Executive Chef Stephanie Izard and Chef & Restauranteur Tanya Holland to keynote; Industry leaders such as Chef David Nayfeld of Che Fico, plus many more, will share their experiences on October 8

DoorDash, the nation’s leading last-mile logistics platform, announced that it will be hosting its first-ever merchant conference, The Main Street Strong Restaurant Conference, in partnership with the National Restaurant Association. Designed for local business owners, the event aims to bring together a community of restaurant leaders to collaborate with, learn from and inspire one another during the most challenging time in the restaurant industry’s history.

The National Restaurant Association will partner with DoorDash to create the event, bringing decades of experience working directly with local restaurants and advancing the causes of restaurateurs at a local and national level.

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“The restaurant industry has suffered the most significant sales and job losses since the COVID-19 outbreak began. Events like these are important for restauranteurs to know that they are not alone, and we’ve found that engagement at this level can help inspire other businesses to change course, pivot and adapt in new ways while fostering a deeper sense of community,” said Perry Quinn, Senior Vice President, Business Innovation Development at the National Restaurant Association.

The event will feature a conversation with Stephanie Izard, Executive Chef/Partner of four Chicago restaurants: Girl & the Goat, Little Goat, Duck Duck Goat, and Cabra, James Beard “Best Chef: Great Lakes” recipient 2013, and the first woman to win Top Chef. Bringing nearly two decades of restaurant leadership experience, Chef Izard has first hand experience helping her six businesses adapt to the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The full impact of coronavirus on local restaurants has yet to be realized. Every day, restaurants face uncertainty as they continue to tirelessly serve their customers. In addition to ensuring we are providing the best tools and technologies for restaurants to accelerate into this new reality, we want to provide a sense of community for our restaurant partners and to do that we want to host a forum where restaurant owners can learn directly from each other about adapting during this time,” said Tom Pickett, Chief Revenue Officer at DoorDash. “We haven’t stopped asking ourselves what more we can be doing to help restaurants survive and this event aims to not only inspire restaurants during a critical time but to inspire us to better help one another navigate through this time together.”

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The all-day, virtual event will feature keynotes, multiple tracks with breakout sessions, and round table discussions all designed to set up restaurants for success during an unprecedented time:

• Stephanie Izard, Executive Chef/Partner, Girl & the Goat, Little Goat, Duck Duck Goat, and Cabra
• Tanya Holland, Chef & Restaurateur, Brown Sugar Kitchen
• Chef David Nayfeld, Che Fico
• Tony Xu, Chief Executive Officer of DoorDash
• ….and more to come!

At the height of the pandemic, DoorDash helped restaurants save $120 million through relief programs and marketing initiatives. Restaurants on DoorDash are four times more likely to have remained open during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to U.S. restaurants as a whole*. More recently, DoorDash unveiled its Main Street Strong campaign, dedicated to helping restaurants navigate the recovery phase of coronavirus with all new policies, programs and initiatives to help restaurants get back on their feet such as DoorDash Storefront. And last week, DoorDash announced its support for the RESTAURANTS ACT, a bipartisan proposal to establish a $120 billion Revitalization Fund for independent restaurants across the U.S.

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