Case Study: Tahini achieves higher online revenue and stays afloat with Toast

Creating Tahini’s Minimum Viable Menu — and Staying Afloat with Toast’s Online Ordering

Tahini, a San Diego–based Middle Eastern street food kitchen led by co-owner Osama Shabaik, faced the sudden shift from dine-in to takeout and delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Copying their full-service menu to delivery platforms proved impractical—many dishes didn’t travel well, ingredients spoiled, and overhead rose—so they needed a smaller, more profitable menu optimized for digital orders.

Using Toast POS, online ordering, and reporting tools, Tahini built a minimum viable menu by tracking sales and inventory, focusing on low-cost, high-margin crowd-pleasers, organizing simple categories with customizable modifiers, and adjusting purchasing and packaging. The streamlined approach boosted efficiency and revenue: online ordering now makes up a larger share of their sales and has been pivotal in keeping the business afloat.

Tahini

Osama Shabaik

Co-Owner