SEARED, L

ate-night impulse. Unhealthy last resort.

Shady stepsibling of the restaurant world.
Food delivery used to be defined by metal-
handled Chinese takeout containers and pizza
boxes smothered in grease. And it wasn’t
exactly fast, either.
“I remember a time when pizza delivery would
take two hours,” says chef and pitmaster Andy Hus-
bands of the Smoke Shop. “So when Domino’s first hit

SEALED,
the scene, their deal was pizza in 30 minutes or less.
People were like, ‘How’s that even possible?’ ”
But these days, customers are no longer shoving
direct-mail menus into their junk drawers. Food
delivery is now a $100 billion-plus market, thanks
to a smorgasbord of apps such as Uber Eats, Caviar,
DoorDash, Postmates, Seamless and Grubhub. The
people have spoken, and they want convenience
without compromise—or MSG.
Local spots are finding creative ways to cater

DELIVERED
to diners’ desires for instant gratification, diverse

options and high-quality cuisine. Earlier this year,

RESTAURANTS DISH ON THE EVOLUTION Inman Square mainstay Puritan & Company began
OF FOOD DELIVERY a delivery-only spinoff, Puritan Trading Company,
featuring dishes tailored for travel. Restaurateur
Nick Frattaroli (responsible for Bodega Canal,
North Square Oyster and Ward 8) factored a takeout
BY HANNAH SHEINBERG
menu into his forthcoming North End venture, Tony
& Elaine’s, at the early planning stages. And at Little
PHOTOGRAPHED BY HOLLY RIKE Donkey in Central Square, chefs Ken Oringer and
Jamie Bissonnette are serving up haute cuisine-to-
go in the form of beef tartare and caviar sandwiches.
“You can get pretty much any meal from any
restaurant—duck à l’orange, sushi omakase, dry-
aged rib-eye steak—delivered to your house in 30
minutes,” Oringer says. “If restaurants don’t do
delivery right and don’t do it seriously, they’re really
missing a huge part of the market.”
N
ot every
menu item is
immediately
travel-friendly
(we’re looking
at you, mussels),
so some chefs
are using the
platform as a test
kitchen. Before
developing his
Puritan Trading
Co. concept,
chef/co-owner
Will Gilson’s
original plan was
to design more
portable dishes
for his brick-
and-mortar menu. He put out a call on social media
asking followers about their most beloved takeout
foods, and the cravings came streaming in from
customers.
“We started drafting this master menu, and it was
all over the place,” Gilson says. “So we said, ‘What
if we just did it all but we created an entity that
allowed for that?’ ”
Gilson had heard stories about “ghost restau-
rants” opening for delivery across the country.
“Restaurants took warehouse space and created
these online presences that nobody could ever go
to,” Gilson says. A delivery-focused setup would
especially help support his business during the
Boston winter slump, when residents don’t want
to venture outside of their blankets, let alone their
doors. Gilson already had a working restaurant
kitchen—why not open his own virtual spot?
Thus began Puritan Trading Co., Gilson’s ghost
restaurant that operates out of Puritan & Co.’s kitch-
en, but doesn’t have its own storefront. To test the
potential delivery-only menu, Gilson’s staff tasted
variations and gave feedback. He sent out samples
to guests sitting at the Puritan & Co. bar to get their
reactions. And he added a dish that was already a
popular back-of-house staff meal—street food-style
udon noodles with chicken, cauliflower and shishito
peppers—to the delivery lineup.
“I think an interesting Top Chef-type challenge
[for our staff] is that we made all of the dishes for
Puritan Trading Co. out of ingredients that we
already had in-house,” Gilson says. “We’ve learned
to only put things on that menu that we feel like we
can do well. Every opening menu that I’ve ever had,

