◆ Apollo Beach and Ruskin

Apollo Beach restaurant online ordering, on a map you draw. Zayos.

Quick answer

Zayos is commission free online ordering for Apollo Beach and Ruskin restaurants. SouthShore sits at the thin edge of the courier map, so app delivery costs more and arrives later. Order ahead pickup on your own site works better. Flat $499 per month.

Get my free AI report → Start now

Free, no card, about 60 seconds.

Why SouthShore is different

Who decides which SouthShore households can order from you?

Right now, an algorithm does. Apollo Beach and Ruskin sit more than twenty miles south of downtown Tampa, past the Alafia and the Little Manatee, in the stretch of Hillsborough County everyone calls SouthShore. Courier supply thins out down here, because a driver who runs south does not get a fast next dispatch. So the marketplace draws a radius by its own economics and hands it to you. That line regularly excludes a Waterset or MiraBay household ten minutes from your door and accepts one twenty five minutes out that arrives cold and leaves a one star review with your name on it.

That is a strange arrangement for a restaurant to accept. You are paying 25% to 35% blended so that somebody else can define your trade area, price the distance into your customer’s checkout, and then fail the last leg on your busiest night. On your own ordering site there is no radius handed down. You set the zones, the delivery fee, the minimum and the hours, and you can run your own driver in the neighborhoods that are worth it.

Why does pickup win out here?

Because there is no walkable restaurant row in SouthShore and there never was. This is a driving place. People take US 41 or Big Bend Road to the grocery store, the school, the boat ramp and the office, and they pass your plaza both ways. Order ahead pickup costs the diner $0.99 and costs you nothing, there is no courier in the middle to lose a bag, and the ticket lands on the same kitchen tablet as everything else. Curbside works the same way and suits a driveway full of kids and a boat trailer.

What about the customer next door in Sun City Center?

Sun City Center and Kings Point hold a 55 and older community of more than 20,000 residents at the 2020 census, and that is the customer nobody builds an ordering flow for. They place larger group orders, they keep standing weekly habits, they cater club and clubhouse events, and most of them would rather use one clean page than scroll a marketplace feed full of promotions. Your own site can be exactly that page. Scheduled orders, group ordering and a catering builder cover the clubs, and the 10% catering service fee is paid by the customer at checkout, never by the restaurant.

Does a flat plan work when your year is November to April?

Better than a percentage does. Winter residents fill SouthShore, and the Manatee Viewing Center at the Big Bend station pulls visitors through the same months, so a large share of your revenue lands in a short window. A percentage takes its biggest bite in your strongest weeks. A flat $499 a month costs the same in February as in August.

Draw your own map

Which SouthShore zones does Zayos cover, and how would you serve each one?

A marketplace gives you one radius for everything. On your own site every zone gets the fulfillment that actually fits it. Here is how most SouthShore operators split it.

MiraBay and the canals
Your own delivery
Waterset
Your own delivery
Apollo Beach Boulevard plazas
Pickup and curbside
Sun City Center and Kings Point
Scheduled orders and catering
Ruskin, College Avenue, Shell Point
Pickup and own delivery
Wimauma and SR 674 east
Scheduled orders
Little Harbor and the marinas
Large and catering orders
Big Bend Road interchange
Commuter pickup
E.G. Simmons Park and the ramps
Order ahead pickup
Manatee Viewing Center season
Visitor pickup, November to April
Gibsonton and south Riverview
Marketplace discovery
Sun City Center clubs and clubhouses
Group ordering

Related: catering · ordering best practices · integrations

Run the numbers

What does app commission cost an Apollo Beach restaurant in a year?

Modeled, not a customer result. 600 app orders a month at a $31 average ticket, at a 29% effective blended rate.

600
app orders a month
$31
average ticket
$5,394
commission a month
$64,728
commission a year

Marketplace commission runs 15% to 30% as a base rate, and 25% to 35% as a blended real cost once delivery, marketing and processing fees stack. Zayos is a flat $499 a month per location. Put your own season through the commission calculator, or read what Uber Eats charges restaurants.

Ruskin

Can your menu follow what is actually in season?

Ruskin grew up on tomatoes and strawberries, and there are still working farms and produce stands within a few miles of every kitchen in town. A menu that moves with the season is a real advantage here, and it is one of the things a marketplace handles worst. Your items sit in a fixed category grid, changes are slow, and when a dish sells out you hear about it from an angry customer.

On your own site you add, hide or 86 an item in seconds, run a seasonal section beside the regular menu, and tell people about it directly, because the customer list is yours. A marketplace will happily sell your strawberry special and will never tell you who bought it.

The same control covers the waterfront trade. Apollo Beach is built on canals, the Little Harbor marinas run boat traffic, and E.G. Simmons Park fills the ramps on a good weekend. Scheduled orders, group ordering and a catering builder handle a dock party or a club event far better than an app built to bring one burrito to one apartment.

Straight answer

Is Zayos live in Apollo Beach or Ruskin yet?

