GREECE, N.Y. — Restaurant owners like Majorie Fitzgerald-Dowlatt of Davinci of Greece are breathing a sigh of relief after County Executive Adam Bello capped the fees delivery apps like GrubHub, Door Dash, and Uber Eats can charge to restaurants.

Fitzgerald-Dowlatt believes this comes in handy as her restaurant is in a yellow zone.

“Cutting the cost on these fees in addition to getting any kind of help we can from the state, from the federal government, as well as our overhead of just running the restaurant and not being able to utilize the dining room. Every bit counts,” she said

County Legislator Rachel Barnhart, who originally pushed for this back in November, explains the order only allows delivery apps to charge restaurants up to 15% of an order.

Before it could have been as high as 30%.

“These apps have spent billions of dollars to change consumer behavior. To get us used to logging on to our phones and picking whatever kind of food we want and having it delivered to us in a matter of minutes. It’s very hard for a small business to fight that kind of power,” Barnhart explained

Barnhart felt the order was necessary because the pandemic put restaurants in a tough spot with delivery being the only viable option in some cases.

“Independent small restaurants are worth protecting. They are the literal flavor of our community. They offer so much identity and culture to Rochester. They are wonderful employers. We need to do what we can to keep them open,” said Barnhart.

Fitzgerald-Dowlatt says she is appreciative that this order gives her more flexibility on how she manages the budget to make sure she can maintain services and keep her employees.

“These kinds of decisions that are being made on our behalf is definitely beneficial to us staying alive through all of this. Everyone has their own dream, their American dream, and we are all just trying to make it happen,” Fitzgerald-Dowlatt said.