Portata, the AI host for your restaurant phone

Quinn picks up before the second ring. She knows your menu the way a regular does, takes the order, and hands the room back to you. Pickup drops straight into your POS. If they want it delivered, she'll text them a link to pay and send a Dasher, no cards over the phone, no delivery setup on your end. She works the rush, the Sunday catering call, and everything after close.

Do the math first →

In your browser. No download. Five minutes.

"We didn't build a phone bot. We hired a host who happens to be made of code."

Stephen Grant, founder

№ 01

The receipts

of calls go unanswered during the 5-to-8 rush

1 in 0

of the callers who hit voicemail ever try again

0 in 10

guests give up on the restaurant if nobody picks up

$0B

a year, nationally, that rings out

The most expensive sound in your restaurant is a phone nobody answers.

Here's what the industry's own reporting says about the phone. Most guests still prefer to call¹. During the 5-to-8 rush, studies put unanswered calls at roughly one in three² and only about a third of the callers who hit voicemail ever try again³. Almost seven in ten guests say that if nobody picks up, they give up on the restaurant entirely⁴. Across the country, that adds up to an estimated twenty billion dollars a year that rings out⁵.

None of that is a knock on your team. It's Friday. The window's full, the line's six deep, and the person nearest the phone has raw hands and a ticket rail to run. The phone loses that fight every time, and it should. That's the gap Quinn works.

Sources, all five

1 63% of U.S. adults name the phone as their preferred way to reach a restaurant. The Harris Poll 2,065 U.S. adults 18+, fielded May 29, June 2, 2025.

2 The average restaurant misses 32% of incoming calls between 5 and 8 PM, the window that carries roughly 47% of the day's phone orders. QSR Magazine.

3 Only about 1 in 3 of those callers tries again. QSR Magazine same analysis. Other widely-cited figures put callback rates far lower; we've used the friendliest one we could source.

4 69% say they'd give up on a restaurant that doesn't answer. Same Harris Poll as note 1.

5 QSR Magazine, "While the Phone Rings, Restaurants Are Losing $20 Billion."

Two sources carry all five numbers, and we'd rather you know that than count footnotes. The Harris Poll was commissioned by an AI phone company that competes with us, which makes it the least self-serving survey we could have picked, and you should still read it as industry-funded. Every link goes to the source, not to us.

Napkin math

Run your own numbers. These are deliberately modest.

Missed calls / wk

× Close rate %

× Avg pickup ticket $

= Recovered revenue / mo$3,136

Staff hours on phone / day h

× Hourly cost, loaded $

× Days open / mo

= Labor saved / mo$2,016

Portata base$99

+ 173 resolved × 50¢$87

= Portata cost / mo$186

Quinn pays for herself + you keep $4,966

Quinn pays for herself. You keep

$4,966

What she brings backHer cost: 4%

Defaults are a Friday-heavy pickup shop. Drag a dial or type over any number.

We'll say the quiet part: we don't have our own accuracy stats to wave around yet, and we won't invent any. What we have is her voice. Talk to her, try to trip her up, and decide with your own ears.

№ 01b

The shift

Same phone. Different night.

A quiet Tuesday and a slammed Friday ring the same line. Quinn treats both the same way, which is the point. Pick a night.

Sample night, not a real restaurant. The 32% missed-call rate is the industry's, not ours.

Tuesday. A phone that mostly rests.

Calls in the hour

Answered, first ring

To voicemail

Orders in the POS

Handed to you

0:00

Longest hold

Tuesday is easy. The point of a host is that Friday looks exactly like this.

№ 02

The hosts

Portrait

Quinn

The host

·Picks up before the second ring, every ring, all year
·Knows the caller like a regular. Remembers their usual from real order history, not a guess
·Recommends like a host, not a search box. Ask her what's good
·Funny when the moment's there. Will banter, knows when not to
·Hands the call to you the moment it's yours to take
·Habla español. Switches when the caller does, no ceremony

Pictured: Quinn, as much as she can be / made of code / sounds like a wine bar host just back from Ibiza

Porto

The other host

Same taste, same rules, lower register. Where Quinn is quick and warm, Porto is unhurried, the guy who's worked the door twenty years and has never once sounded rushed. Some rooms want one, some want the other.

You pick when we set you up, and you can switch later. No charge either way, on any tier, it's a voice, not an upsell.

A host, not a phone bot.

