DoorDash and The Martin Agency Debut ‘Soul Of The City’ at Tribeca Film Festival

DoorDash debuted its latest mini-documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival. Directed by Kristian Mercado, in collaboration with The Martin Agency, “Soul Of The City” captures the craft and resilience of New York City restaurants including Caracas Arepa Bar, Tacoway Beach, Nom Wah Tea Parlor, Sylvia’s, Peppa’s Jerk Chicken, and Palma.

More than 1,000 restaurants have closed since New York City’s dining rooms shut down last year due to COVID-19. Many restaurants, which were once the lifeblood of communities and a sacred gathering space for customers, are still struggling as the city reopens. The intent for “Soul Of The City” is to encourage viewers to dine-in at restaurants to help revitalize the industry.

“We’ve always felt very strongly that our business is fundamentally about supporting businesses,” shares DoorDash’s VP of Marketing, Kofi Amoo-Gottfried. “With the world coming back, we had to think: ‘How do we help restaurants? We’ve got brand programs, we’ve cut commissions—but how do we continue to lean in and help, and how do we make sure that the restaurant stories are always front and center?” he continued.

“Soul Of The City” also profiles two incredible restaurateurs, Maribel Araujo of Caracas Arepas Bar and Andrew Field of Tacoway Beach. Both of their restaurants had been forced to close locations due to the pandemic, but were ultimately saved through DoorDash’s “Reopen for Delivery” initiative. The initiative protects restaurants integral to the fabric of local communities and cultures by rebuilding operations with delivery-only spaces, providing logistics support for adopting a delivery-only model, and investing in operations and marketing support throughout the reopening process to reduce overhead costs.