No. We have no restaurant live anywhere in Tampa Bay today. Zayos is built in Fort Lauderdale by Zay Revenue Group, and the restaurant taking direct orders on it right now is Naya Grill, a Lebanese fast casual brand in Pompano Beach and West Palm Beach, keeping $48k+ a year that used to go to commissions on a run of 3,000 orders a month. Eight more storefronts are built and open ordering at their own launches. We are a South Florida company that serves the Tampa market, and we would rather write that plainly than invent a SouthShore customer we do not have. Apollo Beach, Ruskin, Sun City Center and Wimauma operators are onboarding now.

0%
on direct orders
100%
of food and tips
$0.99
diner pickup fee
2 wks
to live, typical
Flat pricing

What does Zayos cost an Apollo Beach or Ruskin restaurant?

Operator is $499 a month. Operator plus Marketplace, which adds DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub ingestion through Otter, is $599. Concierge is $699 and includes up to five virtual brands per kitchen. All three are per location, per month, month to month, no setup fee. The diner pays a small service fee at checkout, $0.99 pickup, $2.99 delivery, nothing on dine in, 10% on catering. The restaurant never pays it and keeps 100% of food revenue and tips.

Full pricing breakdown →
Operator questions

What do SouthShore owners ask before they switch?

Why is app delivery so unreliable out here compared to the city?
Courier supply. Apollo Beach and Ruskin sit more than twenty miles south of downtown Tampa, past the Alafia and the Little Manatee, and a driver who runs south does not get a fast next dispatch. That thins the pool at exactly dinner peak. The distance also gets priced into the diner fee and stretched into the ETA. Your food is fine. The last leg is what is failing, and you are paying 25% to 35% blended for it.
Who decides which SouthShore households are allowed to order from me?
On a marketplace, an algorithm does, and it draws the line by courier economics rather than by your trade area. That regularly cuts off a Waterset or MiraBay household ten minutes from your door while accepting one twenty five minutes away that arrives cold. On your own ordering site there is no radius handed to you. You set the zones, the fee, the minimum and the hours, and you can run your own driver in the neighborhoods worth serving.
Is pickup really the right bet in Apollo Beach and Ruskin?
Yes, because everybody here already drives. There is no walkable restaurant row in SouthShore. People take US 41 or Big Bend Road for groceries, school, the boat ramp and work, and they pass your plaza on the way. Order ahead pickup costs the diner $0.99, costs you nothing, removes the courier from the handoff entirely, and lands on the same kitchen tablet as everything else.
What does app commission cost a SouthShore restaurant in a year?
Modeled: 600 app orders a month at a $31 average ticket, at a 29% effective blended rate, is about $5,394 a month, or $64,728 a year, per location. Marketplace commission runs 15% to 30% as a base rate and 25% to 35% as a blended real cost once delivery, marketing and processing fees stack. Zayos is a flat $499 a month per location.
A lot of my business comes from Sun City Center. Does this work for that customer?
It works better than an app does. Sun City Center and Kings Point hold a 55 and older community of more than 20,000 residents at the 2020 census, and that customer orders differently: larger group orders, standing weekly habits, clubhouse and club events, and a strong preference for a page that is simple and readable over a marketplace feed full of promotions. Your own site can be exactly that. Scheduled orders, group ordering and a catering builder cover the clubs, and the catering fee of 10% is paid by the customer, never by you.
My season is November to April. Does a flat monthly plan still make sense?
That is the argument for a flat plan. Winter residents fill SouthShore, and the Manatee Viewing Center at Big Bend draws visitors through the same months, so a large share of your year lands in a short window. A percentage takes its biggest bite in exactly your strongest months. A flat $499 a month costs the same in February as it does in August, which means the busy season pays for the whole year instead of funding someone else.
Ruskin still has working farms. Can my menu follow what is in season?
Yes. Ruskin grew up on tomatoes and strawberries and still has farms and produce stands, and a menu that moves with the season is a real advantage here. On your own site you can add, hide or 86 an item yourself in seconds, run a seasonal section, and tell your customer list about it directly, because you own that list. A marketplace flattens the same menu into a fixed category grid and never tells you who ordered it.
Should I drop DoorDash and Uber Eats entirely?
No. Keep them for discovery, because SouthShore keeps adding households and the apps are where a new family looks first. On Operator plus Marketplace at $599 a month, Otter pulls every DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub ticket into the same kitchen tablet as your direct orders, so the line reads one queue. Move the repeat order to your own site over time, keep the introductions.
Is Zayos live in Apollo Beach, Ruskin or anywhere in Tampa Bay?
No. Zayos has no restaurant live in Tampa Bay today. We are a Fort Lauderdale company, and the restaurant taking direct orders on Zayos right now is Naya Grill in Pompano Beach and West Palm Beach. Apollo Beach, Ruskin, Sun City Center and Wimauma operators are onboarding now, most go live in under two weeks, and the first direct order usually lands within a week of signing up.
Keep reading
Tampa ordering →
The metro page, Ybor to Westshore.
St. Petersburg ordering →
Across the bay, Central Avenue and the beaches.
Sarasota ordering →
Further south on the same seasonal calendar.
Also: catering · website builder · how it works · pricing

Find out what last season cost you.

The free AI report runs your restaurant through the same commission math on this page. No card, about 60 seconds.

Get my free AI report → Start now