diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index af043df..7c4724c 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -1,25 +1,25 @@
 repos:
   # Updates all subsequent hooks
-  - repo: https://gitlab.com/vojko.pribudic.foss/pre-commit-update
-    rev: v0.5.1
+-   repo: https://gitlab.com/vojko.pribudic.foss/pre-commit-update
+    rev: v0.8.0
     hooks:
-      - id: pre-commit-update
+    -   id: pre-commit-update
 
     # Linter hook
-  - repo: https://github.com/astral-sh/ruff-pre-commit
-    rev: v0.6.7
+-   repo: https://github.com/astral-sh/ruff-pre-commit
+    rev: v0.13.0
     hooks:
-      - id: ruff
+    -   id: ruff
         args: [--fix]
 
     # Formatter hook
-  - repo: https://github.com/psf/black-pre-commit-mirror
-    rev: 24.8.0
+-   repo: https://github.com/psf/black-pre-commit-mirror
+    rev: 25.1.0
     hooks:
-      - id: black
+    -   id: black
 
     # Static code analysis hook
-  - repo: https://github.com/PyCQA/bandit
-    rev: 1.7.10
+-   repo: https://github.com/PyCQA/bandit
+    rev: 1.8.6
     hooks:
-      - id: bandit
+    -   id: bandit
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index e654118..c6b8f8b 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ inflection==0.5.1
 itypes==1.2.0
 Jinja2==3.1.4
 MarkupSafe==2.1.5
+memory-profiler==0.61.0
 mypy-extensions==0.4.3
 nodeenv==1.9.1
 oauthlib==3.1.1
@@ -35,6 +36,7 @@ pathspec==0.9.0
 platformdirs==4.2.2
 pre-commit==3.8.0
 protobuf==3.19.1
+psutil==7.1.0
 psycopg2-binary==2.9.3
 pyasn1==0.4.8
 pyasn1-modules==0.2.8
@@ -51,6 +53,8 @@ sqlparse==0.4.2
 tomli==1.2.3
 typing_extensions==4.0.1
 uritemplate==4.1.1
-urllib3
+urllib3==1.26.20
 virtualenv==20.26.3
-google-auth
\ No newline at end of file
+orjson
+drf-orjson
+djangorestframework-orjson
diff --git a/src/eatery/controllers/populate_eatery.py b/src/eatery/controllers/populate_eatery.py
index 13e365a..2191a2c 100644
--- a/src/eatery/controllers/populate_eatery.py
+++ b/src/eatery/controllers/populate_eatery.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 from eatery.serializers import EaterySerializer
 from eatery.models import Eatery
 from django.core.exceptions import ObjectDoesNotExist
+from memory_profiler import profile
 
 
 class PopulateEateryController:
@@ -88,6 +89,7 @@ def add_eatery_store(self):
                 else:
                     print(serialized.errors)
 
+    @profile
     def process(self, json_eateries):
         for json_eatery in json_eateries:
             self.generate_eatery(json_eatery)
diff --git a/src/eatery/serializers.py b/src/eatery/serializers.py
index 9f6dae0..0fa4e67 100644
--- a/src/eatery/serializers.py
+++ b/src/eatery/serializers.py
@@ -1,13 +1,10 @@
 from rest_framework import serializers
 from eatery.models import Eatery
-from event.models import Event
 from event.serializers import (
     EventSerializer,
     EventSerializerSimple,
     EventSerializerOptimized,
 )
-from datetime import timedelta, datetime
-from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
 
 
 class EaterySerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
@@ -107,25 +104,7 @@ class EaterySerializerByDay(serializers.ModelSerializer):
         allow_null=True,
         default="https://images-prod.healthline.com/hlcmsresource/images/AN_images/health-benefits-of-apples-1296x728-feature.jpg",
     )
-    events = serializers.SerializerMethodField()
-
-    def get_events(self, obj):
-        day_offset = self.context.get("day")
-        now = datetime.now(ZoneInfo("America/New_York"))
-        day = now.replace(hour=0, minute=0, second=0, microsecond=0) + timedelta(
-            days=day_offset
-        )
-        day_unix = int(day.timestamp())
-        day_end_unix = int((day + timedelta(days=1)).timestamp())
-        print(f"Now: {now}")
-        print(f"Day: {day}")
-        print(f"Day Unix: {day_unix}")
-        print(f"Day End Unix: {day_end_unix}")
-        events = Event.objects.filter(
-            eatery=obj.id, start__gte=day_unix, start__lt=day_end_unix
-        )
-        serializer = EventSerializerOptimized(instance=events, many=True)
-        return serializer.data
+    events = EventSerializerOptimized(many=True, source="filtered_events")
 
     class Meta:
         model = Eatery
diff --git a/src/eatery/views.py b/src/eatery/views.py
index 7d71021..ee8e9b3 100644
--- a/src/eatery/views.py
+++ b/src/eatery/views.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
     EaterySerializerByDay,
     EaterySerializerOptimized,
 )
+from django.db.models import Prefetch
 from eatery.util.json import FieldType, error_json, success_json, verify_json_fields
 from django.http import JsonResponse
 from django.shortcuts import get_object_or_404
@@ -15,7 +16,11 @@
 from .permissions import EateryPermission
 from eatery.datatype.Eatery import EateryID
 from eatery.models import Eatery
+from event.models import Event
 from .controllers.update_eatery import UpdateEateryController
+from memory_profiler import profile
+from datetime import timedelta, datetime
+from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
 
 
 class EateryViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
@@ -27,29 +32,37 @@ class EateryViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
     serializer_class = EaterySerializer
     permission_classes = [EateryPermission]
 
