Meet El Jefe’s Taqueria
Founded in 2015 in Harvard Square, El Jefe’s Taqueria is now a nine-location restaurant brand serving high-quality, authentic Mexican food. From the beginning, El Jefe’s has focused on value, speed, and convenience, staying open until 4 a.m. to serve late-night crowds. That commitment to availability made delivery and digital ordering core to its operations from day one.
The challenge
By 2022, El Jefe’s was generating $10 million annually in delivery sales — half of which came through DoorDash, with the rest split across two other third-party delivery providers (according to El Jefe's internal data). But managing three platforms created operational headaches and made it hard to ensure profitability, data consistency, and customer loyalty.
The solution
John Schall, Founder of El Jefe’s, made a bold move in September 2023: go exclusive with DoorDash. Although Schall and his team were initially worried about missing out on orders from other third-party providers, their choice to go exclusive with DoorDash paid off. Within six months of going exclusive with DoorDash, El Jefe’s not only matched the monthly sales they had previously seen using multiple third-party delivery providers but also grew year-over-year digital sales by 20% (according to El Jefe's internal data).
"Going exclusively with DoorDash was a huge home run for us in every way."
In addition to going exclusive with DoorDash for third-party delivery, Schall also decided to switch from Toast Loyalty to DoorDash Commerce Platform Pro package. His goal was to generate more revenue, increase average ticket size, and drive commission-free* first-party sales by building stronger customer relationships, all while consolidating his restaurant marketing technology into one all-encompassing tool.
Leveraging all the Pro package has to offer, El Jefe’s saw rapid traction with DoorDash Commerce Platform. Within three months of launching their branded mobile app, El Jefe's secured nearly 7,000 app downloads, with app sales representing 32% of all first-party digital orders (based on DoorDash data, Jun-Sep 2025).
El Jefe's also saw immediate ROI on Cross-Channel Loyalty, which includes an automated email series for loyalty program members. Automated loyalty emails, paired with other automated email marketing campaigns available through DoorDash Commerce Platform, generated $18,000 in sales in the three months after El Jefe's went live with the Pro package (based on DoorDash data, Jun-Sep 2025).
"With DoorDash’s CRM and loyalty, we can track and communicate with all our customers—not just the ones who walk in and that leads to more profitable sales."
All in all, within just three months of making the switch to DoorDash Commerce Platform, year-over-year first-party digital sales lift accelerated to 30% after adoption of the Pro package (based on DoorDash data, Jan 2024-Aug 2025).
El Jefe’s, elevated
For El Jefe’s, the Commerce Platform didn’t just streamline operations — it unlocked new growth, helping the restaurant scale without sacrificing what made the brand special. From driving commission-free* orders,* to scaling their loyalty program, DoorDash Commerce Platform continues to be El Jefe's door to more profitable growth.
Get a Commerce Platform demo*You just pay a standard payment processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per order with Boost and Pro packages, and 3.3% + $0.30 per order with Starter.
