APPetizing: Delivery Services Bring Fancy Food And Drink Right To Your House
By Melissa McEwen in Food on Jul 21, 2014 7:00PM
Thanks to a deluge of delivery services, you can finally live like the futuristic 1995 film The Net predicted. Which means never leaving the house while people bring all the stuff you want directly to you. And the food and drink you can access at home is increasingly swanky.
I promise, I had an excuse. I had to work on a project where something might break at any moment and therefore had to stay glued to my laptop. That really put a cramp on my Friday lunch plans. Luckily I had two new delivery services to test out.
Delivery can be disillusioning. There are an overwhelming amount of options in Chicago, but few are restaurants I’d bother to go to if I weren’t tied to the confines of my apartment. After the 100th time, over-sweetened bland takeout loses its charm. A few new services like Caviar and Postmates aim to bring destination dining to your home by utilizing professional courier services. For lunch I decided to use Caviar to order from Small’s (4009 North Albany Avenue.), a restaurant that’s far away enough that it would never normally be a lunch option for me.
Half an hour later, a substantial order of Beef Brisket Bibimbap was at my door. It was warm and tucked with all the vibrantly spicy goodies like kimchi and gochujang (a fermented chili paste) that make Small’s so special. It wasn’t cheap, but compared to more standard upper-end delivery places I usually order from on sites like Grubhub or Seamless, it was actually slightly more affordable, especially given the large portion size.
Wanting to also try out a new cocktail recipe later, I utilized Drizly, an app that has an impressive selection of booze. I ordered the bottle of Campari I needed, but also spotted Bell’s Cherry Stout, a sour-sweet treat that would make a perfect dessert after eating barbeque, so I ordered that too. Half an hour later I had all the booze I wanted. Sorry kids, the delivery person did check my ID.
It certainly wasn’t a party, but dining on barbeque with a beer in hand, being stuck at home suddenly wasn’t so bad.