Thankful for YOU! And an offer
Plus: Online reviews are meaningless now, just ask anyone dining at London's Angus Steakhouse.
Thanks for reading Expedite. I can’t believe it, but I’ve been pumping out restaurant technology newsletters since 2013. I launched Expedite in 2019 after losing a job with the media company that acquired my first letter. Unfortunately, the media landscape hasn’t improved much since. Working independently has a lot of advantages, including a flexible schedule and a chance to cover the news from unconventional angles. It also means I need to rely on subscriber support to keep this newsletter going.
Right now, about half of Expedite newsletters run behind a paywall. I’m going to up the paid cadence in 2025 with a renewed mission and vision for Expedite. (More on that soon!)
For now, I’m offering a year of Expedite at the lowest rate ever: $55 for an annual subscription. This offer runs until Wednesday, December 3.
Need more convincing? Here are a few recent paywalled posts and a note about why they’re reserved for paying subscribers:
Now what? Considering the future under another Trump presidency
“It’s been nearly a week since Donald Trump was declared the next President of the United States and I’ve been thinking a lot about the consequences for the future of restaurants and the hospitality industry.”
This forward-looking edition of Expedite, running double the length of a typical letter, relies on a decade-plus of industry knowledge and precedent. It covers potential implications in areas like immigrant labor, tipped wages, supply chain, and more. I’m exceptionally proud of this piece.
The fake restaurant is our fault
“Perhaps by now you’ve heard of Ethos, Austin, Texas’s so-called “#1 restaurant.” Except it’s not. Ethos is completely fake. The photos are AI-generated, the menu items are fabricated. The ‘restaurant’ even has its own recent viral hit, a croissant shaped like Moo Deng, the internet-famous pygmy hippo living in a Thailand zoo.”
An industry veteran that I respect recently told me that I covered the resurgence of this AI-generated restaurant better than anyone else. I’ll take the compliment but also use it as an opportunity to say that Expedite always brings receipts and offers credit where it’s due. It’s perspective that can come only from years of experience and understanding of how this business works.
Tock belongs to Amex now. Here’s how that might play out for new sibling Resy, and for you
“Tock’s $400 million sale to American Express closed today, four months after the credit card company announced it would buy the bookings service from former parent, Squarespace.”
No one covers the reservations industry like Expedite. Thanks to one very meaningful acquisition and the feisty resurgence of the industry’s oldest player, the business is finally getting exciting again. I’m particularly excited about chronicling the future of bookings in America (and beyond!)
Thanks for considering an upgrade to support this independent work. Happy Thanksgiving!
Online reviews are meaningless now
We have to talk about what happened at Angus Steakhouse a couple of weeks ago. The London-based steakhouse — “London’s version of Applebee’s,” according to the Wall Street Journal — is enjoying an exceptionally bright spotlight thanks to an orchestrated effort on Reddit.
Social media’s impact on tourism is well-documented. One viral post from an influencer can change a restaurant’s trajectory. It can also ruin the experience for locals and other fans. In this case, a Londoner was miffed when their favorite sandwich cart got “discovered” by an influencer; it was, per Fast Company, “a victim of recommendations culture.” As we are wont to do when we’re angry, the local posted their grievance on Reddit.
The incident inspired a copycat prank post encouraging tourists to visit Angus Steakhouse, a ubiquitous chain and tourist trap with a handful of locations around the city. Because we’re a bunch of lemmings who can’t survive without hitting the best “undiscovered” local restaurants as determined by strangers on the internet (UGH), it took root. Hilariously, tourists and influencers flocked to the restaurant for an allegedly viral steak sandwich. It’s like a pump-and-dump stock scheme, but for restaurants.
Luckily, Angus Steakhouse CEO Paul Sarlas was a good sport about the whole thing. “We enjoy a good joke as much as the next person and appreciate the creativity and humor that sparked this love-bombing,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
What else?
What do we think about these “why we’re closing” articles? I’m noticing more of them, but is anyone really paying attention? — San Francisco Chronicle
On second thought, maybe it’s good to call out what’s closing our independent restaurants: A tiny cafe has been serving San Francisco for 20 years. It could close over a cactus and outdoor tables. (Seriously.) — San Francisco Chronicle
OpenTable just released its list of the top 100 restaurants in America, a list that I always feel the need to qualify as the top 100 restaurants in America on OpenTable. — release
Serve Robotics bought the company behind the ‘autocado,’ the avocado-peeling robot also backed by Chipotle. Serve acquired Vebu in an all-stock transaction, adding some back-of-house tech to its fleet of roving delivery bots. Investors clearly have high hopes for the bot maker. “Could Serve Robotics become the next Nvidia?” asks a recent Motley Fool headline, referencing the sometimes-most valuable company in the world. Even with its Vebu acquisition, Serve has a long way to go; it owns a fleet of 100 delivery robots, with 59 in service in Los Angeles. This year, Serve is expected to earn $1.9 million in revenue with a net loss of $34.3 million. — Restaurant Dive