A hospitality group in Tampa Bay uses AI Answering to create a better experience for guests and staff

Client Spotlight:

Next Level

Next Level Brands Hospitality is on a mission to elevate Tampa Bay’s culinary landscape through its three concepts, and they’re looking beyond the menu to make that happen. In addition to fantastic meals, their restaurants—Boulon Brasserie, Forbici Modern Italian, and Union New American—create spaces for their guests to gather, connect, and build memories. How does Next Level Brands Hospitality deliver that experience? By letting technology handle the tasks that otherwise take their staff away from guests.

“We were inundated with phone calls when we opened a restaurant in January of last year. We were getting somewhere between 2,000 to 3,000 calls a week. We were missing hundreds of calls a week—and that’s lost money!”

Pete DiFranco

IT Director, Next Level Brands

Next Level Brands knew managing that volume of calls wasn’t sustainable for their staff and certainly not for their bottom line. That’s why they brought on Popmenu’s AI Answering, an automated phone answering service that sends links to reservations and orders and also replies to commonly asked questions: “What are your hours?” “Where are you located?” “What’s the current wait time?” The tool uses information from the website and Google Business Profile of each concept to ensure guests receive accurate information, ensuring staff don’t have to stop serving guests to pick up the phone—unless a customer specifically asks for a 1-on-1 conversation.

"When guests call and ask to talk to someone in the restaurant, it's a much quicker phone call. By that point, they've gotten most of their answers over the phone with the AI system. Now, the team is only on the phone for a few minutes instead of having calls that last five or 10 minutes and then they’re back to doing what we want them to do, which is serve the guests."

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“When guests come into our restaurants, their first impression is the staffing. We have people available to talk to guests and they’re not preoccupied with answering phones. They get served right away and we get them seated at a table much more quickly than before. It’s just been a game changer.”

Pete DiFranco

IT Director, Next Level Brands

Before one of their restaurants brought on AI Answering, the hospitality group hired someone exclusively to answer phones on weekends. Once the tool reduced their call volume, that role was transformed into a position that had a higher impact on the guest experience and made better use of that employee’s skills.

“AI Answering means we don’t have to hire someone just to answer phones, which is a huge money saver and a huge time saver. It’s been incredible for us,” says Difranco.

‍The restaurants aren’t just saving money—they’re bringing in more. Because AI Answering lets operators customize their responses and send text messages, Next Level Brands can direct customers to place an online order instantly.

To date, AI Answering has answered 58,457 calls across all three concepts–with 44% of these calls tied to revenue generating activity–and saved the Next Level team 1,184 hours.

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“We've seen a big jump in the revenue from online ordering. When someone calls and says they want to place an order, we can send them a text message with a link. We don’t send them to our website; we send them directly to the ordering page so they can place an order instantly. It saves them time and means they’re immediately taken to our internal ordering page. They’re not placing their order on another site and we’re not paying a fee to that third party.”

Pete DiFranco

IT Director, Next Level Brands

While more online orders and revenue are great for the restaurants, a seamless connection between answering and ordering is also vital to great hospitality. It brings an elevated experience to all guests, even if they’re not dining in. Next Level Brands Hospitality proves that AI Answering can stop the phone from ringing so restaurants can focus on what they care about most.

Popmenu + Genius: one menu, one ordering flow, fewer manual updates

What initially drew Nick, along with marketing director Brennan Best, to Popmenu was its seamless integration with Great Basin’s POS system Genius. Prior to Popmenu, any menu or website changes were manual and time-consuming: menus changing two to four times a year and updates across locations via various technologies, all online orders were routed through third parties, cutting into the restaurants’ profits. After choosing Popmenu, the team has saved significant time: instantaneous website changes across all channels, online orders go directly from the Popmenu platform into the Genius POS, and guests’ orders are fulfilled with less room for error.

In the months following the launch, Great Basin has seen an average month-over-month 11% increase in online ordering gross payment value (GPV), which is the total amount processed during transactions. During that period, they’ve also gained more than 1,000 new guest contacts (a 9% increase)—and those new followers have driven almost 75% of their orders. With Popmenu, Great Basin is capturing guest information so they can stay top of mind and continue to build a loyal customer base.

“The ability [as a result of the Popmenu integration] for our customers to order directly from our website, and for that to be less expensive for them without the additional markups for third-party delivery, has been a gamechanger for us and has really improved the experience for our guests.”

-Brennan Best
Marketing Director of Great Basin Brewing Company

Stronger communications or better SEOhappier guests

For Great Basin, technology isn’t just about efficiency–it’s about staying connected with their guests and their community. So when they had to navigate between several scattered and disparate communications tools, they weren’t able to get their message across in the meaningful, consistent way that aligns with their values.

The Popmenu platform has enabled Great Basin to unify their messaging, while still allowing each location to have its own unique voice. Within the platform, they’ve been able to customize the look and feel of each location’s landing page to convey the fact that each restaurant has a different personality.

“It's always been important for us to listen to our community, while also conveying our brand’s narrative to our community as well. The Popmenu platform has been super helpful because not only does it allow us to receive feedback from our guests, but it also enables us to respond directly to those guests.”

-Brennan Best
Marketing Director of Great Basin Brewing Company

The brewery’s SEO has also improved since integrating with Popmenu, as their website’s event inquiry page for guests looking to host onsite parties has seen a surge in traffic. Soon after Great Basin made the switch to Popmenu, location managers were trying to understand why they were seeing unprecedented levels of interest in events. As a result, they are currently booked with private parties through mid-2026.

“Popmenu’s built-in marketing tools have replaced several standalone systems, saving costs and creating consistent messaging. We were able to cut a few hundred dollars a month by consolidating tools, and now our messaging – emails, events, promotions – all run through one seamless system.”

-Nick Meyer
Director of Operations and Owner of Great Basin Brewing Company

Smooth and supported implementation

As any restaurant team can attest to, rolling out new technology across multiple locations can be daunting and challenging. But Nick, Brennan, and the entire Great Basin staff credit both Popmenu’s onboarding process and its client service reps for a smooth transition. Even launching the integration during one of Great Basin’s busiest seasons didn’t slow things down.

“We had everything running in about a week across four locations – it was one of the easiest integrations we’ve done. We even went live right before summer events, and it didn’t faze the team at all. Once everything was set, we were off and running.”

-Nick Meyer
Director of Operations and Owner of Great Basin Brewing Company

For more tips, follow Popmenu.

Want a closer look at how automation can bring in more orders while saving you time and money? Book a 20-minute, no-pressure demo with Popmenu.

We’ve got your back. Every. Day.

A hospitality group in Tampa Bay uses AI Answering to create a better experience for guests and staff

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Nevada brewery saves time, grows direct online ordering, and unifies multi-location operations with Popmenu and Genius.

Popmenu + Genius: one menu, one ordering flow, fewer manual updates

Stronger communications or better SEOhappier guests

Smooth and supported implementation

For more tips, follow Popmenu.

We’ve got your back. Every. Day.

For more tips, follow Popmenu.

We’ve got your back. Every. Day.