How De Babel Turned Four Years of National Recognition Into $1.1M in Commission-Free Sales Using ChowNow

Quality sourcing, an attentive staff, and a focus on hospitality earned De Babel its reputation. De Babel has earned a spot on Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat in the U.S. for four consecutive years, maintains a five-star Yelp rating, and has been featured in local and national media.

That kind of demand creates a choice familiar to many restaurant owners: keep adding sales channels, or focus on the few you can rely on. “Every channel creates additional complexity, expectations, and operational pressure,” he says. Rather than stretch his team across every marketplace and app, he chose to concentrate on the owned, sustainable channels he could control. 

Since partnering with ChowNow in 2022, De Babel has generated more than $1.1 million in commission-free sales, while building a model that puts the customer relationships and revenue back in their restaurant’s hands.

Turning Demand into Direct Revenue

National recognition can drive a lot of orders. The question is how much of that revenue a restaurant gets to keep.

Many third-party delivery platforms charge commissions ranging from 15% to 30% per order. For a high-volume restaurant, those fees add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars over time. Kandeel does the math plainly: “If you look at one year at 30 percent, you’re paying, say, $100,000 in commission. And they help you with $5,000 on marketing.”

De Babel took a different approach. Through ChowNow’s flat-fee model, more than 93% of its orders have come through without traditional marketplace commissions. Those orders have generated more than $930,000 in direct sales through its website and branded app alone, and more than $1.1 million including the ChowNow Marketplace.

Had those orders flowed through traditional third-party platforms, De Babel could have paid an estimated $165,000 to $330,000 in commission fees. In 2025 alone, the restaurant retained roughly $75,000 that would otherwise have gone to a delivery app. For an operator who built the business on protecting its margins, keeping that revenue in-house was the only model that made sense.
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Four Straight Years of Growth and Recognition

The approach has worked. De Babel’s direct ordering sales have grown every year on ChowNow, which tracked with its rise on the national stage. As the awards stacked up, so did the direct orders. And because those orders are commission-free, the savings compound year over year.

Growth at a glance:

Note: 2026 figures are annualized from the current run rate.

Some of the most valuable growth has come from delivery, now one of De Babel’s most important order types. The restaurant fulfills it through ChowNow’s Flex Delivery, offering doorstep service without handing the order, or the customer, to a third-party marketplace.

Those orders are worth more, too. Delivery orders average at nearly $94, close to double De Babel’s $52 pickup average. Demand has grown every year as well. Delivery now drives about 15% of De Babel’s sales from just 9% of its orders.

One Price, Every Channel

Through ChowNow’s Menu Management, De Babel runs a single menu across its website, app, and the ChowNow Marketplace. A price update, a new dish, or a fresh photo changes once and appears everywhere guests order. For Kandeel, that consistency is not just for convenience. It is how the brand earns trust, and it keeps the price guests pay transparent across every place they find the restaurant.

Transparency That Builds Trust

For Kandeel, transparency is not only about the price a guest sees. It is about knowing the numbers add up at the end of the day. He had been burned before by platforms where an expected payout would quietly come up short, with the difference buried in disputed or undelivered orders he had no way to verify. What stood out about ChowNow was the absence of those surprises.

Keeping Loyal Customers Coming Back

Since partnering with ChowNow in 2022, De Babel has served more than 9,000 unique diners directly across more than 21,000 orders. Those guests average roughly $56 per order and have returned more than twice on average, a level of repeat engagement that is rare for an independent, single-location restaurant.

For Kandeel, that loyalty is the entire point. His team trains on a single principle:

What’s Next

De Babel’s next chapter is already in motion. Kandeel is opening a second Scottsdale location, targeted for mid-August, and plans to expand into catering using the tools ChowNow already offers. The model that worked for one location, owned channels, consistent pricing, and direct relationships, is the one he intends to scale.

A Reputation Worth Owning

De Babel proves that ordering demand is an asset a restaurant can own instead of rent. Over four consecutive years of national acclaim, the Scottsdale restaurant built more than $1.1 million in commission-free sales, launched a branded app its regulars rely on, and deepened the repeat-guest relationships that keep diners coming back, all by focusing on the channels it owns.