What is SLOeats? The story behind the popular app bringing dining deals to SLO
Would you pay less than $10 a month to get daily meal deals across San Luis Obispo?
That’s the premise behind a mobile app that thousands of locals have already downloaded.
SLOeats, created over two years ago by CEO and co-founder Jonathan Allen, has accumulated more than 15,000 users, spawned its own slang among college students and won over dozens of local restaurants.
At first glance, the premise behind the app seems too good to be true.
For $9 a month, a SLOeats member can get dining discounts every day at more than 50 restaurants in San Luis Obispo, including a variety of buy one, get one free meal deals. Use the app once a month, and it pays for itself.
At the same time, however, SLOeats also helps local restaurants receive free marketing through the app and on social media, Allen said.
“So both the restaurant loves it and we love it,” Allen told The Tribune. “The whole idea of SLOeats is that we’re the most inexpensive marketing loyalty program for the restaurant.”
The visionary behind the app now has set his sights on expansion to introduce new features and locations in San Luis Obispo County and beyond.
How the SLO-based meal deals app came to be
It was at a local diner’s breakfast booth about a decade ago that Allen came up with the idea for a new business venture.
The Cal Poly architect graduate had been feeling confined in the office of his San Luis Obispo startup, fending off loneliness at his desk.
He started taking his laptop to local restaurants around town and became a regular customer at Breakfast Buzz at 295 Santa Rosa St. While there, he eventually befriended Jeff Reynolds, the restaurant’s owner, and other staff members. They asked him for advice on how to promote the business.
“I recognized the pattern like, ‘Oh, you guys, as a mom-and-pop shop, you all face exactly the same problem — marketing your business,’” Allen said.
He realized most local eateries had no marketing budgets, and delivery apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash charge high commissions that leave restaurants with little profit.
Local eateries needed more customers but were losing money to third-party services, Allen said. He thought developing an app could solve the problem.
Allen sat on the idea for five years.
He worked at the startup during the day and drove for Uber at night, using the ride-share service to poll 1,000 customers on what they would want in a food app.
“Would you increase your frequency to a restaurant if it had a buy one, get one free deal?” he asked his riders. “Would you be willing to pay between $5 and $20 a month to be able to get that deal? And what medium do you want that through? Is it a punch card? Is it an app?”
Launching a local restaurant app
In 2022, Allen teamed up with fellow co-founder and Cal Poly graduate Alex Kavanaugh to build SLOeats.
It took more than six months to create the application, get restaurants on board and find a subscriber base, he told The Tribune.
Allen spoke directly to small business owners, many of whom promptly joined after learning they didn’t have to spend any money upfront. All they had to do was offer a daily deal to SLOeats members, and in return, they would get free advertising and more customers, Allen said.
Allen and Kavanaugh gave away free popsicles at the downtown SLO Farmers Market, chatted up students on Cal Poly’s campus and thought up more than 20 ways to market the restaurants. They used door hangers and flyers and pushed social media ads.
By the time the app was fully formed, they already had attracted 2,000 followers on social media and email lists, Allen said.
SLOeats launched with 20 restaurants in January 2023.
Breakfast Buzz was one of the first eateries to join the app with a buy one, get one free breakfast burrito deal. Reynolds said the app has worked seamlessly, and he’s had zero complaints from customers.
He’s also seen a big boost in business.
“We had a lot of first-time customers, which is what you’re always looking for in a situation like this because you don’t want to just give away free food to the customers you already have,” he said.
College students drive SLOeats app use
Currently, the app now offers deals for 55 restaurants in San Luis Obispo and has amassed more than 15,500 users as of March, Allen told The Tribune.
All users can access the app to see dining deals and discover local restaurants, but only paying SLOeats members can take advantage of the discounts. Allen would not disclose the exact number of SLOeats subscribers to The Tribune due to competition concerns.
Allen attributed the success of SLOeats to the city’s college student population.
“They’re social eaters, they post on social media, they talk in masses, and they have organizations like Greek (fraternity and sorority) life,” he explained.
Cal Poly students have even developed new slang for the app — which is now occasionally referred to as “sleets” — after their smartphones kept auto-correcting SLOeats to the word “sleets.”
According to Allen, half of SLOeats customers are college students, while the other portion is 22- to 50-year-olds in the SLO area.
Last November, SLO Cider Co. joined the app with a buy one, get one free tasting flight deal to attract more young people. Tasting room manager Shawn Marchant said the cidery at 3419 Roberto Ct. in the city’s LoBro neighborhood is tucked away in a spot that fails to get much foot traffic.
“A lot of the people that have come in and used it have been, I would say 21 to probably 30,” Marchant said. “Before most of the people that came in were in the probably 28 to 50 range. So it’s definitely done a good thing, getting a younger crowd in.”
Brooks Burgers co-owner Luke Brooks also said his business’ biggest struggle has been bringing in college students.
However, after six months on the app, the SLO burger joint has already experienced a 7% increase in sales, Brooks told The Tribune.
“It’s helped so much, like the amount of college kids, but also noticing a lot of other people, like different demographics, coming in and using the app as well.”
Brooks admitted it was expensive to hand out a daily buy one, get one free burger deal, but he said it was more than worth it to introduce a new audience to his restaurant.
“I think SLOeats’ goal is to kind of bring the power back to the local businesses,” Brooks said.
SLOeats isn’t available at every restaurant
Not all local eateries jump at the opportunity to join the app, and some restaurants aren’t allowed on SLOeats, Allen said.
The restaurant deals app was built for mom-and-pop shops, so the app doesn’t let corporate chains on unless they have local franchise owners, like San Luis Obispo-founded Jamba Juice, Allen explained.
SLOeats isn’t the right platform for local fine-dining restaurants either. Upscale restaurants typically don’t need marketing help, and they’re less frequented by younger demographics, Allen said.
Some restaurants like Hoagies, Humble Oven and Seeds, have offered deals and then decided to leave the app.
“Once you start incentivizing customers through something like SLOeats, obviously your profit margins are going to be affected,” Seeds owner Rammy Aburashed said.
Last month, the restaurant decided to pause its buy one, get one breakfast sandwich deal after the fast-casual spot began to enter its busy season. But Seeds may return to SLOeats next fall when business slows down again, Aburashed said.
According to Allen, many other restaurants want to offer deals on SLOeats, but the profit margins are too small for certain cuisines, such as poke, dessert shops and coffee houses.
SLOeats has big expansion plans
New features, restaurants and locations are coming soon to the SLOeats app, Allen said, including at least a dozen more San Luis Obispo eateries.
Now that the app is dialed in, the co-founder said SLOeats was ready to enter new cities.
“We need to grow to continue being profitably and more comfortably sustainable,” Allen said.
In the next six months, SLOeats plans to expand to Isla Vista, the college community surrounding UC Santa Barbara, and Boston, which Allen called “SLO on steroids” because it has the potential to reach more than 150,000 students.
The app will also start offering deals in Pismo Beach and the Paso Robles area by early 2026.
Soon, SLOeats will launch features that allow Airbnb hosts to buy memberships for guests, and let students host school fundraisers by selling app memberships, with 25% of the profits going back to the school, according to Allen.
How to download the SLOeats app
You can download the SLOeats app through the Apple App Store or Google Play.
A subscription costs $9 a month.
This story was originally published March 29, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "What is SLOeats? The story behind the popular app bringing dining deals to SLO."
