It doesn't really feel any different to me than in the 90s. You would get port scanned then too. Keep your software up to date, and keep a reasonably tight config and you won't have any trouble running a basic website. Especially for something like Joey's pizza just make it a static site and you'll barely have to worry about anything.

I mean for a static site sure, but Joey wants to also have a news feed to post events, specials, and new menu items.

Joey also wants to let customers comment on those posts with questions and general excitement, or to reach out directly in a way that isn’t a phone line.

The issue is that Facebook and IG are really really good business and marketing platforms. That and ads is basically their whole reason for existence. And you get a huge audience, organic discovery, and moderation for free.

Every restaurant in my city’s primary social media presence is on IG. Unless you’re a huge chain and have a marketing department that’s basically all they get that isn’t mayyyybe a local mailing, or a sponsored story in a local newspaper or food blog.

Don’t get me wrong, I think you should have your own website for nothing else other than to lend some legitimacy when people Google your name but if you could only have one I would probably skip the website. “The Web” from a business standpoint is just Google’s centralized platform at this point since the thing that matters is audience and discovery.

Funny, nmap was released in 1997.

Ok, I will say I first start building small things on the web in the late 90s, so maybe it was easier in the early 90s.