The phone is the most personal surface your restaurant has. It's also the most expensive thing your line cook can be holding at 7:14 on a Friday. So we built a host. Not a menu of options. Not a voice tree. Not "press one for hours." A host: the kind of voice that picks up the way the best room in the neighborhood does, takes the order, answers the question, and gets out of the way.

We're operators. Before this was an AI company, Portata was an agency for the same kind of room you run: natural wine lists, brand placement, editorial features, music booking. So we know the difference between a call center and a front of house. One reads scripts. The other reads the room.

Sound check / Quinn and Porto, off the clock

Hear both hosts 0:41

Two voices, forty one seconds, off the clock. Pick the one that sounds like your room.

Both voices are the ones that answer your phone. Rendered 2026-09-13 through the same path as a live call.

"We don't replace your host. We back them up when the rush hits, and we stay on after close."

The house position

<2s

Pickup time

24/7

In the room

EN·ES

Both languages, one voice

№ 03

How a call goes

A 92-second pickup, annotated.

00:00

Quinn

"Hey, this is Quinn, the AI host at Tony's. Heads up, this call's recorded. What can I get you?"

She says what she is, once, up front, and moves on. No greeting tree. No "listen carefully, our options have changed."
00:07

Caller

"Hey, large pepperoni, half mushroom on the other side. Pickup at 6:30?"
00:14

Quinn

"Large, half pepperoni half mushroom, 6:30. Can I grab a name?"

The order's already in the cart. No "one moment while I check our system." The lookup happens while she talks, not instead of talking.
00:41

Caller

"Marisol. Actually, you know what goes with that? Pick me a wine."
00:48

Quinn

"With the pepperoni? The Chianti, it cuts the grease. Or the Lambrusco if you just want something easy."

She recommends like someone who eats there, because that's how she's built. One confident pick, not a recited list.
01:05

Quinn

"Anything else with that? A cannoli for the road, or a Dirty Coke?"

One warm ask before the total. She works the whole menu, beverages and desserts included, not just the entree.
01:12

Caller

"Nah, that's it. Thanks."
01:16

Quinn

"Large half-and-half and the Chianti, thirty-eight fifty, ready at 6:30. Cash or card at pickup?"

The total ends in a question, and then she stops. That silence belongs to the caller. Nothing is placed until they have heard the number and answered it.
01:22

Caller

"Card."
01:24

Quinn

"Card at the register when you get here. Anything else I can help you with?"

The order went to the POS in the gap before this line. She confirms where the payment happens and asks the last question once.
01:29

Caller

"Nope, that's everything."
01:32

Quinn

"See you soon, Marisol!"

The goodbye is its own line, with nothing packed into it. Name used once, on the way out. That's the moment it stops feeling like software.

When it's a regular

00:00

Quinn

"Hey Marisol, it's Quinn. The usual tonight? Large half-and-half, Chianti, 6:30?"
00:04

Caller

"Yeah. You're the best."
00:07

Quinn

"Thirty-eight fifty, card at the register. Anything else I can help you with?"

"The usual" is Marisol's top item by real order history, not a persona guess. Quinn only offers it when she has the receipts. Her yes comes first, then Quinn places the order.
00:11

Caller

"That's it."
00:12

Quinn

"See you at 6:30!"

House rules

What Quinn will not do.

·Guess about an allergy. That call comes to you, every time, no exceptions.
·Take a complaint. Routed to a human, warmly, with context already passed.
·Invent a price, an item, or a policy. If she doesn't know, she says so and gets a person.
·Leave a caller at a dead end. If anything fails twice, she transfers or takes a message. Someone always calls back.
·Pretend to be human. She discloses up front by default, and answers straight if asked.
·Take payment or field an allergy from a kid caller. She recognizes the register, softens up, and asks for a grown-up before anything sensitive moves forward.
·Ask a caller to read a card number over the phone. Payment is a text link they tap. Safer for them, easier on you, one fewer thing on the PCI checklist.

And what she will do

·Works with the POS you already run. No rip-and-replace, no new hardware.
·Handle delivery when you want it. A Dasher gets sent, tracking texted to the caller. You do zero delivery ops.
·Let you run it from the portal. Delivery on, delivery off, after-hours ordering, prepay required. Flip a switch, it takes seconds.

