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How Simone’s Kitchen Pairs Local Hospitality With Big Brand Convenience
85.5%
increase in app store views
69.2%
increase in app downloads
62%
increase in app sessions
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Simone’s Kitchen began with food a mother prepared for her sons. Today, it is one of the fastest-growing independent restaurant concepts in New York’s Capital Region. Its Mediterranean-inspired menu has reached new communities, but the purpose behind it remains personal. As Simone’s Kitchen expanded, the team wanted its restaurant app to feel as polished as the apps customers use with national chains. With Per Diem, the brand can offer simple ordering, connected rewards, gift cards, and direct communication while keeping the local hospitality that shaped its story.
The story of Simone’s Kitchen started long before its first location opened. The concept was inspired by the lunches Simone Chedrawee prepared for her two sons. She would begin with greens and grains, add protein, and finish each meal with a mix of vegetables.
Those lunches later became the foundation for a Mediterranean restaurant built around bright flavors, fresh ingredients, and meals that bring different elements together in one bowl.
In 2018, Simone and her son Bashir Chedrawee opened the first Simone’s Kitchen in Coxsackie. The restaurant gave them a way to share the family’s Lebanese roots with the Capital Region through a fresh counter service format. Familiar recipes were presented in a way that felt welcoming, flexible, and easy to enjoy as part of everyday life.
Behind the menu was a simple belief that still guides the company: “Great food has the power to bring people together.”
That idea influenced the recipes, the spaces, the team, and the way each guest was welcomed. It also gave Simone’s Kitchen a clear identity as the company began moving beyond its original restaurant.
Simone’s Kitchen did not begin as a ready made chain. Its progress came through years of work, persistence, and careful decisions about where the concept belonged next.
After launching in Coxsackie, the team opened a second restaurant in downtown Schenectady in 2022. A Stuyvesant Plaza location followed in 2024, bringing the brand to another part of the Capital Region. Simone’s Kitchen now serves guests across three locations, with further expansion taking shape.
Each opening has introduced the restaurant to a different neighborhood. At the same time, the menu has remained rooted in Mediterranean-inspired food, including customizable Mezza Bowls, bakery items, craft drinks, and baklava.
That balance matters. Growth allows Simone’s Kitchen to reach new guests, but every location still needs to feel connected to the same family story. The team is building a recognizable restaurant brand without turning it into something distant or impersonal.
As Simone’s Kitchen reached additional communities, the experience outside its dining rooms became increasingly important. People were already used to ordering through polished apps from large brands. They expected menus to be easy to browse, checkout to feel quick, gift cards to work smoothly, and rewards to remain connected to their account.
Those expectations did not disappear when someone chose a local restaurant.
Simone’s Kitchen saw a clear gap. Its food and hospitality could stand confidently beside larger brands, but guests also needed that same level of ease on their phones. The team wanted to meet that standard without copying the identity of a national chain or sending the guest relationship through an outside marketplace.
A branded restaurant app offered a better path. It could place ordering, loyalty, gift cards, and communication inside an experience created specifically for Simone’s Kitchen.
Simone’s Kitchen partnered with Per Diem to turn that goal into an online experience guests could use throughout their relationship with the restaurant.
Customers can order through an app that carries the Simone’s Kitchen brand rather than placing the restaurant inside a crowded third-party marketplace. The experience gives them a clear path from browsing the menu to completing an order. Loyalty rewards and gift cards are built into the same journey, so guests do not need separate tools for each interaction.
For Simone’s Kitchen, this provides the technology expected from a known chain while allowing the business to remain in control of how it serves and communicates with its community.
As Olivia from Simone’s team explained:
“Per Diem has allowed us to deliver an app that is on par with the big brands while preserving the personal hospitality and local connection that define Simone’s Kitchen.”
The app and web ordering have changed how Simone’s Kitchen connects with people beyond a single visit. When guests order directly, the restaurant can support the full experience instead of handing an important part of it to another third-party company.
This direct connection gives Simone’s Kitchen a clearer way to understand what guests value. The team can reward frequent visits, share useful updates, and collect feedback that helps shape future improvements.
“The biggest difference has been our ability to own the guest relationship from start to finish.”
That ownership supports a closer bond between the restaurant and its regulars. Each app order becomes part of an ongoing relationship with Simone’s Kitchen, from the first purchase to the next reward or message.
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Loyalty works best when earning and using rewards feels natural. Simone’s Kitchen can include both inside the ordering journey rather than asking guests to manage another card or separate account.
Customers can see their progress, receive rewards, and apply them when ordering. This gives people a practical reason to return while keeping the experience simple.
The app also creates a direct communication channel. Simone’s Kitchen reaches customers with restaurant news, menu updates, rewards, and timely offers. These messages come from the brand guests already know, which makes each interaction feel connected to their experience at the restaurant.
Instead of relying entirely on outside platforms to bring people back, Simone’s Kitchen has its own place to continue the conversation.
Technology plays a supporting role in the brand’s story. It removes unnecessary steps for their customers and gives the team better ways to stay connected, but it does not replace the hospitality found within each location.
That distinction becomes important as the company grows. New guests should receive a consistent experience while existing customers should still recognize the warmth and personality that first drew them to the brand.
Per Diem gives Simone’s Kitchen an online foundation that can grow alongside its locations. The app brings ordering, rewards, gift cards, and communication into one branded space. Meanwhile, the restaurant team can continue focusing on its food, people, and communities.
This balance allows them to adopt the convenience associated with established restaurant companies without giving up the qualities that make an independent business memorable.
Simone’s Kitchen has grown from family lunches into a rising Mediterranean restaurant brand with locations across New York’s Capital Region. Its progress has been shaped by persistence, thoughtful expansion, and a clear belief in the power of food to create connection.
The partnership with Per Diem supports the next chapter of that journey. Simone’s Kitchen gives guests a fast and polished restaurant app while maintaining direct control over loyalty, communication, and the overall customer experience.
For guests, that means easier ordering backed by genuine local hospitality. For Simone’s, it provides a stronger way to serve its community as the brand reaches new neighborhoods.
See how Per Diem helps Square restaurants launch their own branded ordering and loyalty apps.
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