Five Leading Cleveland Restaurants Switch to EVEVE as their new Restaurant Reservation System Supplier
Five of Cleveland's most popular and acclaimed restaurants, including Flying Fig, Tomo, Sarita, Lure and Square have recently switched to EVEVE reservation systems in Cleveland, the company's sixth US market. The article explores Cleveland's fine dining renaissance, and considers why restaurants are now choosing EVEVE for online reservations.
Cleveland is one of America's great historic cities and has undergone a fine dining revolution in recent years. Cleveland is enjoying its moment as one of the country's most exciting and innovative food scenes, and the national press have been gushing in their praise including accolades from Food & Wine, Esquire and Gourmet. Michael Symon was something of a catalyst, winning the Iron Chef award, and the Pièce De Résistance was Jonathon Sawyer winning the James Beard Award 2015 for Best Chef Great Lakes, with his iconic Cleveland restaurants Greenhouse Tavern, Trentina and Noodlecat.
As well as challenging nationally, Cleveland is the pre-eminent regional powerhouse for fine dining, and boasts over 1,700 restaurants altogether in the metropolitan area. Cleveland's relatively low population density means that people largely need to travel to dine out in restaurants, and this coupled with intense winters means that reservations are very popular amongst Cleveland's dining public. Perhaps as many as 400 Cleveland restaurants accept reservations in general, in response to this public need.
Reserving a table online is useful for both guest and restaurant. For the guest, online bookings allow convenience, as they can book a reservation 24/7, regardless of whether there is a skilled telephonist in the restaurant. The guest experience is enhanced when they receive an instant confirmation of the booking by email, with all of the reservation details, giving them assurance of their plans. For the restaurant, online booking software offer a conduit for bookings 24/7 at minimal cost. With EVEVE technology, each online booking is structured as if the restaurateur had placed it personally, and adopting the “EVEVE Method” of managing reservations has been proven to drive profitability.
In terms of restaurants accepting online reservations, however, a relatively small number of Cleveland restaurants deploy a live reservation system. Currently just 160 locations in the greater Cleveland metropolitan area deploy live restaurant booking software, which is significantly less than metropolitan areas with similar populations, such as Minneapolis (approximately 350); Denver (400); and Seattle (400). There are a multitude of reasons why one city may offer more choice of live reservation taking restaurants than another, but one which really stood out in Cleveland, until recently, was a severe was a lack of choice.
The issue facing Cleveland restaurants (and indeed their compatriots throughout Ohio) was that if they wanted to deploy live reservation software, they were served by just one monopoly restaurant reservation supplier, Opentable, which enjoyed market share in the bookings market of over 99%. Opentable is well known to provide a quality reservation product and professional service, but like any monopoly when there is only one supplier, prices were inevitably uncompetitive.
In June 2015 the situation changed profoundly when the Flying Fig became the first restaurant in Cleveland to join EVEVE. The highly regarded Flying Fig was soon joined by Tomo in downtown Cleveland, serving some of Ohio's best Sushi and Hibachi. West of Cleveland, Lakewood's most exciting new opening of 2015, Sarita, opened with EVEVE. Acclaimed chef Jaret Havanchak was next to reposition with EVEVE, with his acclaimed Sushi and Seafood restaurant, Lure in Willoughby. Most recently, Chardon's finest restaurant, Square Bistro, has begun to accept online reservations with EVEVE.
Why are restaurants rushing to join EVEVE? There are four core reasons:
- First is that EVEVE has proven across 300 case studies that it can match any restaurant reservation supplier for online diner volume, so restaurants can be confident that their business will not skip a beat by switching.
- Second, EVEVE's TELOS reservation system is amongst the best around, and is peerless at maximising a restaurant's guest volume, without compromising the diner experience.
- Third, EVEVE provides local Cleveland based installation, training and account management, and is one of only two suppliers to support Ohio on the ground.
- Finally, EVEVE provides dramatic cost savings to its new partner restaurants in Ohio.
EVEVE's combination of cutting edge bookings technology and dedicated account management combine to drive online reservations like no other supplier. In addition, many restaurants are attracted to the fact that EVEVE is a white label solution, rather than a middleman or broker. EVEVE does not promote itself to the restaurant's diners nor does it promote other restaurants to their own user base. Indeed, many diners use EVEVE software without even knowing it.
EVEVE is very enthusiastic about the Cleveland and wider Ohio markets, and has made a strategic investment in the city, committing a locally based representative, David Hickey. David brings a wealth of restaurant experience having worked for the nationally known Great Lakes Brewing Company for a number of years. Timothy Ryan, EVEVE's CEO added “Cleveland is one of America's great historic cities, and like other Midwestern cities has been incredibly welcoming to EVEVE. We hope our new position here will help reduce reservations costs for hard working restaurateurs and their businesses.”
Beyond Cleveland, EVEVE now supports one of Columbus' most exciting new restaurants, Copious, and provides onsite training and installation throughout Ohio, including Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron. EVEVE also supports Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania for onsite installations. Eastern Pennsylvania is handled by our Philadelphia team.
For restaurateurs looking to know more about how EVEVE can help drive their restaurant business, EVEVE offers onsite consultations throughout Ohio. These allow us to understand the particular restaurant business better, and showcase what reservations technology is most appropriate to build out and expand the restaurant and drive profitability. Whether you need the finest reservation software in Cleveland, just want to accept online bookings in Cincinnati, or need the very best table management software in Columbus, EVEVE have a solution which can help your restaurant!
David Hickey
Ohio Sales Representative
Cell: 440 263 6543
Office: 713 701 5383