Dinner Delivery In Portland

Meal-delivery services are all over the place.  Some ship frozen meals via FedEx, some pick-up dinner at local restaurants and slap on a $12 delivery charge to bring you dinner, and others, are enterprising local catering operations.  One such caterer was the inspiration for what today is known as Dine In 2Nite, now delivering dinner in several Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA neighborhoods.

The service, which originated in San Diego in 2011, is the brainchild of entrepreneur Leo Kats and his wife, Claire Kats. After selling their business a few years back, Leo and Claire were looking to develop something new.  Leo, working late, often picked up dinner for the family at a chain restaurant on the way home.  After months of this routine, a postcard arrived in the mail from a local caterer promising fresh cooked meals, delivered.  The Kats family signed up, and the rest is history.

Leo and Claire struck a deal to franchise a reworked version of the original dinner delivery concept, and, in 2012, the nation's second location opened in Portland, delivering meals to several east side neighborhoods including Sellwood, Laurelhurst, Irvington, Sunnyside, Alameda, among others.

Here’s how it works: Every Monday through Friday, Dine In 2Nite's culinary team makes dinner fresh and their drivers deliver ready-to-eat meals each evening between 4pm and 7pm.  Customers sign up for 3-days or 5-days per week for an ongoing plan (which is renewed each 4 weeks).  The minimum order is only one meal - making it perfect for someone who lives alone.  The best part?  Meals are only $10 with delivery and tip included.

Dine In 2Nite delivers to the these Portland, OR zip codes: 97212, 97232, 97214, 97202, 97206, 97213, 97215,  as well as 97218 and 97211 (south of Killingsworth) - and now in Vancouver WA to 98664, 98682, 98683, and 98684.  Information is available at www.dinein2nite.com or at 888.64.MEALS (888.646.3257).

Client Encounters

Today, through the good/bad fortune of my delivery driver having his car break down, I had the chance to deliver dinner to dozens of my businesses customers... And to briefly chat with several of them.  "this service is addictive," said one. "I feel so guilty, but it's a guilty pleasure," said another. "It's so nice to come home after work and have dinner all taken care of," said yet another.

Not every customer sticks with us forever, but it is great to know that our dinner delivery service isn't simply about making a living fir me and my staff... weaver also having a positive impac on other people's lives by making their lives a little easier.

Maybe it's the relief of not having to cook. Maybe it's simply a chance to spend time doing more important things.  Whatever our service provides to our customers, it's certainly a great pleasure to know that it helps improve their lives in some way (however small it may be).

Buy yourself time by outsourcing dinner

Yup, for just $50 a week, people are buying themselves some time to chase after some dreams:  working out, playing guitar, and of course writing.

For $50, they can free up as many as 10 hours every week!  Imagine what you could do with just one of your long term goals with 10 hours a week:

▪ How about time to play or exercise? 

▪ More time to spend with your family and other people you care about?

▪ Or if you’re working too hard – maybe even just catching up on sleep!

But how can someone free up 10 hours a week... and how did we get on this topic in the first place?

First, let's see just where most people's time goes.  Most of us spend a way too much time doing a combination of the following thing:

1. Cooking

2. Washing dishes – especially hand-wash items

3. Shopping – including grocery shopping

4. Driving out to get take out meals

When you add them up, these various tasks take the average American average of 12 hours a week... simply too much time to ignore.  So for those of us t whom it matters, how can the time be saved?

Maybe:

1. Eat out for every meal... Very convenient, yes, but also pretty darn expensive. Plus there's no guarantee it's all that healthy.  And it's certainly time consuming.

2. Ordering in bulk for take out... Which may be relatively inexpensive, but also not necessarily healthy, and can certainly lack variety.

3. Hire someone to cook... Which can provide variety, healthy meals, and may well be inexpensive in the right circumstances. It could also end up being expensive - and there's the need to hire and manage someone.

And while option 3 seems to present the best range of options, would you rather have to put an ad up on Craig's List and deal with the hiring and management of a stranger, or simply let an experienced personal chef take care of all the logistics for you?

This is the idea behind a business like Dine In 2Nite.  All the recipes are developed, ingredients are procured, the cooking is done, and the food is delivered freshly cooked and ready to eat each evening - nothing to reheat.

So instead of outsourcing to an individual cook, consider a firm with the experience of cooking for hundreds of families, and the know-how to save you precious hours each and every week.