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A catering spread from No Mas! Cantina in Atlanta
By Paola Ortega
Looking way to boost your catering revenue? Some Mexican restaurants have found success partnering with online catering facilitators such as ezCater and Foodee.
Melody Voirin, director of operations at No Mas! Cantina in Atlanta, says her restaurant has boosted catering sales wth ezCater.
“We had already established catering and knew how to prepare for large numbers of people, all we needed was the ability to get our name out in front of people who were ordering catering,” Voirin says. “ezCater was the perfect choice to market our restaurant to these clients.”
ezCater launched in 2007 and operates an online marketplace of over 100,000 restaurants, including about 9,000 that offer Mexican/Latin cuisine. The company works with restaurants ranging from local, independent operations like No Mas! Cantina to large-scale chains like Moe’s Southwest Grill.
“The number of Mexican restaurants that joined ezCater increased 20 percent from 2022 to 2023,” says Michelle Smart, chief customer care officer at ezCater.
Voirin says catering represents approximately 13 percent of No Mas! Cantina’s business, and 90 percent of their catering orders have been placed through ezCater.
How It Works
With ezCater, participating restaurants get orders two ways: through ezCater’s own marketplace, which is promoted to workplaces; and through the restaurant’s own website, if they set up ezCater’s online ordering system, ezOrdering. The orders, which come from corporate clients and other organizations, are generally larger than the restaurants would normally get.
Foodee works similarly. Restaurants get their own page on food.ee, which is promoted to potential corporate catering customers, and restaurants can link to that page from their own website. The orders are large – the minimums in most cases are $100. Orders are placed at least 21 hours in advance, and the restaurant labels the order with special Foodee labels.
Both platforms take a commission from each order. The commissions start at 15 percent but go up with various fees and optional marketing services.
Voirin of No Mas! says her restaurant pays 20 percent fees to ezCater. “We do all our own deliveries and charge a delivery fee to pay our drivers. There are additional marketing fees that you can pay but we don't pay for additional marketing."
Extra Sales
Smart says taking orders through ezCater pays off for the restaurants.
“It is worthwhile to restaurants because the orders we send them are large and profitable: the average value of an ezCater order is over $400 and restaurants tell us that a lot of orders are incremental,” Smart says. “Not only that, we also help our restaurant partners with marketing support and strategic guidance to help them grow their catering business.”
ezCater also helps restaurants with delivery, if that’s needed. Smart says most restaurants handle delivery themselves, but for those who can't or need extra capacity, ezCater offers ezDispatch, a service that connects them with local, reliable delivery partners. Approximately 25 percent of ezCater orders are handled through ezDispatch, Smart says.
For Voirin, ezCater has made it easier to tap into the catering market, which continues to rapidly grow as more workers return to the office.
“Orders come in all times of the day automatically and it helps us cut down on the number of man hours we need in order to process each catering,” Voirin says.
Helps Boost Visibility
Apart from the financial benefits, participating restaurants gain valuable brand exposure by being on Foodee’s or ezCater’s marketplace.
“They are exposed to a customer segment—workplaces—they often can’t reach by themselves,” Smart says. “ezCater helps feed all types of workplaces nationwide, including offices, warehouses, hospitals, colleges and universities, and even sports teams. Some of our customers include HelloFresh, SeatGeek, Johns Hopkins University, and FedEx.”
Restaurants can further boost their visibility within the ezCater marketplace by taking part in ezCater's Reliability Rockstar program, an earned status that highlights the most reliable restaurants on their platform.
Voirin confirms that ezCater acts as a great marketing arm to reach catering buyers: “Partnering with ezCater definitely gets us in front of clients who use catering. It has helped us grow our catering department from doing 1-2 caterings a month to up to 14 in a day.”
Becoming a Partner
Both platforms are adding new restaurants.
“We are always looking to expand our network of restaurant partners,” Smart says of ezCater.
Restaurants must meet a few requirements before they can work with ezCater.
“[They] must have a catering menu, the operational capacity to handle large catering orders, and meet our reliability standards,” says Smart. “Reliability is paramount for our business customers, who count on their food to be delivered on-time and as-ordered.”
Foodee and ezCater make recommendations for getting more orders from workplaces.
Foodee, for example, suggests that restaurants choose their top four or five menu items to be featured on their Foodee page, and that each of them travel well and do not spill or get soggy. They also recommend offering gluten-free and vegetarian options.
ezCater recommends that restaurants on its platform include both tray catering and individual menu items: one third of ezCater’s customers require individual packaging with their orders. They also suggest diet-friendly items and desserts – one in five orders includes a dessert.
“The most successful ezCater restaurants are reliable, have well-designed catering menus, manage their operations efficiently, and of course: they have delicious food!” Smart says.
Interested in pursuing these options? Learn more about working with Foodee by clicking here and with ezCater by clicking here.
Paola Ortega is a regular contributor to el Restaurante.
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