Imagine heading to your favorite restaurant with just enough time to eat before catching a movie. Maybe you’re stopping at a legendary steakhouse chain known for providing scratch-made food, delicious drinks, and an unparalleled dining experience. And by the way, this restaurant is extremely popular, but it has hundreds across the country — so you'd think finding a seat would be somewhat easy with so many locations. Right?
Not so fast… due to its popularity, diners a few years back were in for a long wait-time surprise. And who wants to wait for hand-cut steaks and fresh-baked bread? Since the restaurant didn’t take reservations, the restaurant’s leaders knew checking the wait times and joining a digital waitlist was going to be the best option for their guests (and for the restaurant staff).
This scenario was the exact business need a GAP client recently had. And while it posed a challenge for the client’s internal technology team, it was another day at the office for the experienced and very talented GAP team.
With over 700 restaurants nationwide, the client required a seamless integration of a waitlist system without disrupting in-store operations or existing mobile apps. The client knew GAP was the best choice to get this job done… and get it done fast.
Let’s take a closer look at the development of this robust waitlist application.
Restaurant Cloud-Native Waitlist Application
From the start, GAP wanted to ensure seamless integration without requiring any changes from the client’s side. The new system was built entirely using serverless technology, leveraging AWS Lambda and JavaScript, with API Gateway handling incoming requests.
Here’s a high-level overview of the tech stack used in this solution:
- Lambda & API Gateway: The new system operates without dedicated servers. API requests from the mobile app, website, and Google trigger a Lambda function written in JavaScript.
- SQS & SNS: These AWS services handle communication between the cloud and restaurant locations, allowing each store to receive and process waitlist entries.
- Redis & DynamoDB: Redis serves as a middle layer for asynchronous processing, ensuring smooth data flow and quick response times. DynamoDB stores key information such as the current waitlist status.
- C# Store Integration: A custom-built C# solution handles waitlist requests on the store side, allowing each restaurant to pull and act on individual queue entries.
- Admin & Monitoring Tools: GAP also developed a simple Ruby on Rails admin interface for store management, giving technicians access to logs, errors, and system statuses.
By embracing a serverless architecture, GAP developed an efficient, scalable solution that eliminated the need for traditional servers. This allowed the client to maintain a high level of service with minimal maintenance and downtime.
Good is not good enough.
Through this collaboration, GAP successfully launched the client’s first fully cloud-native application, now actively in use. This project demonstrated GAP’s ability to tackle even the most complex challenges and deliver as seamlessly as an in-house team.
But in true GAP fashion, we didn’t just stop with a good-enough rollout. The GAP team enhanced the experience by adding features such as web push notifications to alert administrators of potential issues and a full API to integrate with existing monitoring and management systems.
As GAP’s Steven Yelton noted, “We put in tons of work making sure the application was scalable and reliable. Some stores, especially in Alaska, stay open until 3 a.m. And holidays like Father’s Day are actually the busiest — up to 15x the normal request throughput compared to a regular weekend. Mother's Day and Valentine's Day are also especially busy. But the waitlist can handle it all.”
One of the standout features of GAP’s work was the integration with Google’s booking service. Now when users search for their favorite restaurant’s location, they can join the waitlist directly from their browser.
“Going the extra mile and working directly with the Google team was especially rewarding,” Yelton said.
Don’t wait to get started.
Even if you’re not a growing restaurant chain operating predominantly in the casual dining segment — like GAP’s client — you can understand how a company’s success is driven in part by its willingness to use technology and implement tools that better serve its customers.
GAP lives on the frontier of innovation, staying ahead by mastering both established and emerging tools. When it comes to technology and tools expertise, GAP leads the way. And for this well-known U.S. restaurant, GAP lived up to their reputation and delivered.
If you have a business need that requires innovative, scalable, and customer-facing technology solutions, reach out to GAP today. There's no time to wait!
