When I stopped looking at DoorDash like the enemy, it opened up the doors.
Erik GöransonOwner
- Marketplace
- Atlanta, GA
- Fast Casual
- Krog Street Market
"I didn't come from restaurants — I came from e-commerce and ticketing, where technology is the whole game. I built Recess the same way: tech-driven from day one. So it wasn't ignorance that kept me off DoorDash. I knew exactly what it was. I just thought it was working against me."
$270K Additional annual revenue
Revenue they wouldn't have seen without delivery
AN EXTRA 10,000 ORDERS ANNUALLY
Orders added on top of the regular business
"I built this place around technology. DoorDash still scared me."
The kitchen chaos problem
"Recess runs on efficiency. A wave of delivery orders hitting the kitchen at the wrong moment wasn't a theoretical risk — it was a real operational threat to everything we'd built around speed and consistency."
The brand control problem
"Fast casual lives and dies on the experience. Once an order leaves your kitchen in a delivery bag, you lose control of what happens next. For a concept built on quality and consistency, that gap felt like a brand risk we couldn't take."
The margin problem
"Platform fees on top of already tight fast casual margins meant the math was hard to make work. Every time I looked at it, I kept coming back to the same question: what are we actually keeping?"
— Erik Göranson, Owner, Recess at Krog Street Market"With DoorDash as a partner, we can future-proof our business."
"Three tools. One new revenue stream. Zero new locations."
KITCHEN MANAGER
"We put ourselves in control of the kitchen: Kitchen chaos was the objection. Kitchen Manager was the answer. We use it to throttle and control order flow so delivery never overwhelms the line. Delivery didn't add chaos — it added a lever we never had before."
How they used it:
Throttle incoming delivery orders during peak service periods
Maintain kitchen efficiency without adding staff or changing operations
ADS & PROMOS
"We treated the fee-trail as a marketing budget: When we joined, DoorDash offered a 90-day fee-free deal. Instead of pocketing the savings, we reinvested directly into Sponsored Listings and advertising — putting Recess in front of customers who were already searching for us on the platform."
How they used it:
Ran Sponsored Listings to reach high-intent customers from day one
Used the fee-free window to fund early advertising without additional spend
LOYALTY + RETARGETING
"We turned first-time DoorDash customers into repeat ones: Getting a new customer is one thing. Keeping them is another. DoorDash's loyalty program and text and email retargeting tools gave us the tools to bring customers back — on our terms, through our own channels."
How they used it:
Established a loyalty program to reward repeat orders
Text and email retargeting to re-engage customers after their first order
"Honestly? Here's what surprised us most."
| What they thought would happen | What actually happened |
|---|---|
What they thought would happenDoorDash would overwhelm the kitchen."Delivery orders on top of walk-up traffic felt like an operational risk we couldn't absorb." | What actually happenedThey learned to run the kitchen on their terms."Kitchen Manager gave us the ability to control order flow in real time — delivery added a lever, not chaos." |
What they thought would happenThey'd lose control of the brand."A concept built on quality and consistency can't afford to have the experience fall apart in a delivery bag." | What actually happenedThe product held up."We rebuilt operations around delivery efficiency — and the brand traveled with it." |
What they thought would happenThe margins wouldn't work."Platform fees on tight fast casual margins looked like a losing equation every time I ran the numbers." | What actually happened$270K in net-new revenue changed the math."10,000 incremental orders at a $27 average check — from customers who weren't coming in before." |
"Recess is ever evolving. DoorDash fits into that."
$270K in additional annual revenue — Net-new, from customers who weren't walking into Krog Street Market
10,000 incremental orders per year — A new customer channel, built on top of existing operations
Future-proofed — DoorDash is now part of how Recess runs, not an addition to it
— Erik Göranson, Owner, Recess · Atlanta, GA"With DoorDash as a partner, we can future-proof our business. Recess is ever evolving, not just one thing — and DoorDash fits into that."
Incremental orders per year
Average check size
Additional annual revenue
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