And be funny. Not stand-up funny. Host funny. The dry aside when someone orders a pineapple pizza and braces for judgment. The straight answer when they ask if she's a robot, and the joke right after it. She reads the room: banter with the regular who's clearly in a good mood, and get out of the way of the guy ordering from a parking lot with a kid yelling in the back.

Anyone can build software that takes an order. A host is the person your regulars ask for by name.

What it costs

The full breakdown →

$99/mo + 50¢ per resolved call ·$0 setup ·Unlimited minutes ·You only pay when she wins ·Month to month

№ 03b

How it all works together

One line, the whole front of house.

You keep your POS, your kitchen, your line. Quinn sits on top of the way you already work. Nothing to rip out, nothing new to learn.

One ticket, four doorsWatch one go

Step 1 first ring

Caller dials, Quinn picks up.

First ring. She says who she is, and takes it from there.

Step 2

Ticket #0412
1× LG pepperoni · ½ mushroom
pickup 6:30 · Marisol

The order lands in your POS.

Whichever register you already run. The ticket prints where every other ticket prints.

Step 3a

6:30

Pickup? Ready at your normal cadence.

They walk in, they pay at the counter, they leave. Same as always.

Step 3b

kitchendasherdoorstep

Delivery? A Dasher gets sent.

Caller taps a text link to pay. A Dasher is dispatched. Tracking texted to the caller. You don't hire a driver, you don't touch the delivery app.

Step 1

Caller dials, Quinn picks up.

First ring. She says who she is, and takes it from there.
Step 2

The order lands in your POS.

Whichever register you already run. The ticket prints where every other ticket prints.
Step 3a

Pickup? Ready at your normal cadence.

They walk in, they pay at the counter, they leave. Same as always.
Step 3b

Delivery? A Dasher gets sent.

Caller taps a text link to pay. A Dasher is dispatched. Tracking texted to the caller. You don't hire a driver, you don't touch the delivery app.

Delivery, prepay, and after-hours ordering are portal switches. Flip them on when you're ready, off when you're not.

№ 04

The ledger

See every call you would have missed.

Every call, every order, every handoff, laid out like a maître d's ledger you can read from the back of the kitchen. Live, with transcripts. This is the portal you sign in to, on a sample night.

Open the full portal →

✳︎Portata Marino's Pizzeria

gina@marinospizzaphl.comReport an issueSign out

Live callsLive

(215) 555-0102Placing a delivery order

1m 23sDuration6Turns3Host3Caller

QuinnMarino's Pizzeria, this is Quinn.

CallerDelivery please. One large half mushroom half sausage.

QuinnLarge, half mushroom half sausage. What's the address?

Caller2214 South 13th Street.

QuinnThanks. Delivery is $4.99 and I'll text a payment link. Name for the order?

lookup_menucreate_ordersend_payment_link

Take over

(610) 555-0125Menu question

38sDuration3Turns2Host1Caller

QuinnThanks for calling Marino's, this is Quinn.

CallerHi, is the white pizza vegetarian?

QuinnIt is: ricotta, mozzarella, garlic, olive oil. No meat.

lookup_menu

Take over

Today

What your host has handled since midnight.

Calls answered

Orders taken

Passed to your team

Orders left on the table

On tonightChange it

Two large cheese + dozen wings. Every game day · $34.00

Friday: lobster ravioli. While it lasts · $22.00

Latest calls

In progress(215) 555-0102Today 7:10 PM
In progress(610) 555-0125Today 7:11 PM
Order taken(215) 555-0164Today 6:19 PM
Chat(856) 555-0121Today 5:32 PM
To your team(215) 555-0156Today 4:46 PM
Order taken(267) 555-0108Today 3:59 PM

Sample night · not a real restaurantThis is the portal, at portata.dev/portal

You see what your host did while you were on the line. That's the whole point.

A sample service, not a screenshot of a real restaurant, the numbers, names and orders above are invented to show the layout. We're not going to dress up someone else's Friday and call it ours.

№ 06

The menu

One price. Aligned with your success.

$99a month, the line, the number,
the dashboard

+50¢per call she resolves.
Nothing else.

A resolved call is one Quinn finishes herself: the order taken, the question answered, a clean goodbye. Anything she hands to your staff, anything that drops or goes silent, costs you nothing. You see the count in your dashboard, per call.

