Home port · Indre-et-Loire
Restaurants of Tours and Indre-et-Loire: let's take back the orders
Captain.Food wants to unite the independent restaurants and food trucks of Tours and its metro area around a simple idea: 0% commission on your dishes, your customers as your own, money that stays close to home.
⚓ Nothing is built yet. We're starting out in Tours, then we want to spread commune by commune. This page describes the local roadmap, not a service already active everywhere.
A ~30% commission on a ~3% net margin: up to 10× what you keep on the order.
Why a project anchored here
Roughly 8,000 food-service establishments went insolvent in France in 2024 — +80% in two years (Altares 2024). With an average net margin of ~3% (Observatoire Fiducial, UMIH/GHR/SNARR 2025) against platform commissions of ~25 to 30% (public sources, 2024), the pressure is the same from Place Plumereau to the Chambray retail zone. We want to answer it locally — Tours first, then the metro area. Discover the commission-free restaurant in Tours, online ordering under your name, click and collect and ethical delivery (a channel to come).
Tours
The home port. Between the Vieux-Tours and Place Plumereau, rue Colbert, Les Halles and the student quarter around the universities, the density of independent restaurants, food-focused bars and food trucks is high — and the young crowd orders a lot online. That's exactly where a ~30% commission hurts the most, and where a direct channel under your name makes the most sense. We're launching here, with a first group of restaurateurs shaping the tool.
Joué-lès-Tours
The second city of Indre-et-Loire, more residential and spread out, with its retail hubs (the Liodière area, Rives du Cher) and its residential neighbourhoods. Here, takeaway and neighbourhood delivery matter: families order in the evening, at home. A click and collect under your name, commission-free, makes full sense here to retain a local customer base rather than leaving it to a platform.
Saint-Pierre-des-Corps
A railway and industrial town, shaped by the TGV station and its business zones. Food service here lives largely on the workers' lunch trade and people passing through: quick lunches, set menus, takeaway. Smooth online ordering, booked ahead and picked up with no wait, fits the local rhythm — and 0% commission clearly changes the equation on tight average tickets.
Saint-Avertin
A residential commune to the south, along the banks of the Cher — rather peaceful and family-oriented. The customer base here is loyal and local: people come back to their favourite spots. It's the ideal ground to take back control of your customer base — recover your regulars' contact details (with their consent) and bring them back, instead of depending on a platform's algorithm.
Chambray-lès-Tours
The major retail hub of the southern metro area (big retail zones, close to the CHRU Trousseau hospital), busy all day with workers, patients and visitors. Lots of footfall means lots of orders captured by the big platforms. A direct channel under your name, with online ordering and, in time, a delivery paid decently, keeps that value local instead of watching it leave as commission.
Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire
On the slopes north of the Loire, a well-off, dynamic residential commune. The customer base here is demanding, attached to quality and to local business — receptive to the idea of directly supporting its restaurateurs rather than a multinational. The “money that stays close to home” angle and the customer's pay-what-you-want contribution resonate particularly well here.
The same course everywhere: 0% on your dishes
Whatever your commune, the model is the same: 0% commission on your dishes, your customers as your own, your prices with no double menu. The service would be funded by the customer's pay-what-you-want contribution (€0 is fine, no judgment), never by you, never a surcharge imposed on the customer. A structure carried by the Caring Hope Foundation association (a French loi 1901 non-profit), with a cooperative course (SCIC as the goal) and ESUS accreditation as the objective. How we fund ourselves → · Read the manifesto →
Curious about the product? Check out the mockups and compare the alternative to Uber Eats and the alternative to Deliveroo in Tours.
Frequently asked questions
Does Captain.Food already cover the whole Tours metro area?
No, nothing is built yet. We're starting out in Tours with the first restaurateurs, then we want to spread to the neighbouring communes (Joué-lès-Tours, Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, Saint-Avertin, Chambray-lès-Tours, Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire). It's a roadmap, commune by commune.
My restaurant is on the outskirts of Tours — is this still for me?
Yes. The 0% commission, a customer base that belongs to you and a channel under your name are worth as much in the city centre as in a retail zone or a residential neighbourhood. The first ones aboard in each commune weigh the most on what the tool will become.
Why start with Tours and not all of France?
Because one territory done well beats a botched national rollout. We want to build in Tours, between independents who know each other, before spreading. The structure aims to become a digital commons that can be replicated elsewhere.
Is your restaurant in Tours or the metro area? Write to miam@captain.food or chat directly on WhatsApp.