If you examine the top food and beverage apps in the App Store, it’s no surprise that QSRs dominate. Since the pandemic, these chains have invested heavily in building their own first-party mobile applications that promote direct online ordering in exchange for rewards. But what about the long tail of small-to-medium sized local restaurants? Over the past year, Square has been working on building out a network between its 250k+ food and beverage merchants and its 58mm monthly Cash App users called Neighborhoods under its greater Block, Inc. umbrella. The product allows merchants to build a followership of their most loyal customers while unlocking 1% processing fees and is currently in beta at ~300 brands across the US. This week, HNGRY beta-tests Neighborhoods to see whether it offers independents a shot at clawing back power from the delivery platforms that now sit between them and their customers.