Grazing Theory

The problem

Grazing Theory sells beautiful food: charcuterie boards, grazing tables for weddings and events, workshops, and wholesale boards for local wineries. But the business behind it ran on workarounds. The website and store lived on an aging do-it-yourself builder. Every order went onto a hand-kept master list. Wineries ordered through a Google Form. And weddings and events, some of the biggest orders, couldn’t be quoted or booked online.

The owner needed more than a new website. She needed one system that sells, quotes, books, and runs the kitchen.

What I built

• A 105-page website with all 80 menu items read live from the shop’s own point of sale, so prices and items are never out of date.
• Online ordering and checkout for pickup or delivery, with delivery priced automatically by road distance, board rentals with refundable deposits, and the shop’s ordering rules built in.
• Brie, an AI concierge on every page that recommends what to order by guest count and occasion, adds it to the basket, and quotes and books weddings and events, right through a signed agreement and retainer. Brie never makes up a price, and anything outside the rules goes straight to the owner.
• Super Brie, the owner’s private AI assistant, that answers questions from live sales, orders, and inventory, and makes changes only when she taps Save.
• A wedding and event booking system with a step-by-step planner, pricing built from the owner’s own rules, and agreements signed online.
• An order hub and staff app that replaced the master list: every order from every source on one screen, a driver view, kitchen and driver guides, and inventory, recipes, and prep lists.
• Wholesale ordering for wineries, with a private order link and menu for each partner and invoices created automatically.
• 17 automated customer emails, from order confirmations to a Google review request the morning after every order.

I took it from first day to launch in 16 days, and it went live on grazingtheory.com taking real orders and payments.

By the numbers

• 105 website pages
• 80 menu items kept in sync with the point of sale
• 34 staff app screens, including step-by-step staff guides
• 17 automated customer email types
• 11 winery and wholesale partners set up with their own ordering links
• 257 old web addresses redirected, so existing Google rankings carried over
• About 29,900 lines of custom code

Why it pays off

• More bookings without more phone calls. Brie answers questions, builds orders, and quotes weddings and events day and night, and a booking ends with a signed agreement and a retainer paid, not a “let me get back to you.”
• Bigger orders. Recommendations by guest count and occasion, add-ons, and rentals are suggested at exactly the moment people are deciding.
• A kitchen that runs on one screen. No more master list. Every order, from the website, the wineries, weddings, or the phone, lands in the same place with dietary notes and delivery details.
• Wholesale that bills itself. Winery orders come in through their own links and create the invoice automatically.
• A reputation that keeps growing. Every customer gets a review request the morning after their order.
• Nothing lost in the switch. Every old web address forwards to its new page, so Google rankings built over the years carried over on launch day.

Everything I built

For anyone who wants the full picture, here’s the whole project. Open any section for the details.

The website: 105 pages

• A brand and design system built from the owner’s logo colors, with an editorial layout that lets the food carry the page.
• A home page with a three-photo hero tuned for phones and two clear paths: shop boards, or get an instant quote.
• An online menu of 80 items, with options, add-ons, rentals, deposits, serving and storage details, and dietary notes.
• Ways to shop by product, by occasion, by guest count, a deli and DIY kits section, and a seasonal page whose holiday items appear and disappear on their own each year.
• Service pages for grazing tables, weddings, corporate events, private parties, celebrations of life, a mobile charcuterie cart, cones, and workshops.
• Workshops and pop-ups with online ticket sales and seat limits.
• A journal with 9 articles, plus a gallery, service areas with delivery prices by town, FAQ, contact, and order-tracking pages.
• Built for phones first, fast-loading, and to the WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standard.

Online ordering, checkout, and payments

• Pickup or delivery, date and time choices, and the shop’s ordering rules enforced automatically.
• Delivery priced by road distance from the shop, including set-time priority delivery.
• Card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay, with every order created in the shop’s own point of sale.
• Board and display-stand rentals with refundable deposits and return reminders.
• Optional gratuity, gift deliveries with recipient texting, note cards, and dietary and allergy notes.
• Holiday hours, and a switch that stops new website orders on a day the kitchen is full.
• A private tracking page for every order.

Brie, the AI concierge

• A chat assistant on every page, in the owner’s voice, clearly identified as automated.
• Knows the live menu, every item, the policies, workshops, delivery areas, and the owner’s story, and updates when the menu changes.
• Recommends what to order by guest count and occasion using the owner’s own rules, including vegan and pescatarian options, and adds it straight to the basket.
• Quotes and books weddings and events: checks the date, measures the distance to the venue, prices it with the owner’s rules, and finishes with a signed agreement and retainer.
• Hands off to the owner, with the full conversation, when a request needs a person.
• Built-in guardrails: no discounts and no made-up policies.

Super Brie, the owner's private assistant

• Answers business questions from live data: today’s orders, sales, inventory, prep lists, and recipes.
• Updates product write-ups, policies, and fees, records stock, reads receipts and recipe sheets from photos, and places supplier orders.
• Shows every change first, and only makes it when the owner taps Save.

Weddings and events

• Pricing built from the owner’s own questionnaire, from grazing tables by guest count to add-ons, travel, and setup.
• A step-by-step online wedding planner, plus the same booking inside Brie.
• Event agreements signed online, with signed copies and the owner’s countersignature.
• Quote request forms that land in the staff app.

The order hub and staff app

• Every order from every source on one screen: website, wineries, weddings and events, and phone orders.
• Today, upcoming, past, and driver views, with dietary flags, delivery details, and status buttons, and every change logged.
• Customers get an email at each step: ready for pickup, out for delivery, and thank you.
• Rental returns and deposits, event guest lists with check-in, team accounts, and a quote request inbox.
• Step-by-step kitchen and driver guides with screenshots, house rules, and welcome emails for every staff member.
• Inventory and kitchen management: stock counts, receipts, recipes, prep lists, buy lists, low-stock alerts, and supplier orders.

Wholesale ordering for wineries

• A private order link and menu for each winery partner, replacing the old Google Form.
• Cutoffs and late-order rules enforced automatically, with confirmation emails.
• Invoices created automatically for every winery order.
• Launch emails sent to every partner with their link and how to order.

Launch

• The full menu imported with photos, live payments connected, and a real test order placed and refunded.
• The domain moved to the new site without touching the owner’s existing email.
• Every old web address forwarded to its new page.
• Google and Bing set up, the sitemap submitted, and website analytics running.
• Every winery partner sent their ordering link, and every staff member sent a welcome email and guide.