New dining club allows you to eat for half price at local restaurants

IDAHO FALLS – A new nationwide dining club is working with a host of local restaurants to allow customers to eat out for half price.

Pay Half Club launched in east Idaho and four other markets on Dec. 15. The owners say its popularity is exploding and local restaurants tell EastIdahoNews.com they are pleased with the success.

The company works through on a mobile app. Customers sign up in the app and pay $29.95 a month. As members, they receive 50 percent off two adult entrees, three kids meals and alcoholic beverages. The discount can be used unlimited times during a month.

Stockman’s Steakhouse, Frosty Gator, Lucy’s Pizzeria, Gringos and Smitty’s Pancake House are among a dozen local restaurants participating in the program.

“This is going to revolutionize the restaurant industry,” Arick Levacy-Sadin, the owner of Stockman’s, tells EastIdahoNews.com. “Everybody wants a good deal and this gives it to them.”

Pay Half Club is based in Austin, Texas and is rolling out in cities across the country. The largest market – New York City – launched today and the company’s CEO says the app will transform the dining industry, without them owning a single restaurant.

“Forty percent of people who download the app become paying members,” CEO Traci Williams says. “If you go out to eat one time a month with your family, it can pay for itself.”

A member can refer friends and family to the app and, if four others sign up, the original member pays no monthly membership fee.

Hundreds of restaurants have entered into agreements with Pay Half Club. Only local favorites (no chain restaurants) are allowed to appear on the app.

“Our restaurants are already seeing an increase in revenue,” Williams says. “Traffic and volume are also up.”

Pay Half Club splits the member enrollment fees with affiliate restaurants. Allan Garner, the Pay Half Club sales manager for east Idaho, says this creates another revenue stream for businesses.

“It makes sense for the restaurants to participate and makes sense for customers to download the app,” Garner says.

Pay Half Club says new restaurants are added to the app every day.