Resolved50¢Order in, or question answered

Handed to you$0Allergy, complaint, catering, the owner

Silent or dropped$0Wrong number, hang-up, robocall

No setup fee · Unlimited minutes · Spanish included · Dashboard included · Month to month · Cancel whenever

Your month, priced

Drag

500

calls a month
every one of them resolved

Around the category*~$789

Portata$349

You keep $440 / mo

Pull up a seat

* A common structure around the category: $199 base plus $0.59 per minute above 500 bundled minutes, at a three-minute average call. Portata: $99 plus 50¢ per resolved call, no bundle, no overage. Vendors vary by quote, which is sort of the point.

№ 07

The questions that come up

The questions that actually come up.

What if she screws up?

Here's the honest version: she's only ever competing with the calls that were going to voicemail anyway. Her worst day beats a missed call. Every call has a transcript in your dashboard, so if she gets something wrong you'll see it, we'll fix it, and you can hand any category of call back to your team with one setting. And you don't pay for it. A call that didn't resolve isn't billable.

What if she doesn't know an answer?

She transfers. If a question lives outside your menu and the answers you gave her, she hands the caller to your staff line with the context already passed. She does not guess about allergies, complaints, or anything that needs you. If nobody can pick up, she takes a message and someone calls back. No caller ever hits a dead end.

Will guests know she's AI?

By default, yes. She introduces herself as the AI host in the first sentence, because that's the conservative call under a patchwork of state rules and it costs her nothing. If your state and your judgment allow, you can switch to disclose-on-ask instead. Either way she never pretends to be a person. The bet of Portata is that the experience earns the trust regardless.

How fast can we have her on the line?

Here's the honest answer: you'd be among the first, so we're not going to quote you an average we don't have. What we can tell you is the work. Send your menu, your hours, and your three or four most-asked questions. We tune her to the room, you get a number to test privately for as long as you want, and you forward your line only when she's earned it, not on a date we picked. We'll give you a real date once we've seen your menu, and we'd rather be slow than hand you a host who doesn't know your room. No setup fee, on any tier.

What if the menu changes?

Text us and we push it same day. 86'd items, specials, seasonal swaps. If you'd rather do it yourself, the dashboard has a menu editor that won't make you regret opening it.

Can I listen to old calls?

Every call has a transcript in the dashboard. Recordings stay 30 days. It's the easiest way to spot the recurring question that probably belongs on your menu copy.

Still reading?

Order a pizza that doesn't exist. Ask what goes with pepperoni. Ask her something a robot would fumble and see what she does with it.

№ 08 The founder

Stephen Grant

Founder · Portata

LinkedIn →

I build and sell AI phone agents for a living. Portata is that work, pointed at a room with taste.

My day job is enterprise sales at a healthcare technology company, putting AI voice agents on the phone lines of hospitals and health systems. I helped build them too, shaping how the agents actually behave on a live call, what they're allowed to say, where they hand off to a human. Healthcare is the least forgiving place to put a voice on a phone line. You learn very quickly which agents hold up when a real person calls, and which ones only ever demo well.

Off the clock, I care about the same things a good room cares about. The wine list, the record on, the door at eleven, the pizza a regular orders without thinking. I know why one place is somewhere you'd stay and the one next door isn't. That's not a résumé bullet, it's a sensibility, and it's the one that decides whether the voice picking up your phone actually belongs to your room.

Portata is those two things on purpose. The reliability discipline healthcare forces on you, aimed at the restaurants and pizza shops that already run a real room. The voice answering the phone is the brand. We built a host for the places that treat it that way.

Based in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.

Your phone
is ringing.
Your kitchen
is slammed.

The most expensive sound in your restaurant is a phone nobody answers.

Same phone. Different night.

A host, not a phone bot.

A 92-second pickup, annotated.

One line, the whole front of house.

See every call you would have missed.

Read the fine print.
There isn't much.

The questions that actually come up.

I build and sell AI phone agents for a living. Portata is that work, pointed at a room with taste.

Your phone is ringing. Your kitchen is slammed.

The most expensive sound in your restaurant is a phone nobody answers.

Same phone. Different night.

A host, not a phone bot.

A 92-second pickup, annotated.

One line, the whole front of house.

See every call you would have missed.

Read the fine print.There isn't much.

The questions that actually come up.

I build and sell AI phone agents for a living. Portata is that work, pointed at a room with taste.

Your phone
is ringing.
Your kitchen
is slammed.

Read the fine print.
There isn't much.