This page is for people who run an independent restaurant, café or takeout spot in the East Bay. You get a website with your real menu on it, hours that are right today, and a way for guests to book a table or order from you directly. One designer builds it, then keeps it current every month.
What a restaurant’s website has to do
Most people look you up on a phone, often when they are hungry and nearby. They want four things fast: what you serve, what it costs, whether you are open, and how to get there. If they have to hunt for any of those, they go back to the map and pick the next place.
The menu is text, not a PDF
Many restaurant sites show the menu as a PDF or a photo of the printed one. On a phone that means pinching and zooming. Search engines also struggle to read words inside a picture, so a search for your best dish may never find you. We put your menu on the page as real text that reads cleanly on a small screen. When a dish or a price changes, it is an edit, not a reprint.
Hours that are right today
Nothing loses a guest faster than a locked door after the website said you were open. Holidays and private events change hours more often than people expect. On the monthly plan, you send us the change and we make it. You do not log in to anything, and you do not have to find whoever built the site.
Your Google Business Profile needs the same hours as your site. When the two disagree, guests do not know which one to trust. We set the profile up at launch to match.
Book or order in one tap
If you take reservations through Resy, OpenTable or Tock, or orders through Toast, Square, ChowNow or Clover, we connect the one you already run. You do not have to switch systems. The online booking page explains how we connect these tools for other trades too.
Delivery apps charge the restaurant a commission on each order. That makes little sense when a regular who already knows you orders through the app out of habit. A direct ordering link on your own site gives that regular a way to order from you without the app in the middle.
Photos, the address, and how to get there
Food photos help people choose, but big photo files make a page crawl on a phone. We size every photo so the page stays fast. Your address sits near the top with a link that opens the map. If you tell us about parking or the closest bus or BART stop, that goes on the page too.
What you get
- A design worked out with you. Your food, your room, your name, the way you want it to look.
- Built for phones first, and fast.
- Your menu as real text, easy to read and easy to change.
- Reservations or online ordering connected, using the tool you already have.
- A contact form for catering, large parties and event questions.
- Your Google Business Profile set up, with hours that match the site.
- Basic on-page SEO. Page titles and text that tell search engines what you serve and where.
- Hosting and the monthly care plan. The site stays online, updated and backed up, and we make your menu, hours and specials changes when you send them.
The build is a small one-time cost, priced for a small business, not an agency. The monthly plan is what keeps it right after launch. Once you are live and want more people to find you, the Get Found plan adds ongoing Google Business Profile upkeep, review requests and local pages. The small business websites page covers what every site includes. For a price, ask for a quote.
How it works
- A free call. You tell us about the place, what you serve, and what the site needs to do.
- We gather what we need. Your menu, your hours, your photos, and access to the reservation or ordering tool you run.
- We build it and you review it. You see the site before anyone else does. You tell us what is wrong, and we fix it before launch.
- It goes live, and we keep it current. On the monthly plan you send menu, hours and specials changes, and we make them.
It is one designer from start to finish. The person on the first call is the person who builds your site and makes your changes after it launches.
Build it, then keep running it: that is how we work for local businesses in other trades too. A nail studio changes its prices in one place, and we host and maintain the site. A furniture retailer has its store, hosting and ongoing work under one plan. Different trades, same idea: the person who built the site keeps it current.
When this is the wrong answer
- What you have already works. If your Google profile, Instagram and a delivery-app page already bring in all the guests you can seat, a website adds little. Keep your money.
- Your menu changes every day and nobody will send the changes. A site showing last week’s specials does more harm than no site. A short page that points to where you post the daily menu may be all you need.
- A big change is coming. If you are about to rename, move or rework the whole menu, wait until that is settled. Building twice costs you twice.
- You would rather do it yourself. If you have the time, a do-it-yourself site builder costs less. What you pay us for is not having to do it, and having someone keep it right.
Common questions
Can you work with the reservation or ordering system I already use?
In most cases, yes. Resy, OpenTable, Tock, Toast, Square, ChowNow and Clover each give a business a way to link to them from a website.
Who changes the menu or hours?
We do, on the monthly plan. Send us the change — a text or an email is fine — and we make it. You never have to log in to anything.
Will this replace the delivery apps?
No, and it does not have to. The apps can still bring you new customers, which is when their commission is worth paying. Your own site gives regulars a direct way to order, so fewer of their orders carry a commission.
What does it cost?
A small one-time build, priced for a small business, then a monthly plan. The exact numbers depend on what you need, so we quote each one. Tell us what you run now and we will give you a price in writing.
Tell us what you serve and how guests find you
Send us the name of the place, the kind of food, and a link to your menu if you have one. Tell us which reservation or ordering tool you use now, if any, and send your current website if there is one. We will come back with what we would build and what it costs. Tell us about your restaurant.