How Epicure & Jack's Tavern Handed Its Reservation Line to AI and Grew Sales 31%

1. The calls come when the room is full

Epicure & Jack's Tavern is a family-owned, chef-driven restaurant in Millbrook, Alabama. Its guests book big: the average party booked by phone is seven people. Those are exactly the calls you can't let ring out, and they come at the worst time. Most of the tavern's calls land between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., and again between 5 and 7 p.m., when the same people who would answer the phone are seating and serving the room.

2. What changed in April

In April 2026 the tavern pointed its phone line at Bite Buddy AI. The AI answers the call, takes the date, time, party size and any special requests, and puts the reservation straight into the restaurant's book. Staff can still add or change bookings themselves.

From April through September the AI booked 92% of the restaurant's reservations (748 of 813), and 2,948 guests from those bookings sat down to eat. Staff got back about 41 hours they would have spent on the phone, most of it in the lunch and dinner rush, when those hands are needed on the floor. Ninety of the bookings came in before 10 a.m. or after 9 p.m.

3. The results

In the six months after launch the tavern's net sales ran 31% above the same six months a year earlier. Guest counts rose 31% over the same period, and 2,948 guests were seated from reservations the AI booked. September was the strongest month yet: net sales up 57% and guests up 72% on September 2025.

To be fair about it: the tavern was already growing. In March, the month before launch, sales were up 20% on the year before. Since launch they have run at 31%, about 11 points above that pace. And more guests came with slightly smaller checks: the average ticket in August and September was a few percent lower than a year earlier.

Net sales and guests: the restaurant's POS report, each compared with the same month in 2025. Reservations and staff hours (phone time the AI handled): Bite Buddy's records for the account, April 1 to September 29, 2026. Results are one restaurant's; yours will vary.

4. What it costs

Bite Buddy charges $1.50 per completed reservation: no monthly fee and no per-guest fee. With an average party of seven, that works out to about 21¢ per guest booked.

The usual way to get the same result is two vendors: a reservation platform (OpenTable $149–$499 a month plus per-guest fees on its app bookings, or Resy $289–$459 a month) and an AI phone add-on to answer the calls (Slang AI $399–$599 a month per location). At this restaurant's volume, Bite Buddy costs about 66% less than the cheapest of those combinations, and a party of seven costs the same to book as a party of two.

5. Why it worked

• The phone gets answered at the rush. The busiest call hours are the busiest floor hours. The AI takes both peaks without pulling anyone off the floor.
• Big parties don't wait for a callback. A seven-top that reaches voicemail books somewhere else. Here it gets a confirmed table on the first call.
• Bookings arrive early and late too. Ninety reservations were booked before 10 a.m. or after 9 p.m.
• One price, one system. The AI that answers the call is the book the host works from. No add-on subscription and no fee that grows with the party.
• No re-keying. Reservations land in the book directly, so the host stand starts the shift with the night already set.

Questions restaurant owners ask