Drive a traditional brick and mortar restaurant into the gig economy by building the technology platform and cutting out the middleman.

Sal’s wanted to expand reach, not by opening more locations, but by having the flexibility to be anywhere. Enter state-of-the-art food trucks. But walk-up business alone wouldn’t be enough to sustain such an operation so Sal’s Mobile would need to be able to function as both pop-up eatery and dark kitchen depending on the situation – and the costs of hiring full-time drivers or utilizing 3rd party apps were untenable. After conducting a deep dive into user research, we determined our target market – college students and young families outside of the city limits had few options when it came to pizza: the usual fast food suspects or longer wait times and higher fees to order from higher end restaurants via 3rd party apps. By tapping into the gig economy with proprietary tech, Sal’s would be able to bring food truck flavor from the curbs to the ‘burbs.

INPHANTRY simultaneously took on UX/UI, design and development of the technology platform, from consumer and driver apps to in-truck ordering and inventory management system while also developing the identity and marketing campaign for the new Sal’s Mobile.

The platform was built from the ground up on Ruby on Rails with websocket communications, React Mobile development and implemented Stripe for payments while our design team created a new logo that paid homage to Sal’s Pizza’s roots with a modern twist. The approach to the marketing campaign was to go even bigger than Sal’s oversized trucks with bold messaging and graphics.

No amount of planning could have foreseen what was to come when Sal’s Mobile launched in 2021, but in a time when digital ordering and contactless delivery was imperative, Sal’s Mobile was able to serve local communities with food truck flavor and Good Trucking Pizza.