New Member Feature: Porter

Porter is a platform that facilitates food ordering for guests visiting restaurants, food halls, hotels and stadiums.  The key differentiator for our company is the technology we’ve built to let customers order from multiple vendors at the same time with one simple transaction.  

Our company was born from observation that people were spending too much time in line at our three local food halls, Tap and Growler, Beergarden and PublicHouse.  Friends weren’t hanging out with the people they came with, and families went in five directions to satisfy every palate.  It was just inefficient!  We also saw lost business opportunity: what if our patrons could order more food and beverages from their table, without having to stand in line again?

We created the Porter mobile ordering platform (with the name inspired both by the dark brown ale and the title of the service person hired to carry things in hospitality settings) to improve the experience of dining out for everyone. It helps eliminate lines, simplifies ordering, and streamlines payment and makes it contactless. Plus, our system is flexible so vendors can be on any point-of-sale system. 

We officially launched at Tap and Growler, Beergarden, and PublicHouse in January 2020 and we had pubs and restaurants ready to jump on board. The COVID shutdown provided both challenges and opportunities — all of the sudden there was a huge need to expand contactless ordering!  Summer was busy as we brought more vendors on board and tried new applications for our technology. One success was leveraging Porter for food and beverage service at the new drive-in movies at Lane Events Center.   

There is a huge opportunity for Porter as we move into 2021 since consumers will be avoiding lines for the foreseeable future. What will concessions look like at sporting events, for example?  And with the disruptions in the hospitality industry, can we provide a better way to offer room service?  Finally, our core business —  indoor food halls and outdoor food truck “pods” — holds great possibilities for local restaurants to bounce back bigger than ever.  We are very excited about 2021!