Located just steps from Tropicana Field in downtown St. Petersburg, Foodie Labs is the city’s beating heart for culinary innovation, purpose-built to break down barriers to entrepreneurship in the food industry. This unique shared kitchen concept acts as a startup ecosystem, guiding food entrepreneurs from pop-ups to brick-and-mortar success.
Overview
Located just steps from Tropicana Field in downtown St. Petersburg, Foodie Labs is the city’s beating heart for culinary innovation, purpose-built to break down barriers to entrepreneurship in the food industry. This unique shared kitchen concept acts as a startup ecosystem, guiding food entrepreneurs from pop-ups to brick-and-mortar success.
Since opening in December 2023, Foodie Labs has empowered over 50 culinary visionaries, providing them with the tools, resources, and mentorship to thrive. Offering everything from kitchen rentals and business incubation to pop-up cafes, dynamic event spaces, and a virtual food hall featuring eight distinct culinary concepts, Foodie Labs is a true launchpad for dreams—whether it’s scaling a food truck empire, mastering catering, or opening a restaurant.
Situation
Running a multi-vendor food hall with eight distinct culinary concepts presented a unique challenge for Foodie Labs: delivering a seamless ordering experience for guests across all vendors. Customers needed the ability to explore multiple menus, place orders, and pay on a single tab—a feature critical to streamlining the food hall experience.
Unfortunately, other POS providers fell short. Foodie Labs initially tested a competing system but quickly discovered its limitations. The platform lacked the robust functionality required for multi-vendor operations, leaving the team juggling clunky workarounds that frustrated both staff and guests. Additionally, the absence of automated payouts meant manual remittance to vendors, creating unnecessary complexity.
“"After exploring a dozen different providers, GoTab stood out as the only one with a truly seamless multi-vendor ordering system”
James Pachence, Owner, Foodie Labs
Solution
With GoTab’s innovative Self-Ordering Kiosk and mobile ordering solutions, guests can effortlessly browse menus from multiple vendors, order from different concepts on the same tab, and even split checks between friends, all while seamlessly routing to each Kitchen Display System. Whether it’s post-game crowds from Tropicana Field or large groups exploring global flavors, GoTab makes handling group dining a breeze.
GoTab’s impact goes beyond the front-of-house experience. Its automatic tenant payouts streamline backend operations, allowing Foodie Labs’ vendors to focus on what they do best: creating amazing food. The system also empowers vendors to host events, from pop-ups to private gatherings, in Foodie Labs’ dedicated event spaces—enhancing tenant visibility and unlocking new revenue streams.
With GoTab, Foodie Labs seamlessly balances operational efficiency with an elevated guest experience, creating a thriving ecosystem for culinary entrepreneurs and food lovers alike.
Seamless Multi-Vendor Ordering GoTab’s Self-Ordering Kiosk and mobile ordering solutions let guests browse menus from all eight culinary concepts.
Automated Tenant Payouts Forget manual remittances! GoTab’s automatic tenant payouts make backend operations smooth as butter.
Boosted Revenue Opportunities With GoTab’s system, vendors can expand their reach through pop-up events, private gatherings, and increased visibility in Foodie Labs’ vibrant event spaces.
Situated “in the heart of it all, yet tranquil enough to make you feel away from it all too,” The Limelight Hotel Snowmass offers 99 hotel rooms and 11 residences, as well as footsteps-to-gondola access in winter and summer — right in the middle of Snowmass Base Village.
The Situation
Especially over the last few years, the Limelight Hotels IT team had witnessed a significant shift to contactless technology in the hospitality industry. After evaluating friction points in the guest journey, aligning with modern technology platforms in their restaurant was determined to be an effective way to offer elevated contactless dining experiences to their guests while also evolving their technology platforms to continue to support long-term company goals. Limelight Hotel partnered with GoTab to provide an enhanced on-demand dining experience on par with the brand’s reputation for exceptional guest service.
The Solution
Reducing Staff Touch Points Without Sacrificing Guest Experience
Guests are now able to begin a tab from their room or the property’s restaurant by scanning a QR code, texting a link to friends or family members on the ski slope to add in their orders, then meeting up together at the patio or lodge to enjoy their meal and après ski festivities without interruption. By streamlining tasks like inputting orders and processing payments, this eliminates friction for hotel staff and allows them to focus on delivering renowned guest service for a memorable experience. Since partnering with GoTab, Limelight Snowmass has consistently seen higher check averages and sales.
“We found the Point of Sale platforms we were looking at offered the guest and staff limited opportunities to further reduce touch points or improve the traditional restaurant experience. The GoTab platform enabled the guest to take an active role over the flow of their experience while simultaneously reducing touch points and further streamlining restaurant operations.”Nick Giglio, Manager of Hotel IT Operations, The Little Nell Hotel Group
According to the Limelight Hotels team, some of the other platforms that were evaluated were either missing some of the pieces they were looking for, had weak customer support models, or had little willingness to develop integrations to existing hotel platforms already in place. To that end, GoTab integrated with cloud-based platform, Infor. Together, GoTab and Infor are providing dynamic solutions to support central, efficient service across hotel amenities and deliver exceptional guest experiences.
“Previously, guests would call down to the restaurant to begin an order from their room or while they were out enjoying the ski slopes. Using GoTab, guests can now place orders from anywhere on the resort, giving them the on-demand service they want without interrupting their day. GoTab empowers us to give control to the guest, reducing touch points and streamlining overall restaurant operations, making Limelight Hotel the resort of choice for Snowmass.”Nick Giglio, Manager of Hotel IT Operations, The Little Nell Hotel Group
Since introducing GoTab, The Limelight Hotel has seen a consistent level of upsells and items sold per check resulting in additional revenue capture. They have been able to maintain service levels in their restaurants during periods when there was reduced staffing available without significantly diminishing the guest experience.
The Benefits
Eliminate Phone Orders – Take Orders from the Slopes. Guests can start a tab from their room or on the mountain without interrupting the flow of their day.
Future-Proofed Technologies – Delivering elevated contactless ordering via integration with the Infor hotel management platform.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
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