New Shaw-Based Food Ordering and Delivery App Helps Restaurants Survive

Look out, Caviar, GrubHub and UberEats. Shaw bar owners have come up with a cheaper homegrown alternative to the national food delivery services, offering DC’s bars, restaurants and nightclubs, currently limited to takeout only, a way to keep more cash in their registers instead of sending it to Silicon Valley.

DC To-GoGo, a web and mobile app food and beverage ordering platform, is now live. The name is a nod to DC’s official music genre, GoGo, and ‘to go.’

When the health emergency forced bars and restaurants to stop seating customers, many businesses that had never considered offering takeout discovered that the national apps’ commissions and fees cut each sale by as much as 40%.

The owners of Ivy and Coney, a six-year-old Shaw bar, pitched the idea of a local, low cost alternative app to a District government agency, but were turned down for funding. When they shared their idea with Shaw Main Streets, the commercial revitalization nonprofit decided to fund the app’s development, knowing that businesses in the neighborhood and citywide could benefit greatly from the savings the app could generate. And two months and hundreds of volunteer hours later, DC To-GoGo was born.

The DC Council recently enacted a 15% cap on commissions for food ordering and delivery apps during the current health emergency. While the national apps’ commissions will go back to being unregulated after the emergency is lifted, DC To-GoGo’s commissions will continue to range from 5% to 15%.

DC To-Gogo commissions and fees stay in DC, and every possible dollar generated is spent with DC businesses and contractors. DC To-GoGo customers see how their dollars are spit between the bar or restaurant they’re ordering from, drivers and the app. DC To-GoGo drivers will be paid a living wage and keep their full tips, instead of seeing national apps take a share.

DC To-GoGo launched in Shaw, but will expand citywide. “DC To-GoGo is a lifeline for restaurants and bars struggling to stay afloat,” said Alexander Padro, executive director of Shaw Main Streets. “DC residents that want to help their favorite restaurants survive the Coronavirus crisis should use the app to order dinner and drinks as often as possible.”

DC To-GoGo is available online at www.dctogogo.com and as a mobile app, available for iPhone and Android.

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Our Funders

Shaw Main Streets is a designated DC Main Streets program and is funded in part by the Department of Small and Local Business Development, Muriel E. Bowser, Mayor.

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities is a project sponsor.

2016 Great American Main Street Award Winner

Shaw Main Streets is the winner of the 2016 Great American Main Street Award and the 2015 Innovation on Main Street Award, both conferred by the National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

As a Main Street America™ Accredited program, Shaw Main Streets is a recognized leading program among the national network of more than 1,200 neighborhoods and communities who share both a commitment to creating high-quality places and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development. All Main Street America™ Accredited programs meet a set of National Accreditation Standards of Performance as outlined by the National Main Street Center.

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