North Carolina chef calls out customers who order through DoorDash over money. Then he reveals something shocking about your food: ‘The gift and the curse’
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Robert McCrary (@robert.mccrary3), the owner of The Crazy Pig BBQ in Davidson, North Carolina, isn't mincing words about third-party delivery apps. The longtime restaurateur said DoorDash and its competitors are quietly bleeding small restaurants dry, and that customers have no idea they're participating in a fundamentally different transaction than the one they think they're making.
“DoorDash is not just the delivery,” he said. “It's a completely different restaurant,” he said in a video with over 122,000 views.
The DoorDash Dilemma
McCrary, who's been feeding the Lake Norman area since 2006, laid it out plainly: Delivery apps can take up to 30% of every order. Customers who believe they're supporting a local spot through the app are funneling a significant portion of their money away from the kitchen that cooked their food.
Then there's the human element. Drivers arrive distracted. They treat staff like “a vending machine.” Meanwhile, McCrary's team manages a full dining room of real guests with “real conversations.” The app adds pressure without adding courtesy.
Adding to the harm, the food comes out hot, sits in the window and waits. 10 minutes. Even 20. Sometimes food sits for 45 minutes because there's no driver available. By the time a Dasher finally appears, many meals go cold. Then the inevitable complaint call comes in.
“We made it right. We made it on time,” he said. “It just never left the building when it was supposed to.”
McCrary closed his video with a direct appeal. He understands the convenience. He's not asking anyone to abandon their couch entirely. But if the goal is genuinely supporting a local restaurant, the math favors picking up the phone or walking through the door.
Viewers weigh in
“The restaurants complain about DoorDash, the dashers complain about DoorDash, and the customers complain about DoorDash,” said one man. “But the restaurants keep using it, the dashers keep working for it, and the customers keep ordering it. They won't change unless they are forced to do so.”
One person asked what would seem like an obvious question: “Then why do restaurants accept DoorDash orders then?”
And there was a simple answer with one reply. “That is where the customers are at,” one person added.
The Delivery Dilemma
McCrary's frustrations are far from unique.
DoorDash's commission structure offers three tiers—15, 25, and 30-percent — with higher rates buying restaurants greater visibility and access to the platform's loyal DashPass subscribers. For a small operation, like The Crazy Pig, running on thinner margins, even the lowest tier represents a meaningful cut.
The disconnects between kitchen and customer that McCrary described, which include misdirected complaints and food sitting at the business, are industry-wide sore points. A recent analysis noted that a late handoff or cold meal can undo weeks of good service in a single moment, with the restaurant absorbing blame for problems it never caused.
The tension isn't going away.
“DoorDash is really the gift and the curse for small businesses,” one commenter explained. “On the one hand, they take a hefty sum from businesses, but those businesses price-adjust to ensure they have a profit at the end of every sale. The costs from DoorDash are passed onto the consumer by the actual BUSINESS… They are also paying out billions to gig workers, who would otherwise be unemployed. It's the gift and the curse.”
Buzz News reached out to McCrary via TikTok message and comment. We also reached out to DoorDash via email.
@robert.mccrary3Your DoorDash order might be sitting for 45 minutes… and you'd never know
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