[orderella]

A week of launches

It’s been a week full of fabulous new venues coming on board here at Orderella!

We started out with Porterhouse in Covent Garden on Thursday night. It’s a brilliant venue in London spread over 12 areas chock full of the Thirsty Thursday crowd. The promo team was out in full force showcasing Orderella to a highly receptive audience.

The punters were loving Orderella, with the drinks cold, the tables full and the conversation flowing. Not only could you get one of the finest ale’s in town, you could also order a classic burger, beer battered fish and chips or a pizza without missing a minute of conversation.

It was then a quick road trip up to Northampton on Friday and Saturday night where the welcoming crews at Barratts Club and the Sun Inn made Orderella a part of the fixtures. 

We rounded out the week with the launch of our first rugby stand in Newport, home of the Newport Gwent Dragons. Rugby fans there could order from their seat and pick up at the Orderella pick up point, meaning they never missed a minute of the action. And the game was action packed with the Dragons winning 24 – 23 against Glasgow Warriors. 

With many thanks to the brilliant teams at Porterhouse, Barratts Club, the Sun Inn & Newport Gwent Dragons for making this week such a success. We look forward to many more!

[orderella]

New Year changes

Well it’s cold, wet and when we leave for work its still dark outside, so all signs point to the fact that it must be January in London. January brings with it the start of a New Year and with that resolutions (mostly broken), reflections on the year just passed and impending change. 

2013 was a great year for Orderella. We launched our iOS app to a great reception with Fabulous magazine from the Sun on Sunday saying ‘Not since Instagram have we been so excited by one app’.  We met a lot of brilliant people at trade events, raised seed funding and Orderella rolled out to some great venues. 

This year we’re bursting with anticipation at the thought of what is ahead for us. 2014 has already bought with it changes aplenty are here at Orderella and it’s only the second week of January. 

We’ve just moved into a brand new offices, launched our Android app which is available from google play and we also have some exciting news on some new roll outs.

Roll on February! 

[orderella]

The perfect Christmas Cocktail

Christmas and New Year provides some of our favourite drinks of the year, there’s the expected, Champagne; the traditional, egg nog; the wintertime warmer, mulled wine and of course the Christmas cocktail.

So what makes the perfect Christmas cocktail? In my mind it has to be seasonal – something that you just can’t get every day of the year. I do love a glass of Champers but it says more to me about New Year than Christmas. 

Mulled wine is divine, there’s nothing like the spicy, fruity aroma to assault the senses as you wonder through a Christmas Market. Mulled wine warms not only the body but also the soul. 

Then there’s the traditional egg nog. Although originally born in the UK, its popularity seems to have waned over the centuries to become a more festive drink of choice of our North American cousins across the pond.

So that leaves us with the Christmas Cocktail. Our favourite for this season is the divine fresh cranberry, ginger and vanilla margaritas. Nothing screams Christmas more to me than the humble cranberry. Relegated to an occasional juice it comes to the forefront at this time of year being found with the main course of Turkey and desserts alike. 

Whatever your drinking this season, enjoy, be safe and have fun with the ones you love.

From all the team at Orderella a big ‘Thank you’ to all for making our first year so amazing. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy New Year and good tidings to all.  See you all in the New Year. 

[orderella]

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

From the Pimlico Plumbers with their Christmas lights cheering everyone who’s going West from Waterloo Station to the good folk at Westminster Council who turned the Eros statue into a snow dome at Piccadilly Circus we love London at Christmas time.

Mirth as well as frost is in the air. Even though the delightfully decorated stores on Oxford Street are packed and the hordes are out in there thousands somehow the season of goodwill makes us all happier and more tolerant towards our fellow commuters. And who doesn’t love seeing Santa boarding the tube this time of year? 

© london-underground.blogspot.co.uk

We give thanks to those who made the British Christmas what it is today. The Victorian’s who bought the German custom of decorating a tree into our parlors. King Henry the VIII who it was rumoured was one of the first to have Turkey to eat at Christmas and the Tudors who bought us Minst Pye’s, although with lamb being one of the main ingredients they are a little different to the minced pies we know and love today.

© www.vam.ac.uk

The ‘Frost Fair’s’ that sprung up when the Thames used to freeze over have been replaced with outdoor ice-skating at Somerset House and royalty no longer gets a sleigh to travel unlike King Henry the VIII who travelled up the Thames in one from Whitehall to Greenwich. We love Christmas in London!

And to those who bought us the festive drinks of mulled wine, egg nog, hot apple cider and Champagne cocktails you have a special place in our hearts, but more about those next week..

[orderella]

The very British art of queuing

We Brits love a good queue. If there were an Olympic sport for queuing we’d surely win.  It must be hardwired into our DNA, somewhere between tea drinking and talking about the weather.

Due to the temporary nature of queues it’s difficult to trace their origin but needless to say they’ve been part of the British culture for centuries and we’ve perfected the art of forming an orderly queue.

As much as we’re good at it, no one enjoys spending their time queuing. There are missed trains whilst waiting politely for your ticket, conversations that went on whilst you were waiting to buy your drink and of course the minutes on the clock that you can’t ever get back. 

Well RIP the pub queue at long last. Although the pub queue has served us well for the last 1,000 years, its time to let it go peacefully to rest.  Thanks to Orderella, you can now order and pay for your drinks without ever having to leave your seat. 

So the only question now is what to do with all the time we’re going to have from not queuing. One thought  - we can now focus on something that we have begun to do very well – winning real Olympic events! 

[orderella]

A week in the life of a start up

We thought we’d take a different slant to our blog this week and give you some insight into a week in the life of the Orderella team. It is true we do spend a lot of our time currently at pubs, after all they are our place of business, but it’s not all knocking back Pints and sipping on Champagne.

