Tenuta’s Ristorante

For two decades, the Tenuta family has satisfied their Kenosha, WI, dine-in, takeout, and delivery customers with consistently great-tasting Italian food.

While the restaurant has traditionally taken orders via telephone, last fall, owner Dan Tenuta began offering mobile ordering to better appeal to potential customers who prefer to communicate electronically.

After researching his various options, Dan chose a smartphone application (“app”) provider which offered “commission-free” mobile ordering. In turn, the provider customized an off-the-shelf restaurant delivery app with Dan’s logo and menu.

Because some of Dan’s online customers might prefer ordering via their computer, Dan also had the provider build a separate “Order Now” webpage attached to the restaurant’s website.

After downloading his app onto their smartphone, Dan’s online customers can scan through each section of his menu, from appetizers to soup and salads, entrées, pizza, desserts, beverages, etc. To add eye appeal (and tempt hungry mobile customers to add more items to their order), Dan added digital photographs he has taken of many of his individual dishes!

While Dan’s app requires delivery orders to be prepaid via credit card, he decided to give customers wanting to pick up their order at the restaurant the option to prepay online or to pay cash at the restaurant. Carry-out guests opting to prepay like the grab-and-go convenience of picking up their order by just saying their name.

Either way, online credit card sales are automatically routed directly through Dan’s bank, just like in-house credit transactions.

Once Dan’s mobile customers verify and pay for their order, the app company’s computer instantly transmits the information to a dedicated “ticket printer” located in the restaurant’s kitchen. The order is also viewable on an iPad mounted next to the register. With a password, the iPad can also be used to update Dan’s online menu or a customer’s order after it has been received.

To prevent inbound orders from “falling through the cracks,” the app company also places an automated phone call to alert Dan’s staff whenever a new mobile order has been sent to the dedicated printer and iPad.

Whenever a new mobile order appears in the kitchen printer, Dan’s staff just adds it to the existing queue of in-house orders awaiting preparation. In other words, besides arriving in a new way, it is just another order from a valued customer waiting to be filled.

Dan’s customers who have embraced Tenuta’s new smartphone app tend to be those who are “busy and on the go.” While Tenuta’s has found another way to accommodate and attract new customers, one thing that hasn’t changed is their dedication to serving consistently great-tasting food!