a user-friendly platform for staff to manage. In the years since, H-Town has continued to grow its footprint with several new concepts — and BentoBox has continued to grow with it.

The first and most important thing H-Town wanted in a website was control. It needed a centralized platform that was easy enough for restaurant staff to manage, but modern enough to provide a stellar online guest experience. One place where it could easily edit menus, monitor inventory, pull reports and trigger pop-up alerts on the homepage.

H-Town’s director of human resources and IT, Taj Walker, has been extremely pleased with the experience. "For just three people to manage all of these sites — it’s remarkable," Walker says.

But it wasn’t just control that brought H-Town Restaurant Group to BentoBox. It was quality and new revenue streams. When H-Town launches a new concept, BentoBox’s design team works hand-in-hand with H-Town’s management team to weave the fabric of each new brand into the web design. This includes not just the homepage but online commerce features such as direct online ordering and pre-order & catering, which H-Town uses to drive substantial low-commission revenue.