“WE’RE NOT WASHING
THOSE DISHES, WE’RE NOT
POLISHING SILVERWARE.”
in any concept, has always been wildly ambitious.
I think that time minus ambition equals success.”
For restaurants that haven’t created a separate
delivery-only clone, there’s still a lot of freedom and
possibility that comes wrapped in a brown paper
to-go bag.
“I think these services give the young, talented
chef a chance to go do their own thing and not have
to come up with a crazy amount of money to open
up downtown,” Frattaroli says. “They’ll still be able
to run a profitable business because of things like
Caviar and Uber Eats.”
And, thanks to those delivery apps, there’s now
a “ghost crowd” the industry is tapping into. In
other words, since restaurants can only fill a certain
number of seats each night, delivery expands the
customer base.
“It’s revenue that doesn’t really include a lot of
labor. We’re not washing those dishes, we’re not pol-
ishing silverware—everything just kind of goes out,”
says Deena Marlette, general manager of Branch
Line. “It’s a really viable way to grow a business.”
Watertown’s Branch Line conducted three
months of menu alterations and tasty research
before the restaurant was finally ready to debut
on Caviar. They found that to-go orders were
often placed by families, which prompted them
to redevelop their children’s menu. “We also put
a coloring page and crayons in the bags with kids’
food just to make it feel a little bit more special,”
Marlette says. It’s a simple gesture, but those types
of personal touches were previously overlooked
in the anonymous realm of delivery. They bring
the dining-out experience back home with the
customers.
For plant-lover’s paradise Whole Heart Provi-
sions, located in Allston and Central Square, delivery
makes up about 15 percent of sales. Chef/co-owner
Rebecca Arnold began offering the service right
when the eatery’s first location opened three years
ago, and considers the apps a form of advertising.
When hungry Bostonians search for a meal that’s not
nutrition’s archenemy, Whole Heart Provisions pops
up as a top choice for healthy eats.
“We made the menu so that our food would travel
very well. Everything holds up—I’ve had friends tell
me that they eat half our food that day then save the
other half for lunch the next day and it’s just as good
or better, because it’s had time to really marinate in
the sauce,” Arnold says.
Her pro tips for takeout include always getting
the crunchy part of the dish on the side and forgoing
light greens for heartier ones like kale, which will
stay crisp for multiple days. Because Whole Heart
Provisions perfected the art of soggy-free delivery
early on, customers keep coming back—or at least
keep pressing the ‘Order Now’ button.
There’s still one major societal concern with
food delivery that needs to be addressed. It’s the
Amazon Prime-sized elephant in the room. The
“pretty soon, you won’t have to leave the house for
anything” comment. Will people never have to get
off of their couches when they need sustenance?
Will our ability to chat with other humans over
appetizers fade into obscurity?
The short answer appears to be no. For now,
dining is still all about the experience. After this
summer, in-restaurant sales were actually the high-
est, according to the Commerce Department.
“I don’t think that takeout or delivery is canni-
balizing restaurant guests,” says chef Colin Lynch
of Bar Mezzana in the South End. “People need
personal interaction. We crave it.”
Plus, delivery might not make sense for every
restaurant. Balancing an order for a table that’s din-
ing in for an hour versus a delivery order that needs
to be ready to go in 15 minutes can be a situation that
unseasoned kitchens simply aren’t ready to handle.
For a chef, delivery is also a fragile extension of his
or her brand. It’s a simple equation: If a restaurant
expands to delivery before it’s ready, the quality of
both the in-house and takeout fare will suffer.
“I know a guy in Brooklyn who won’t let his ramen
outside of those four walls because he’s worried the
noodles will overcook and it won’t represent what
he’s trying to do,” Husbands says. “So if I want that ra-
men, I have to get it there. I think that’s kind of neat.”
That same in-person rule applies for Bar Mezzana’s
customers who want Lynch’s award-winning crudo.
Lynch won’t offer the raw fish menu for delivery
because he doesn’t trust the courier will keep it in a
separate bag from hot items. Separation is also a key
for Oringer’s crew. Customers ordering Little Don-
key’s ramen receive the soup in a different container
from the pasta and matzoh balls in order to keep it
from looking unappetizing upon delivery. And even
with all of the high-end kitchens, revamped plastic
containers and can-do chef attitudes, there’s one type
of quintessential cuisine that there might never be the
proper takeout technology to transport: French fries.
However—even if scientists are unable to find a
way to keep spuds on the go from getting soggy—the
increased demand for meals on wheels doesn’t seem
like it will slow down anytime soon. For enterprising
restaurateurs willing to innovate, takeout could
become their new bread-and-butter.
“I think most restaurants will have a delivery ser-
vice within the next two years,” Marlette predicts.
“You’re not stuck with bad options anymore. I mean
I could get Little Donkey delivered.” ◆
T H E I M P R O P E R B O S T O N I A N 45