"Friday is packed and Tuesday is empty. The delivery apps take a huge cut, my menu online is out of date, and I don't have time to post on Instagram between prep and close."
Running a restaurant is a seven-day job with thin margins. Most owners in Ottawa don't need a marketing department. They need a few things set up properly once, so the right people find them, order direct and come back.
Where the money leaks
- Delivery app commissions. Every order through an app costs you a large share of the bill, and the app keeps the customer's details, not you.
- An out-of-date Google listing. Wrong holiday hours, an old menu photo, no reservation link. Google Maps is where most diners in the ByWard Market or on Elgin Street decide where to eat.
- A website that doesn't work on a phone. A PDF menu that takes forever to load on a cell signal loses the person standing outside your door.
- No way to reach regulars. You have hundreds of loyal customers and no way to tell them about the new patio or Thursday's special.
- Catering enquiries that sit. A corporate lunch order for 60 arrives by email at 9 a.m. and gets answered at 4 p.m., by which time they've booked someone else.
Ottawa's food calendar
This city eats by the season. Patio season runs from May to September. Winterlude, the Tulip Festival, Bluesfest and Canada Day bring crowds downtown. Game nights in Kanata and at Lansdowne in the Glebe fill nearby bars. Government office lunches and holiday parties make November and December the big catering months, and summer weddings keep caterers busy. January and February are slow for almost everyone.
Plan around it: push catering in October, patio and events in April, and a "beat the winter blues" offer to your regulars in January.
What good looks like
- A Google Business Profile with correct hours, current menu, real food photos, a reservation or order link and new reviews every week.
- A fast, mobile-friendly website with your menu as text, not a PDF, so Google and AI assistants can read what you serve, including halal, vegan or gluten-free options.
- Online ordering on your own site, so regulars order direct and you keep their contact details.
- A simple list of regulars, built with consent, that gets one useful message a month: a new dish, an event, a slow-night offer. Always CASL-friendly with an easy unsubscribe.
- A catering page and form that gets an instant reply and a quote within hours.
- Social posts made from the photos you already take in the kitchen.
How 1 Club does it
We built the website and brand for Shawarma 961, so we know how food businesses actually get found: photos, menus and a fast phone experience matter more than anything fancy.
- Free call to learn your menu, your busy and slow times, how you take orders now and what you want more of: dine-in, takeout, catering or retail.
- Fixed-quote plan with only what will move the needle.
- Brand and website. Logo and look if you need them, then a fast site with a text menu, ordering links and a catering page. Bilingual menus for Gatineau and Orléans customers if you want them.
- Google and reviews. We clean up your listing, add photos, set holiday hours ahead of time and set up a simple way to ask for reviews and reply to them.
- Direct ordering and your own list. We connect online ordering and build a customer list with proper consent, so you own the relationship.
- Social without the stress. A month of posts planned from your photos. Our social posts prompt shows how.
- Local ads when it makes sense, for a new location, a patio opening or catering season, with weekly numbers on what they bring in.
We can also handle the back end: reliable guest and staff Wi-Fi kept separate from your point-of-sale network, and secure accounts for your team.
Three ways to start
- Free. Write your Google Business Profile description and weekly posts with our prompt, and use the Facebook and Instagram ad copy prompt for your next special.
- Done with you. We set up your listing, ordering and customer list, then show you a 15-minute weekly routine to keep it going.
- Done for you. We run your website, Google profile, social and promotions, and send you a weekly summary of orders and reservations.