About Tiny Tapp & Cafe
Nestled on Chicago’s scenic Riverwalk, Tiny Tapp & Cafe is a popular spot for exquisite cocktails, gourmet sandwiches, and a wide variety of beers and wines. The location’s 25 riverfront tables make Tiny Tapp a coveted social gathering spot among both Chicagoans and tourists for drinks, live music, and get-togethers from early spring to late fall.
The Challenge: Upgrading A Traditional Restaurant Service Model
Tiny Tapp’s pre-pandemic service model mirrored that of many dine-in restaurants and bars. However, to optimize daily seat turnover rates and combat staffing shortage post-pandemic, Tiny Tapp needed to shake the pain points of a traditional restaurant service model:
- Understaffing / overstaffing leading to wasteful resource allocation or customer dissatisfaction
- Long wait time to wave down a server to order-taking or closing a tab
- Manual and troublesome process for collecting payments and tips
Before reopening in 2021, Tiny Tapp identified FanFood as the ideal contactless, self-service ordering platform that will fasten the service speed, increase the revenue, reduce the staffing need and improve the overall guest experience.

Scan a table-specific QR code to pull up the ordering platform in your web browser.

Add items to the cart, adjust quantities, and add special instructions if necessary.

Directly pay to send the order to the kitchen. Your order will arrive in no time!
Success in a Snapshot

+81%
Average increase in weekly mobile orders. Easier ordering yield 2X more frequent purchases.

10 minutes
Time it takes to get your order even when it’s crowded. The streamlined system drastically speeds up kitchen and runner operations.

-75%
Reduced staffing needs by cutting down 4 servers to 1 food runner per 25 tables.

+6%
Larger average order size week over week. Happy customers tend to purchase more!
Boosting Order Volume and Frequency
Through the first six weeks of offering FanFood, Tiny Tapp’s average number of weekly orders grew by +81% week over week. Upon expanding the service to all 25 tables by week two, the weekly order volume jumped immediately by +350%.
From Four Servers to One Runner
Before FanFood, Tiny Tapp needed at least four servers to tend to 25 tables. With FanFood, Tiny Tapp only needs one server to “run” orders for those tables, since the staff no longer needs to take orders or collect card payments anymore. Guests can order, tip and pay at their own pace in this self-service mobile ordering model powered by FanFood.
Maximizing Revenue With Higher Basket Size
As Tiny Tapp entered the summer, the cafe gradually expanded their FanFood menu beyond just drinks. By adding a full food menu, Tiny Tapp’s average order value through FanFood increased by over +34%.
Leveraging Customer Data to Re-market
FanFood makes it possible for locations like Tiny Tapp to re-market to their customer through targeted email, social and SMS marketing. With robust customer purchase and contact data, restaurants can personalize and re-market to their customer base to boost retention, as well as offer targeted digital promo codes to incentivize repeat visits. FanFood’s easy-to-use reporting dashboard also makes it extremely easy to benchmark against key metrics and track success. Possible customer segmentation include order history, time of order, average spend etc. The robust data collection capabilities makes it extremely flexible for restaurants to customize their own marketing programs that best hit their goals.
Want to Bring FanFood to Your Venue?