Thanks to our technical team, James and Arlen, there is constant updating of the Orderella app in the background to ensure that you have the best mobile payment app available. Did you know you can now check-in with Facebook when you check into a new location? Most excitingly Orderella for android is coming soon!

There are also meetings with all the companies who ensure that Orderella is working seamlessly in the background. Discussions with new venues to come on board with Orderella. Thanks to your support and recommendations we’re busy securing your favourite locations. And our CFO, Michael, is always busy balancing the books. 

Marketing are hard at work with updates on twitter, Facebook, our website and LinkedIn so you have the most recent information and offers. Don’t forget to follow us so you can keep up with all that is going on with Orderella. We had a great offer on Tuesday night for all Orderella app users at the Keyworth Tavern. If England won the football there would have been free drinks for all of our loyal Orderella app users. We were sorry that England didn’t win.. next time eh?

But luckily today is Thirsty Thursday and the Orderella team will be meeting up for a drink later on. Ok, so there is some Pint and Champagne consumption! Where? Well most likely our favourite London venue, The Parcel Yard. 

[orderella]

Propelling Orderella forward

After a motivating day at the Propel Multi-Club conference last Thursday the delegates were thirsty and the basement of the Token House provided the perfect watering hole.

With networking and catch-ups on mind the delegates were able to partake in some great beverages from the sponsors. There was conversation inspiring wine from Molson Coors, refreshing cider from the Magners (our favourite being the strawberry and lime Hornsby’s cider) and we loved the portable Beer dispenser from Crafty Dan’s with 13 Guns on tap. Can we please get one for the office? 

After the networking it was time for the Sky Quiz. This is where Orderella really came into it’s own. One of the best things about Orderella is that you never have to miss a conversation. No delegate lost a moment of the action or a question during the quiz as all drinks were ordered through the Orderella app without anyone having to leave the comfort of their seat. Simple.

The Tokenhouse staff loved the Orderella app and how easy it made getting drinks to the delegates, the delegates love the Orderella app as it meant they could engage in the activities on the night and not be queuing at the bar and Orderella loved it as it was a chance for everyone to experience how Orderella really does life easier for both customer and establishment. Another fabulous event with big thanks to the team at the Tokenhouse and Propel Info. 

[orderella]

Orderella launches in London

Londoners finally got a taste of the Orderella experience, when we went live last night at the flagship Fuller’s pub The Parcel Yard at Kings Cross station.

The Parcel Yard is the largest station pub in the UK and this year’s winner of the Griffin Trophy as Fuller’s pub of the year. It’s easy to see why the Parcel Yard is so popular, with a sympathetic renovation from what was once the parcel offices for Kings Cross station into a warm and inviting pub.

Guests were warmly welcomed upon arrival by Nick Cameron, the General Manager of the Parcel Yard,  and all orders were fulfilled with a smile by his friendly team. We had several members of the press coming to check out our offering and the lovely team from elliotts PR were there to meet and greet.

The response to the Orderella app has been phenomenal and last night was no exception. Members of the public and press alike were telling us how simple and easy it is to use and the drinks were certainly flowing with orders from iphones and ipads alike.

We were delighted when Jonathan Swaine, MD of Fuller's, stopped by for a drink with the Orderella team. We finished with a toast to another successful venue and our launch in London. We look forward to many more so stay tuned for all the latest news!

[orderella]

Orderella launches at the Keyworth Tavern

The Orderella team took a road trip and travelled up North to lovely Keyworth on the outskirts of Nottingham for the Orderella launch at the Keyworth Tavern. Upon arrival the fabulous Adrian Clark, manager of the Keyworth Tavern, greeted us with a warm welcome. 

After a quick set up with the luminous green logo and finally check of the systems we were ready for our first order. Once that one came in, they were coming in thick and fast and keeping the team on their toes.

There were some initial doubters of Orderella with one group timing who was the fastest the Orderella app or the time old tested tradition of walking up to the bar and ordering and paying and getting back to the table. Guess who won? The Orderella app!

It was then time for the press, with an interview with The Nottingham Press and followed up with a piece on ITV the following day.

When the final drink orders came in all hailed it a great launch. The overwhelming feedback was positive and overall a success for both Orderella and The Keyworth Tavern. We’ll drink to that. 

[orderella]

Softly softly....

The Orderella office has been buzzing with excitement since the recent success of our test launch event in London. More than 70 lucky VIPs, friends and family had a chance to use our basic app at the event which was held at the Savoy Tup pub. Thanks to everyone who participated.

Things got off to a promising start with the early birds rapidly ordering a myriad of beers, wines and snacks which was either ready for pickup at the bar or for the lazier pub goers - delivered direct to their table! Bar staff were picking up quickly on the orders and handled the order app on their Ipad behind the bar with ease.

The real challenge came later in the evening when the bulk of the guests arrived at what seemed like the space of 10 minutes! The cozy pub suddenly got a whole lot cozier with the place pumping with good conversations, gossip and the well orchestrated beats from the resident DJ. The Orderella founders were on standby for any issues but it was not really needed and drinks continued to flow smoothly throughout the night.

The peak volumes were certainly a real test for the bar staff and the Orderella app. We were super pleased later to have found out that the average fulfilment time from order to drink in hand was less than 2 minutes even during the peak! So a big pat on the back to our developers for building such a robust app.

Feedback has also been very positive and we had comments such as "I stop-watched it and my order took less than 30 seconds" and "absolutely love the app". We also took away some lessons learnt and extra functionality we hope to incorporate into the final product.

We can't wait to show everyone the end result which will be launched very soon in London. Stay tuned!!