The Hub

Lunchbox unveiled an updated logo, visual identity and website.

Lunchbox is buying small online restaurant marketplace Spread as it looks to build a more restaurant-friendly version of giant aggregators like DoorDash and Grubhub.

C3’s newest culinary community now comes with an app focused on generating first-party orders. The operator of more than 200 ghost kitchens and brick-and-mortar restaurants partnered with Lunchbox to create the Citizens Go mobile app, allowing customers to order food for pickup directly from their ghost kitchen, bypassing third-party marketplaces.

In recent years, New York City restaurants have complained about the fees that third-party ordering and delivery platforms, such as Grubhub and DoorDash, charge them. Those concerns have only escalated during the pandemic, when dining spots have become more dependent on meals to go for their financial survival.

If there's one thing that makes Nabeel Alamgir fume, it's watching eateries pay exorbitant fees to tech companies. In an industry known for razor-thin margins even in ideal circumstances, third-party platforms like GrubHub and Uber Eats can charge commissions of 15 to 30 percent per transaction.

Former NYC restaurant operators have launched a website to drive guests to restaurants only offering first-party ordering.

With many restaurants forced to rely entirely on the delivery and takeout business during the pandemic, there’s been a lot of discussion about whether the industry can survive while paying hefty fees to delivery platforms like Uber Eats and Grubhub.

Clean Juice, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based organic juice bar franchise, has launched a branded mobile app under a partnership with Lunchbox, an omnichannel platform for New York-based restaurants.