Gourmet units: we deliver

Nation's Restaurant News, May 2, 1988 by Peter J. Romeo, Karen Bruno

Pollo Pibil, an entree of roasted chicken wrapped in banana leaves, was also dropped from the delivery menu for quality control reasons. The propensity of tacos and nachos to turn soggy has also knocked those Mexican staples off the list.

Although Tony Roma's units deliver many items on their dining room menus, including steaks, seafood, and onion loaves, "We strongly suggest ribs and chicken because they're the best products in terms of delivery," said William Eskew, vice president of marketing for the barbecue chain. About half of the 72 Tony Roma's offer delivery.

Many food transporters have attempted to preserve both food quality and profit margins by strictly limiting their delivery range.

Roma's units, for instance, curtail home delivery to locations that are within a 30-minute drive.

Gourmet Gazelle, a take-out-and-delivery outlet recently opened in New York, will deliver only its spa cuisine for no additional charge within a 10-block radius. Delivery partons living farther away must meet a $25 minimum and order 24 hours in advance.

The Quilted Giraffe, one of New York's top-rated restaurants, similarly limits its lunchtime delivery range to areas within a few minutes walk. The charge is $25 for a complete meal packaged in a lacquered Japanese box called a bento.

Gourmet Gazelle's founders, entrepreneur Suzanne Ainslie and former USA Today food writer Ellen Brown, chose to enter the extremely competitive Manhattan food-service market with a concept that had no seats. The newcomers will never know the agony of having an empty dining room.

Many full-service competitors might wish they were similarly spared.

"What may have been a fun, high-profit business based on yuppie whims has not become a serious operation, highly competitive and based entirely on service and marketing," said Big 4's Cohn. "The entire service industry's emphasis is shifting toward take-out and delivery."

Newcomers to the delivery arena have attempted to maintain quality by limiting options to items that 'travel well.'

'Ever since the fabulous success of Domino's Pizza, restaurateurs with vision have been trying to adapt gourmet menus to the demands of Styrofoam packages.'

Home delivery market: a precarious game

Although home delivery's potential continues to lure new players into that market seemingly every day, the segment's body count is also mounting at a rapid clip.

The past year saw the withdrawal of such home-delivery hopefuls as Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken; Pillsbury's Quik Wok Chinese chain; Southern Hospitality, which operated Chattanooga's Big O's chain; Memphis' Box office Pizza (known as DePizza in an earlier incarnation); and Jeno Paulucci's Pizza Kwik.

Meanwhile, pizza-joint operators attribute the rampant acquisitions in that segment to many mom-and-pops' failure as home delivers.

And even delivery champion domino's Pizza has faltered badly in some markets. The chain's 35 company units in Chicago posted combined losses of nearly $600,000 for 1986 despite an emergency advertising campaign.