Recess is a fast-casual restaurant in Atlanta’s Krog Street Market, built around speed and consistency. Its owner worried that delivery would swamp the line, weaken the brand and squeeze thin margins. According to DoorDash, delivery now adds $270K in annual revenue and 10,000 incremental orders a year.
The playbook
- Throttle orders at peak. Recess uses Kitchen Manager to limit incoming delivery orders during busy service periods, so app orders never overwhelm the line. It kept the kitchen efficient without adding staff or changing how it runs.
- Turn the fee-free launch into an ad budget. DoorDash offered a 90-day fee-free period when Recess joined. Instead of banking the savings, owner Erik Göranson put them into Sponsored Listings to reach customers already searching on the platform, funding early advertising with no extra spend.
- Retain first-time customers. Recess set up a loyalty program to reward repeat orders and used text and email retargeting to re-engage customers after their first purchase, bringing them back through its own channels.
- Design operations for delivery. The team reworked its operations around delivery efficiency so the product held up in transit and the brand experience traveled with the order.
Results
- $270K in additional annual revenue, according to DoorDash.
- 10,000 incremental orders per year.
- A $27 average check on those orders.
Göranson’s takeaway: “Delivery didn’t add chaos — it added a lever we never had before.”
How to apply it
- Set delivery order limits for your peak windows before launch, so the kitchen stays in control from day one.
- If a platform offers an introductory discount, consider reinvesting it in visibility while you are new on the app.
- Plan how you will bring first-time delivery customers back, with loyalty or messaging, rather than relying on them to return on their own.
Source: DoorDash for Merchants success story. This Operator Story is partner content from DoorDash, a Whatnow Partner.