Boulder Restaurants Join Forces to Launch @BoulderTakeout During COVID19
We’re all in this together. #COVID19 has impacted businesses and individuals in so many ways but it has been especially hard for restaurants. Now is the time to support your local restaurants by ordering takeout and buying gift cards. My co-founder at The Kitchen, Hugo Matheson, and I are very lucky to be surrounded by a restaurant community in Boulder, Colorado that bands together and supports one another especially in these hard times.
When the virus outbreak started to hit the US in the beginning of March 2020, we knew takeout and delivery would be an important part of our business. We were lucky enough to have a thriving takeout offering at our urban casual concept Next Door Eatery but we didn’t have such a takeout or delivery program at our more upscale bistro The Kitchen. When the government mandated restaurant closures, we had to close The Kitchen indefinitely without a plan to reopen.
But when the going gets tough, the tough get going. The team at The Kitchen would not sit idly by in this crisis. After talking with our community, we have now started serving a daily supper: a meal for the family with a bottle of wine or choice of batched cocktail.
Our number one priority for us is keeping our guests and our staff safe while serving delicious food. This approach limits the number of chefs needed in the kitchen at one time but allowed us to reopen for takeout to offer meals to families at home. Bingo, we landed on something that worked for our company … maybe this could work for other restaurants forced to close their business? We made some calls and sent dozens of emails to crowdsource this idea and brainstorm with our friends across the industry. What were others doing to reinvent themselves right now? What were they offering and how could we all come together to survive this thing?
Hence, @BoulderTakeout was born to foster the local restaurant takeout offerings and support each other. Founding members of @BoulderTakeout include myself and Hugo Matheson at The Kitchen and Next Door Eatery alongside Dave and Dana Query at Big Red F Restaurant Group, Kelly Whitaker at Basta, Bryan Dayton at Oak at Fourteenth and Corrida, Bradford Heap at Salt, Peter Waters at T/Aco, Daniel Asher at River and Woods, and Hosea Rosenberg at Blackbelly and Santo.
Built by restaurants, for restaurants @BoulderTakeout is on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where our collective guests can easily find and order takeout for their families while at home during the pandemic. We also hope that @BoulderTakeout makes it easy for our fellow restaurateurs to pivot and promote their new menus. Restaurants tag @BoulderTakeout to join; guests tag @BoulderTakeout to help save their favorite restaurants.
#WeGotThisBoulder.
