White Castle adds in-app delivery with Uber Direct

Menu items are available for the same price as dine-in, and customers pay a flat fee of $4.99 for delivery. 

By Julie Littman • Sept. 21, 2023

Uber adding AI tool and ‘virtual sales aisle’ to its app

The planned updates to Uber Eats also include the addition of SNAP and healthcare benefits payments starting next year.

By Catherine Douglas Moran • Sept. 20, 2023

Panera loyalty members can pre-program meals on app, order with swipe

The order option is the chain’s latest tech enhancement launched this year, including Amazon Alexa ordering and an Amazon One palm scanner test. 

By Julie Littman • Sept. 20, 2023

Kitchen United promotes Atul Sood to CEO

The ghost kitchen company remains focused on building a sustainable business model for decades to come, Sood said. 

By Aneurin Canham-Clyne • Sept. 18, 2023

Why Donatos sees opportunity in automated vending machines

The pizza chain’s forthcoming prototype is just one example of how this technology can be an innovative grab-and-go option, but challenges over the perception of quality persist.

By Danielle McLean • Sept. 18, 2023

Papa Johns, Little Caesars take to the skies with Flytrex autonomous delivery

Chains participating in the rollout will send orders to drones via a dropdown wire.

By Julie Littman • Sept. 14, 2023

Chick-fil-A tests robot servers

A few of the chain's restaurants are using bots to deliver food to tables while staff still refill beverages and clean tables.

By Julie Littman • Sept. 8, 2023

Casey’s expands automated ordering technology

The system, which the retailer has been testing for the past year, answers incoming phone calls, processes new orders and connects to Casey’s loyalty platform.

By Brett Dworski • Sept. 8, 2023

Grubhub enhances customer insights with order frequency data

Operators can view how often certain customers order from them and take action like running promotions to bolster return visits. 

By Julie Littman • Sept. 7, 2023

Whataburger opens first off-premise-only unit

Whataburger's digital kitchen, which debuted in Austin this week, features external ordering kiosks, pickup lockers and a mobile pickup lane.

By Aneurin Canham-Clyne • Updated Sept. 7, 2023

Toast CEO resigns

Chris Comparato, who has been CEO since 2015, told the restaurant payments company’s board on Friday that he’ll exit his leadership posts on Jan. 1.

By Caitlin Mullen • Sept. 5, 2023

Grubhub, Amazon team up on automated campus c-store

Students at the Loyola University Maryland store will scan a QR code in the food delivery app to enter the frictionless shop and pay for items.

By Jessica Loder • Aug. 31, 2023

DoorDash adds automated phone ordering for restaurants

The system will answer all phone calls, offer recommendations for customers to add to orders and process orders through the restaurants’ point of sales. 

By Julie Littman • Aug. 28, 2023

Why AI is a key ingredient for success at Primanti Bros.

The chain is simplifying and speeding up office processes by outsourcing tasks like sales and labor reporting to robotic process automation bots, writes Caitlin Stritmatter, director of financial planning and analysis at Primanti Bros.

By Caitlin Stritmatter • Aug. 21, 2023

Checkers and Rally’s deploys Spanish-speaking drive-thru AI

The restaurant chain has installed Hi Auto’s bilingual technology at 350 restaurants after a two-month beta test at five units. 

By Julie Littman • Aug. 18, 2023

Toast CEO: Lessons learned from fee flub

Chris Comparato said on an earnings call the company will be more thoughtful about how it increases prices after facing backlash over a 99-cent customer-paid fee it later scrapped.

By Caitlin Mullen • Aug. 10, 2023

Grubhub, Sonesta bring delivery to 120 hotels

Customers at Sonesta’s Extended Stay and Simply Suites locations can order through the delivery platform’s app or through QR codes displayed by the hotel.

By Aneurin Canham-Clyne • Aug. 10, 2023

Friday Feedback: How are you thinking about automation?

Restaurant Dive wants to know if you are investing in technology like kitchen robotics or voice artificial intelligence at the drive-thru. 

By Emma Liem Beckett • Aug. 4, 2023

Uber Eats expands in-seat delivery to Oracle Park in San Francisco

After seeing significant demand for in-seat ordering at Yankee Stadium, Uber Eats has brought the feature to the San Francisco Giants’ home turf. 

By Julie Littman • Aug. 3, 2023

Shift4 shrinks workforce

The payments company cut 150 employees in the second quarter, executives said Thursday during an earnings conference call.

By Caitlin Mullen • Aug. 3, 2023

MrBeast sues Virtual Dining Concepts, aims to kill his virtual brand

Beast Investments claims VDC’s rapid expansion of MrBeast Burger resulted in poor customer experiences and food quality, but VDC alleges the complaint is “riddled with false statements.”

By Emma Liem Beckett • Aug. 2, 2023

White Castle to roll out voice AI to over 100 drive-thrus

The chain is automating its drive-thru order taking in partnership with SoundHound, which claims its tech can process orders within 60 seconds.

By Julie Littman • Aug. 2, 2023

Sweetgreen will extend loyalty program to its dining rooms

The value of offering in-store rewards will be “super accretive,” CEO Jonathan Neman said, because most of the chain’s customers are first acquired through its restaurants.

By Emma Liem Beckett • Aug. 1, 2023

Readers Respond: Virtual brand sales are too low to justify complexity

Across the board, Restaurant Dive readers didn’t expect virtual brands to grow this year, and some are considering cutting them to improve operations.

By Aneurin Canham-Clyne • July 31, 2023

Chipotle wants to improve speed with grills, robots

The fast casual chain is trialing automated kitchen equipment that can trim prep time in half, in some cases, as it looks to improve accuracy and throughput.

By Julie Littman • July 28, 2023