ROANOKE, Va. – Leonore Restaurant in Roanoke is celebrating its 8th anniversary in June. Owner Miguel Liendo is happy he can still serve up customer favorites during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Leonore also launched a free food delivery service to help out employees who were laid off. Liendo also gives the employees running deliveries a commission.
“Because I cannot give the regular salary to the servers, now they can do the delivery themselves with their own car and get the tips and keep moving and make some money," said Liendo.
Cabo Fish Taco’s Regional Manager Richard Barrar said the restaurant launched its own delivery service, as well.
Typically, those restaurants rely on third-party food delivery services, like Grubhub, Uber Eats or DoorDash. However, those services usually charge about a 30% commission fee, which can eat away restaurants’ profits.
“They do provide some benefits. They give us marketing. They give us exposure," said Barrar. “But restaurant margins are super thin.”
Cities around the country, including D.C., Boston, Chicago, and New York City are currently looking at or have already passed legislation that caps those commission fees at anywhere from 5-15%.
Eric Terry, the president of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association said it’s about time Virginia does the same.
“I think that’s a good move. Hopefully, we can do something like that here in Virginia when the General Assembly comes back in session because it really is an outrageous practice to charge that much,” said Terry, who agreed that the 15% cap would work in Virginia.
10 News reached out to those third-party food delivery services and received a response from a DoorDash spokesperson that reads:
“DoorDash knows that we have a special responsibility to our community during this unprecedented time, which is why last month we began providing a robust package of an estimated $100 million in commission relief and marketing investments nationwide—including cutting commissions in half for 150,000 local restaurants throughout the United States, Canada and Australia through the end of May. We’re disappointed that, in the midst of this crisis and when food delivery is an essential service, elected officials are choosing to impose arbitrary caps without an understanding of the services restaurants receive in exchange for the amount they have agreed to pay. Unfortunately, caps will eventually make our services less affordable and accessible to customers, reducing sales for restaurants and earnings for Dashers at a time when access to work is more important than ever.”
Barrar and Liendo said the fee is a price they are willing to pay to keep their doors open.
“Fortunately, the people are being supportive," Liendo said. "And with the delivery, it will keep us alive.”