+    @profile
     def get_queryset(self):
         """
         Override to add prefetch_related for optimization
         """
         queryset = super().get_queryset()
-        
-        # prefetch all related objects to avoid N+1 query problem
-        return queryset.prefetch_related(
-            'events__menu__items__dietary_preferences',
-            'events__menu__items__allergens'
-        )
 
+        # Prefetching only needed for list to prevent N+1
+        if self.action == "list":
+            return queryset.prefetch_related(
+                "events__menu__items__dietary_preferences",
+                "events__menu__items__allergens",
+            )
+
+        return queryset
+
+    @profile
+    @method_decorator(cache_page(60 * 60 * 2))  # cache for 2 hours
     def retrieve(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
         instance = self.get_object()
         serializer = EaterySerializerOptimized(instance)
         return Response(serializer.data)
 
+    @profile
     @method_decorator(cache_page(60 * 60 * 2))  # cache for 2 hours
     def list(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
         queryset = self.filter_queryset(self.get_queryset())
         serializer = EaterySerializerOptimized(queryset, many=True)
         return Response(serializer.data)
 
+    @profile
     def get_object(self):
         queryset = self.filter_queryset(self.get_queryset())
         lookup_url_kwarg = self.lookup_url_kwarg or self.lookup_field
@@ -109,10 +122,9 @@ class GetEateriesSimple(APIView):
     View all eateries with less information
     """
 
+    @profile
     def get(self, request):
-        eateries_queryset = Eatery.objects.prefetch_related(
-            'events'
-        ).all()
+        eateries_queryset = Eatery.objects.prefetch_related("events").all()
         eateries = EaterySerializerSimple(eateries_queryset, many=True)
         return Response(eateries.data)
 
@@ -122,16 +134,34 @@ class GetEateriesByDay(APIView):
     Get all eatery information by day
     """
 
+    @profile
     @method_decorator(cache_page(60 * 60 * 2))  # cache for 2 hours
     def get(self, request, day):
+        now = datetime.now(ZoneInfo("America/New_York"))
+        start_date = now.replace(hour=0, minute=0, second=0, microsecond=0) + timedelta(
+            days=day
+        )
+        end_date = start_date + timedelta(days=1)
+
+        start_unix = int(start_date.timestamp())
+        end_unix = int(end_date.timestamp())
+
+        filtered_events_prefetch = Prefetch(
+            "events",
+            queryset=Event.objects.filter(
+                start__gte=start_unix, start__lt=end_unix
+            ).prefetch_related(
+                "menu__items__dietary_preferences", "menu__items__allergens"
+            ),
+            to_attr="filtered_events",
+        )
+
         eateries_queryset = Eatery.objects.prefetch_related(
-            'events__menu__items__dietary_preferences',
-            'events__menu__items__allergens'
+            filtered_events_prefetch
         ).exclude(events__event_description="Open")
-        
+
         eateries = EaterySerializerByDay(
             eateries_queryset,
             many=True,
-            context={"day": day},
         )
-        return Response(eateries.data)
\ No newline at end of file
+        return Response(eateries.data)
diff --git a/src/eatery_blue_backend/management/commands/populate_models.py b/src/eatery_blue_backend/management/commands/populate_models.py
index 87fc5fe..2f2b823 100644
--- a/src/eatery_blue_backend/management/commands/populate_models.py
+++ b/src/eatery_blue_backend/management/commands/populate_models.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 import os
 import json
 import shutil
+from memory_profiler import profile
 
 
 class Command(BaseCommand):
@@ -121,6 +122,7 @@ def logger_wrapper(self, command_obj, log_title, args):
         print(f"Done ({int(datetime.now().timestamp()) - pre}s) ")
         return output
 
+    @profile
     def process(self):
         """
         1. Get JSON from API
diff --git a/src/eatery_blue_backend/settings.py b/src/eatery_blue_backend/settings.py
index 4d89281..0e48ede 100644
--- a/src/eatery_blue_backend/settings.py
+++ b/src/eatery_blue_backend/settings.py
@@ -44,6 +44,11 @@
 
 # Application definition
 
+REST_FRAMEWORK = {
+    "DEFAULT_RENDERER_CLASSES": ("drf_orjson.renderers.ORJSONRenderer",),
+    "DEFAULT_PARSER_CLASSES": ("drf_orjson.parsers.ORJSONParser",),
+}
+
 INSTALLED_APPS = [
     "django.contrib.admin",
     "django.contrib.auth",
@@ -115,7 +120,7 @@
             "PRE_PING": True,
             "ECHO": False,
             "TIMEOUT": 30,
-        }
+        },
     }
 }