Management at Marco's Coal Fired says the third-party delivery company has sold its food without permission for months, upcharging customers on nearly every item on top of delivery and other fees. Identical delivery orders placed by Westword amounted to $69.92 from the Marco's website and $96.06 from localdudesdelivery.com (for a gluten-free bufala margherita pizza, Manhattan pizza and mele fresca salad).
Some restaurants inflate menu prices on delivery platforms like Uber Eats to offset the fees they pay the platforms. But numerous Denver restaurants say they didn't know they were featured on Local Dudes Delivery, meaning the company is setting and profiting from the hiked prices while putting the blame on restaurants. On its FAQ page, Local Dudes Delivery says menu items are more expensive because "the final decision is on the restaurant," insisting they "encourage our restaurant partners to provide delivery at menu price."
"It's pretty scammy and scary," says Samantha Monterosso of Marco's Coal Fired. "That entire statement is a lie. We were never asked to participate. There's no agreement. ... Their cost is all made up, whatever they want to charge."
Marco's Coal Fired is not alone. More than a dozen other Denver restaurants tell Westword they were listed on Local Dudes Delivery without their knowledge or consent, including D Bar, Sushi Den, City, O' City, Olive & Finch, Blue Bonnet Restaurant, Toro Food Concepts, Kaos Pizzeria, Super Mega Bien and Zaman Mediterranean Fresh. The website featured 260 Denver-area restaurants as of Monday, July 15.
In addition to the unauthorized listings, the owners of Brutal Poodle, Fire on the Mountain and Dough Counter Pizza say Local Dudes Delivery charged "substantially more" for their food. Fire on the Mountain and the French Press say their menus on the delivery website were also outdated and inaccurate.
"They're misconstruing our business, plain and simple," says Ryan Oakes of Brutal Poodle. "No way we would agree for them to do any sort of third-party delivery for us. We hardly use Uber Eats as it is, only when it's slow."
In Colorado, it is illegal for third-party delivery companies to arrange for the delivery or pickup of an order from a restaurant without permission from the restaurant, thanks to a state law that took effect in 2021. Third-party delivery companies that include restaurants on their platform without consent face civil penalties of up to $1,000 per violation, according to the law.
The day Westword reached out to Local Dudes Delivery about the complaints from Denver restaurant owners, the website seemingly shut down its Denver operation. Colorado was marked outside of the platform's service area as of Wednesday, July 17.
Local Dudes Delivery remains active in eighteen cities across ten states, according to its website, with the bulk of its service areas located in Pennsylvania and Florida. The platform targets smaller independent restaurants rather than major chains, advertising itself as a delivery service for "all your favorite local restaurants."
Records from Monterosso show that Local Dudes Delivery placed 101 takeout orders to her other restaurant, Dough Counter Pizza, between April 22 and July 6 before she realized what was happening and had Dough Counter removed from the platform. The orders were placed using the same phone number and credit card. Half of the orders were registered to the email of Zachary Kern, who was previously a market operator for Delivery Dudes and Delivery.com.
Kern says he is "not involved with Denver" operations, claiming to only operate Local Dudes Delivery services in Reading, Pennsylvania, and Franklin, Tennessee, but his Delivery.com email address was used for 51 orders placed at Dough Counter in Denver, according to records reviewed by Westword.
"It’s a different set of former Delivery Dudes franchise owners [in Denver] that are trying to rekindle former Delivery Dudes/Asap markets," Kern says. No one else from Local Dudes Delivery responded to inquiries. Kern did not respond when asked about Denver being removed from localdudesdelivery.com following his conversation with Westword.
Kern is in the midst of a legal battle with Delivery.com. Virginia Cárdenas, counsel for Delivery.com, says it recently filed a lawsuit against Kern "related to the unauthorized delivery platform he is operating in several U.S. cities." Delivery.com has no relationship with Local Dudes Delivery, she says.
Local Dudes Delivery has been called out for bad behavior before. When a Michigan ice cream shop owner blasted ActiveMenus in June for adding her menu without permission and misrepresenting her prices, ActiveMenus blamed Local Dudes Delivery, saying it was an unintended listing resulting from Local Dudes Delivery using its Google integration. Local Dudes Delivery defended itself, telling The Daily Dot that it lists restaurants without permission to help "compete with the large delivery services."
"We are actively trying to grow our business. Typically, restaurant owners aren’t interested in speaking with us unless we can show them results," an unnamed Local Dudes Delivery representative told The Daily Dot. "So we build out restaurants, market for them — at no cost — to drive orders to their business and demonstrate our value with the hopes that we can sign them up as a partner. ... Our intent isn’t to upset anyone."
Fire on the Mountain is one of the local restaurants that was listed on Local Dudes Delivery.
Molly Martin
Monterosso says she realized her restaurants were listed on Local Dudes Delivery when she got a complaint from a customer in early July. The customer was angry about being "overcharged" after ordering a pizza through the delivery platform, not knowing they were not affiliated with the restaurant. The customer never responded to Monterosso's outreach attempts, she says.
"We lost a customer, maybe more, because of this thing that we had absolutely no idea about," Monterosso says, noting that Dough Counter is not supposed to be available on any third-party delivery websites. "We don't want to participate in these things because we don't want people to pay those upcharges.
"Compared to the Marco's Coal Fired website, almost every menu price on localdudesdelivery.com was higher, though the increase was wildly inconsistent. A cup of soup went for $9.78 instead of $4.25; a gluten-free bufala margherita pizza was $24.09 instead of $19.50; and even a side of marinara cost $1.29 instead of the original $1. The platform charged over $20 for delivery, taxes and fees in Westword's sample order, compared to less than $8 when ordering from Marco's directly.
The Marco's menu on Local Dudes Delivery was also outdated; it was missing several menu items that appeared on the restaurant's website and included a cacio e pepe pizza that was seasonal and no longer available. Plus, two menu items marked as out of stock on the Marco's website were available for purchase on Local Dudes Delivery.
"It's not the way we want to present ourselves," Monterosso says, adding that she's also concerned about unknown delivery platforms not being guaranteed to follow the restaurant's health and allergy protocols. "It hurts the business, but it really hurts the consumer."
Monterosso says she's pleased that Local Dudes Delivery has seemingly left the Denver market, though she fears it could return or be replaced by a similar operation. To avoid falling victim to unaffiliated or overpriced third-party delivery services, she urges customers to order directly from independent restaurants, lamenting the hoops customers and restaurants need to jump through these days.
"We just want to make pizza," she concludes.
