diff --git a/zerver/lib/queue.py b/zerver/lib/queue.py
index d9f97daaa3..7beea0f14f 100644
--- a/zerver/lib/queue.py
+++ b/zerver/lib/queue.py
@@ -372,19 +372,25 @@ class TornadoQueueClient(SimpleQueueClient):
             assert self.channel is not None
             callback(self.channel)
 
-    def register_consumer(self, queue_name: str, consumer: Consumer) -> None:
+    def start_json_consumer(self,
+                            queue_name: str,
+                            callback: Callable[[List[Dict[str, Any]]], None],
+                            batch_size: int=1,
+                            timeout: Optional[int]=None) -> None:
         def wrapped_consumer(ch: BlockingChannel,
                              method: Basic.Deliver,
                              properties: pika.BasicProperties,
                              body: bytes) -> None:
-            consumer(ch, method, properties, body)
+            callback([orjson.loads(body)])
             ch.basic_ack(delivery_tag=method.delivery_tag)
 
+        assert batch_size == 1
+        assert timeout is None
+        self.consumers[queue_name].add(wrapped_consumer)
+
         if not self.ready():
-            self.consumers[queue_name].add(wrapped_consumer)
             return
 
-        self.consumers[queue_name].add(wrapped_consumer)
         self.ensure_queue(
             queue_name,
             lambda channel: channel.basic_consume(
diff --git a/zerver/management/commands/runtornado.py b/zerver/management/commands/runtornado.py
index e276a844c6..7635242bbd 100644
--- a/zerver/management/commands/runtornado.py
+++ b/zerver/management/commands/runtornado.py
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ from zerver.tornado.event_queue import (
 from zerver.tornado.sharding import notify_tornado_queue_name
 
 if settings.USING_RABBITMQ:
-    from zerver.lib.queue import get_queue_client
+    from zerver.lib.queue import TornadoQueueClient, get_queue_client
 
 
 def handle_callback_exception(callback: Callable[..., Any]) -> None:
@@ -89,10 +89,11 @@ class Command(BaseCommand):
 
             if settings.USING_RABBITMQ:
                 queue_client = get_queue_client()
+                assert isinstance(queue_client, TornadoQueueClient)
                 # Process notifications received via RabbitMQ
                 queue_name = notify_tornado_queue_name(port)
-                queue_client.register_json_consumer(queue_name,
-                                                    get_wrapped_process_notification(queue_name))
+                queue_client.start_json_consumer(queue_name,
+                                                 get_wrapped_process_notification(queue_name))
 
             try:
                 # Application is an instance of Django's standard wsgi handler.
diff --git a/zerver/tornado/event_queue.py b/zerver/tornado/event_queue.py
index e47798e149..d2d93c3f30 100644
--- a/zerver/tornado/event_queue.py
+++ b/zerver/tornado/event_queue.py
@@ -1081,16 +1081,17 @@ def process_notification(notice: Mapping[str, Any]) -> None:
         event['type'], len(users), int(1000 * (time.time() - start_time)),
     )
 
-def get_wrapped_process_notification(queue_name: str) -> Callable[[Dict[str, Any]], None]:
+def get_wrapped_process_notification(queue_name: str) -> Callable[[List[Dict[str, Any]]], None]:
     def failure_processor(notice: Dict[str, Any]) -> None:
         logging.error(
             "Maximum retries exceeded for Tornado notice:%s\nStack trace:\n%s\n",
             notice, traceback.format_exc())
 
-    def wrapped_process_notification(notice: Dict[str, Any]) -> None:
-        try:
-            process_notification(notice)
-        except Exception:
-            retry_event(queue_name, notice, failure_processor)
+    def wrapped_process_notification(notices: List[Dict[str, Any]]) -> None:
+        for notice in notices:
+            try:
+                process_notification(notice)
+            except Exception:
+                retry_event(queue_name, notice, failure_processor)
 
     return wrapped_process_notification