GrubHub Puts Data on Its Menu

Things were hectic at Slice on a recent Friday as the month-old cake shop in downtown Chicago hit its afternoon rush. Orders poured in, the gingerbread Bundt cake ran out, and a four-slice delivery order went missing. Slice isn’t a typical restaurant: The manager, relaying online orders from her tablet to line workers, is Sandra Dainora, director of product for GrubHub. In fact, everyone working at Slice is a GrubHub employee, serving cake to co-workers from a conference room in the headquarters of the online takeout company.

Slice is part of GrubHub’s crash course on the food industry. Earlier this year, the nine-year-old company merged with its largest rival, 14-year-old Seamless, leaving the combined entity, which has maintained both brands, the dominant player in food delivery. Chicago-based GrubHub Seamless says it will process $1 billion in sales for 2013, filling an average of 150,000 orders a day from some 26,000 restaurants in 600 cities. It plans to add 100 employees to its 650-person workforce and says it’s profitable.