Toronto restaurant group and caterer is trying everything to get through these tough times
The restaurant group and caterer behind popular restaurants Rasa, Sara, Clay and Blondies has undertaken pivot after pivot to stay afloat.
The latest venture for Food Dudes is FARE, a delivery service for premium groceries, their classic signature dishes and "Experience Boxes" with themes like Breakfast in Bed, Movie Night and Wine & Chill.
Their grocery offerings include marinated meats and seafood, starches, salads, condiments and sweets.
It's not the first pivot the group has made during the pandemic, though. In the summer, they started up a distanced food truck community takeout market.
"Throughout the pandemic, The Food Dudes have created ways to expand our offerings to continue to provide services to our clients. We don’t see these as pivots, per se, as we still have our same catering services and our restaurants, albeit some temporarily offering only takeout because of government mandates," says Lindsay Klein, CEO of The Food Dudes.
"Our new offering, FARE, premium groceries and specially-curated experiences delivered to clients' doors contact-free, is an expansion that will live on after the pandemic, alongside our other catering services and restaurants."
At one point Food Dudes also began offering House Party packages for isolated events held at home.
"Everything we’ve started has continued on," says Klein. "At the beginning of the pandemic we started offering House Party events at home through our take out services at our restaurants. We still have take out at our restaurants and are doing bodega type services."
They have no plans to slow down with FARE, either, even once we're able to experience movie nights and wine tastings outside of boxes delivered to our doors.
"People are excited for something new while at home and have been impressed by the very high end and extravagant experience boxes compared to other gifting services out there. Our experiences go beyond food and include everything from florals to games to custom aprons for an unforgettable night in," says Klein.
"FARE will live on after the pandemic and we think only helps to strengthen The Food Dudes brand. The pandemic will end, but we think in-home entertaining and gifting is here to stay, so we will continue with FARE even once we can reopen our restaurants and are catering large events again."
Jesse Milns at Rasa
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