A Washington, D.C., startup company, eleat™, will launch a first-of-its kind mobile dining app designed to transform the dining experience by giving customers and restaurants more control, choice and convenience on Tuesday, December 8.

The eleat app gives customers real-time access to menus to place orders and pay from the table-side, and order takeout and delivery – all from their own smartphones and tablets. eleat is like GrubHub meets Ziosk and TabbedOut, providing all the needed dining solutions in one simple app. It works for all participating restaurants, eliminating the need to download multiple restaurant-specific apps and providing fast, efficient more accurate dining experiences. eleat also provides restaurants with an option to integrate with major Point-of-Sale systems.

eleat is launching in a variety of DC area restaurants including Policy, Lost Society, Bin1301, Chaplins, The Gryphon, Picollo, Sax, Piassa, Sol Mexican Grill Cantina, Catch 15 and AsiaDC. Following the inaugural launch in the DC area, eleat will expand its reach on the East Coast and will eventually be available nationwide.

“Imagine walking into your favorite restaurant without having to wait for service or pay for the check. You don’t have to imagine any more – eleat provides this choice and convenience today,” says eleat founder and CEO, Terry Miller.

Miller came up with the idea for the app during a beach vacation with his wife and son, waiting for what seemed like forever to order food and drinks. Then, it actually took forever to get their food and pay their bill. And they still had no idea if all the food would be safe for their son’s food allergies. Miller quit his job as a chief operating officer at a technology company and began putting together a team to develop and market the app.

According to the Fast Casual Association, consumers of all ages – and especially Millennials – want to be able to order and pay with their phones. Within the next few years, electronic ordering and mobile payments are predicted to be the norm. Yet today, less than one percent of ordering is mobile, meaning that restaurants are already behind the most important future trend in the industry.  

“With 83 million tech-savvy Millennials driving the growth of the restaurant industry, apps are critical to connecting with customers, and eleat does it all,” said Miller. Panera, for example, recently spent $42 million to bring mobile ordering to its customers and address the Millennial market. “eleat is now providing these mobile services to any customer at any restaurant for the cost of a credit card transaction,” Miller said.

eleat is available for free download on the AppStore and GooglePlay.

“eleat will revolutionize the dining experience where, within seconds, customers can view real-time menus, check out the ingredients, immediately place orders, then pay and go whenever they want,” said Miller. Delivery and takeout are simple as well from eleat, with orders going directly to a restaurant’s computer system versus a fax machine that is used by most delivery apps currently in the market place.

The app also provides search options for the top food allergies, an important feature for the more than 15 million Americans suffering from food allergies.