About Pop Reso
Pop Reso wasn’t dreamed up in a boardroom or at a tech firm. The idea started during a visit to Penticton, British Columbia.
My nephew and his fiancée took me to a local independent restaurant they spoke very highly of. We ordered wings, coconut prawns and a few drinks, settled in and had a great meal.
The food was good. The atmosphere was good. It was exactly the kind of place you’d happily recommend to someone else. But as I looked around the dining room, something didn’t make sense.
I turned to my nephew and asked:
“Why is this place not packed?”
"Not too sure"
That stuck with me.
Here was a restaurant doing something worth knowing about, yet there were empty seats around us. I started thinking about how many other independent restaurants were probably experiencing exactly the same thing.
Great food. Talented people. Specials, events and experiences happening every day.
But unless people already follow the restaurant, happen to see the right social post, or actively go looking for it, they may never know any of it is happening.
That night in Penticton, the idea for Pop Reso was born.
I brought the idea home and began building Pop Reso in Winnipeg.
The idea may have started that night, but it was shaped by more than 30 years working in hospitality, from bartending, serving, managing, and being the General Manager of some great restaurants and hotel restaurants.
I’ve spent most of my working life around restaurant owners, hospitality teams and the guests walking through our doors.
And through all of it, one thing has never changed:
Venues are at their best when they’re full of people.
Somewhere Along the Way, We Lost Some of That
Hospitaliy venues have more ways than ever to reach people, yet getting someone through the front door can sometimes feel harder than ever.
A venue can post an incredible special, introduce a new dish, bring in live music or plan an event and within minutes that post can disappear into a social feed filled with videos, advertising, entertainment, news and everything else competing for attention.
I’ve experienced it myself.
I’ll stop on a restaurant post and think, that looks great. Then I keep scrolling, something else catches my attention and a few minutes later I’ve forgotten about the restaurant entirely.
That’s not because the restaurant did anything wrong.
It’s because social media wasn’t designed specifically for restaurants.
And if you want to know what’s happening at a restaurant tonight, you often have to already know where to look. Their Instagram. Their Facebook page. Their website. An events page. Maybe a story that disappears tomorrow.
There’s great stuff happening every day.
It’s just scattered everywhere.
"Venues shouldn’t have to compete with the entire internet just to tell people what’s happening tonight."
What If Hospitality Had Their Own Social Platform?
That question became Pop Reso.
I wanted something with the familiarity and simplicity of platforms like Instagram and Facebook, but built specifically around hospitality venues and going out.
A place where they can simply say:
Here’s what’s happening at our place right now.
Maybe it’s tonight’s chef feature.
A happy hour.
A new cocktail.
Live music.
A tasting.
A limited menu item.
A family night.
A patio special.
Or simply something happening today that gives someone a reason to walk through the door.
Instead of that message competing with everything else online, it appears in a feed where people are there specifically because they’re thinking about where to eat, drink or go out.
No endless hunt through individual restaurant websites.
No hoping an algorithm decides to show the right person the right post at the right time.
Guests in Seats. Buzz in the Room. Profits in Pockets.
My vision for Pop Reso is pretty simple. I want to help put guests back into seats.
I want to bring the buzz back into dining rooms. I want more of the money generated by these hospitality venues to stay in the pockets of the owners and hospitality teams who create those experiences.
Delivery has become an important part of the hospitality business, but it can also come with significant commissions and costs. I’d like Pop Reso to help give people another reason to come back through the front door.
Because when somebody dines in, the opportunity is bigger than one transaction.
They meet the staff.
They experience the room.
They order another drink.
They discover something else on the menu.
They bring friends back.
They can become regulars.
That relationship belongs to the venue, and I think it’s worth protecting.
You Don’t Always Need a Discount. You Need Attention.
One thing I want venue owners to understand is that Pop Reso isn’t about turning your venue into discount businesses or constantly lowering prices just to generate sales. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice profitability to get people through the door.
Sometimes the problem isn’t the product, the food, the service, or even the price. Sometimes people simply don’t know what’s happening.
A chef might have created an incredible feature tonight, a bartender may have just put a new cocktail on the menu, or a restaurant might have a great patio sitting half-empty on a beautiful evening. There could be live music starting in an hour, or simply empty tables at 7:30 that somebody nearby would happily fill if they knew what was going on.
Venues don’t necessarily need more discounting. They need concentrated attention at the moment people are deciding where to go.
That’s what Pop Reso is designed to provide.
Dining Out Should Still Feel Like Going Out
Hospitality venues have always been about more than food. They’re where we meet, celebrate, catch up with friends, go on first dates and turn ordinary nights into memories.
After more than three decades in hospitality, those are still the moments that make this industry special to me. Technology has changed how we discover restaurants and communicate with each other, but I don’t think it should replace the human side of hospitality. It should create more opportunities for it.
"Pop Reso uses technology to get people off their phones and back around tables."
Built With Hospitality in Mind
Because I’ve spent more than 30 years working in hospitality, I don’t see restaurants as listings inside an app. I see the people behind them.
The owner wondering why Wednesday night is quiet. The chef trying something new. The bartender excited about a cocktail they just created. The server who has a better night when the dining room has energy.
That perspective shaped Pop Reso from the beginning. The goal isn’t to get between venues and their guests. It’s exactly the opposite.
The goal is to bring them closer together.
Venue to guest.
Guest to venue.
And sometimes, people to each other.
From Penticton to Winnipeg & Beyond
“Why is this place not packed?”
Maybe the answer isn’t always cheaper food, another delivery promotion or another advertisement.
Sometimes people just need to know what’s happening.
That’s what I want Pop Reso to help do, help people discover what’s happening, help venues fill their rooms, bring the buzz back to going out, and give all of us another reason to get together around a table.
That question started in a nearly empty restaurant in Penticton. It followed me home to Winnipeg, and eventually became Pop Reso.
-Greg
Founder, Pop Reso