Group of chef-run restaurants launch local delivery service
Mandated last week to offer only takeout and delivery service during the COVID-19 crisis, a handful of chef-run Ottawa restaurants have launched a local delivery service that competes with Uber Eats and its peers.
Love Local Delivery now brings food from a selection of restaurants and is looking to add others to its roster. So far, food is available for delivery from the Lowertown restaurant Das Lokal, the Vanier taco eatery Ola Cocina, brunch place Bibi’s and Italian restaurant North & Navy, both in Centretown, the innovative Canadian cuisine-themed Grey Jay Hospitality in Little Italy, Grunt in Mechanicsville, and Heartbreakers Pizza on Parkdale Avenue.
The basic flat fee for deliveries within a five-kilometre radius of each restaurant is $5, with deliveries beyond that range available at extra cost.
The restaurants have partnered with Responsible Choice, an Ottawa service that had driven home the cars of people who had gone to bars or restaurants and had alcohol. You can visit the Love Local Delivery website but have to phone the restaurants to order.
The restaurants offer a range of items other than dishes from their menus, including ready-to-eat dinners for up to six people, frozen prepared meals, and meal kits.
“I’m super-proud of what we have come up with,” said Harriet Clunie, general manager and executive chef at Das Lokal. “We wanted to come up with an alternative to Uber Eats (and other delivery services) because they charge you 30 per cent of the bill, so you don’t make any money on it.”
Ottawa’s restaurants are among the innumerable small businesses reeling from the impact of COVID-19. Most eateries closed entirely after Ontario’s chief medical officer of health recommended last week that dining rooms be shut for an unspecified period of time to help prevent the spread of the virus. And many restaurant workers were laid off for the foreseeable future and left to file for Employment Insurance benefits.
A Gofundme campaign was launched last week to create a $350,000 relief fund for Ottawa’s minimum-wage workers, including restaurant and bar workers, small business owners, and self-employed people, with the intention of giving requesters $1,000 grants. It has collected $3,265 so far.
“Even if EI is a possibility for some, 55 per cent of minimum wage is not going to be enough to live on,” says the campaign’s web page.