Baltimore startup Flave is looking to gamify the dining experience and boost sales at local restaurants that have been hit hard by the pandemic.

Now in public beta, the app arrives in a changing landscape for local restaurants. Amid rising COVID-19 cases, Baltimore will prohibit indoor and outdoor dining on Friday. So, as in the early months of the pandemic, delivery and carryout will be the only way restaurants can function during quarantine. Many restaurants turn to third party delivery apps like Grubhub and Uber Eats, but those take a commission that cut into the razor thin profits of restaurants that have gotten even thinner during the pandemic.

Jal Irani, a computer science professor at Towson University and John Hopkins University, along with cofounders James Soldinger and Derek Battle, created Flave to give restaurants some of the same benefits of third-party apps like Yelp and GrubHub, but without the fees.

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