Reservation book · 14 pages · Hospitality & Food
Harrow & Finch Hospitality, 9-venue restaurant group · Toronto
How a Toronto restaurant group turned chef stories into 140 editorial links
+140
editorial backlinks written in over 14 months
Nine kitchens, one reservation book. Every editorial link the group earned was entered like a booking: the outlet as the guest, the venue as the table, and the story that won it in the remarks column.
Covers — this season
Pages IV–IX
- 4Ontario Table QuarterlyHarrow Grill
- 2The Bloor LedgerFinch Dining Room
- 4Northern PlateHarrow Oyster Bar
- 2Queen West GazetteFinch Taqueria
- 2Six Mile Food ReviewHarrow Grill
- 3The Dish Line PodcastFinch Dining Room
- … and 134 more guests in the book
Total covers, editorial
140
Before service
An empty book, nine tables fighting for the same name
Nine venues were competing with each other for the same brand searches. The group had almost no editorial links of its own while its competitors appeared in every 'best of' roundup.
Diners searching for the group’s name met five separate venue sites, each competing for the same brand query, and an old delivery listing that said the group had closed. Rivals with fewer kitchens looked bigger because editors kept writing about them.
The audit read the group as an editor would: who are the chefs, what is the story, and where is the press kit? None of those questions had an answer online.
- i.
Brand SERP
— cannibalised
Nine venues, one query
A search for “Harrow & Finch” returned five venue sites competing with each other, an outdated delivery listing and no group knowledge panel.
- ii.
Authority
— thin book
Domain authority 22, 31 referring domains
Most links were directories and supplier footers. Competing groups averaged DA 44 and 380 referring domains.
- iii.
Roundups
— 0 / 52
Absent from every “best of”
Of 52 Toronto roundup articles ranking on page one, the group appeared in none. Three direct rivals appeared in 31 of them.
- iv.
Content
— anonymous
Chefs with no names
No chef bios, no kitchen stories, no press page. Editors had nothing to quote and no one to call.
- v.
Technical
— untied
Nine sites, nine schemas — none linked
No Organization schema tying venues together, inconsistent NAP across 140 citations, and reservation links tagged nofollow by a booking widget.
- vi.
Local
— 12 cold
Neighbourhood press ignored
Twelve hyper-local outlets cover the group's neighbourhoods. None had ever been pitched.
The menu
Four courses, served in order, for fourteen months
Built on our Authority plan: earn links from people who write about food, give them stories worth printing, and make the brand search look like one group with nine tables.
First course
01 / 04
Chef-led stories
We recorded 22 interviews with chefs, butchers, bakers and bartenders, then cut each into pitchable angles — process, provenance, people. 130 angles in a shared bank, each tagged to the venue it should link to.
130 angles
Second course
02 / 04
Digital PR
Two data stories a quarter (patio index, oyster count, seat-hour survey) and a two-hour response promise for every journalist request. Pitches went to named editors, never to lists.
2-hour replies
Third course
03 / 04
Local media links
One neighbourhood outlet per venue: supplier stories, apprentice graduations, community suppers. Small sites, but topically perfect and linking to the right venue page.
12 local outlets
Dessert
04 / 04
Brand SERP
A group hub with Organization schema and venues as sub-organisations, consistent NAP, a press room and venue pages differentiated by cuisine — so the brand query reads like a menu, not a fight.
1 brand, 9 venues
14 pages, one per month
Turn the ledger: who booked a table, and why
Page I · month 1 of 14
Audit & brand map
| Party | Guest (outlet) | Table | Remarks — the angle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Annex Weekly | Finch Dining Room | Opening-night anniversary |
- Running total
- 2
- Domain authority
- 22
- Roundups to date
- 0
- Reservations index
- 100
Use the arrow keys on the page tabs to turn the ledger. Outlets and venues are fictional.
End-of-book tally
What the book added up to
Modelled scenario for a fictional business — not a client result. Rankings and traffic are never guaranteed; see our Terms.
Editorial backlinks
+140
Domain authority
22 → 47
Organic reservations
+88%
Roundup inclusions
36
The keyword ledger
| Query | Volume | Before | After |
|---|---|---|---|
| harrow & finch | 2,900 | #1 | |
| best oyster bar toronto | 1,900 | #3 | |
| best patios toronto | 8,100 | — | #4 |
| tasting menu toronto | 2,400 | #6 | |
| dry aged steak toronto | 1,300 | #2 | |
| private dining toronto | 3,600 | — | #7 |
| best bakery leslieville | 880 | #1 | |
| group dinner restaurant toronto | 1,000 | #5 |
“—” means not in the top 100. Monthly volumes are modelled.
The brand search, re-seated
harrow & finchBefore
harrowgrill.ca
Harrow Grill — Menu
venue 1 of 9
finchdining.ca
Finch Dining Room | Home
venue 2 of 9
deliverly.app/harrow-finch
Harrow & Finch delivery — closed
dead listing
harrowoysters.ca
Oyster Bar — Harrow
venue 3 of 9
harrow & finchAfter
harrowfinch.ca
Harrow & Finch Hospitality — 9 Toronto restaurants
group hub + sitelinks
harrowfinch.ca/press
Press room — chefs, menus, kitchen photography
press room
ontariotable.example/nine-kitchens
Nine kitchens, one pantry: inside Harrow & Finch
editorial
lakeshoreeats.example/best-patios
The 18 best patios in Toronto this summer
roundup
Your table is ready
Get a plan like this
Stories editors want to print, links that point to the right venue, and a brand search that reads like a menu.
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