How Sicilian Pizza & Pasta keeps the volume and the margin in house

Sicilian Pizza & Pasta runs two fast-casual locations in downtown Louisville, right in the middle of the sports crowds, conventions, and Kentucky Derby traffic. Owners Jeff and Chris Kopple opened their first storefront in 2009 and tripled their footprint within two years.

That mix of steady local regulars and event-driven surges is exactly what two partnerships have had to keep up with: a 15-year relationship with Pepsi on equipment and service. Since going live on ChowNow’s Direct Online Ordering in November 2025, Sicilian has processed more than 6,500 orders worth over $290,000, and kept the vast majority of that revenue, and the diner relationship behind it, in house.

The switch paid off from the first month

Sicilian’s first online ordering system came from a local startup, and it served the restaurant well for years. As the business grew, Kopple went looking for a platform built to keep pace, one with the reliability and staying power to match how fast the restaurant was expanding. Signing on with ChowNow’s Direct Online Ordering was, in his words, the most impactful change the business has made in the past year.

The ramp shows up immediately in the numbers. After going live mid-November 2025, monthly volume climbed from a partial first month to a steady rhythm of roughly 800 orders a month:

91% of orders come direct, not a third-party marketplace

The headline number isn’t just how much Sicilian sells online. It’s where those orders live. Of the more than 6,500 orders placed since launch, 91% went through direct online ordering, the restaurant’s own branded website and app, generating over $265,000 in order value. The other 9% came through ChowNow’s discovery channels: the commission-free ChowNow Marketplace app and the Discovery Network, which put Sicilian in front of new diners actively searching for somewhere to order.

For an independent operator, that split is the whole point: every direct order is one that carries no third-party commission, keeps the 15–18% a third-party app would take, and hands Sicilian the diner data instead of renting it.

Sicilian still sees plenty of third-party delivery traffic, and Kopple treats every one of those pickups as a chance to make the next order a direct one. ChowNow supplies QR code cards that he hands to third-party customers on their way out the door. The math works for everyone: the diner saves on fees, and the restaurant keeps the margin it would have handed to a third party. That’s revenue taken back, order by order.

Timing is the product: order-ahead built for a hot-food kitchen

For a restaurant built on hot pizza and fresh pasta, timing is the product. Nearly two-thirds of orders (64%) are pickup, and hundreds of them were placed ahead of time rather than ASAP, diners setting a time so the food is boxed and ready the moment they walk in. When someone orders and sees a 15-to-20-minute estimate, that ticket moves straight to the kitchen.

Turning on managed delivery added measurable volume

Delivery makes up 36% of Sicilian’s orders. In late December, Kopple switched on ChowNow-managed delivery, giving delivery diners a reliable direct option instead of defaulting to a third-party app. Weekly order volume climbed steadily through the winter and into Derby season as that channel came online.

Owning the diner data fills slow nights on demand

For an independent operator, knowing who’s ordering matters as much as the order itself. Across thousands of orders, Sicilian has built a first-party list of more than 4,000 diners, held directly, not handed to a marketplace, that Kopple can reach whenever he wants.

That control means Kopple can send a push notification or a targeted promotion on any night he wants an extra boost, and see the results come in right away.

Technology that supports the diner relationship

Strip away the apps and the QR codes, and what actually keeps this restaurant full is something no platform can manufacture: the relationships Jeff and his staff build with the people who walk in the door, or open the app, again and again. That’s the part Kopple credits first when asked why customers stay loyal.

Technology’s job, in his view, is to support that relationship. A faster checkout and a smoother pickup line free up staff time to focus on the reason a diner comes back a second, third, and tenth time, and the numbers bear it out: at roughly a $45 average order value across more than 4,000 diners, the repeat business adds up.