Are “make-it and take-it” meal-preparation retail outlets the new “Mother’s Little Helper?” Stores like New Hope’s Simply To the Table, Eagan’s Sociale Gourmet, and Let’s Dish seem to be hitting the same target market as the mysterious Eq-Life. The gimmick part of the idea: women who want to feed their families home-cooked meals would rather skip the grocery shopping, recipe-clipping, and basic prep steps. Instead, they want to spend an hour in a storefront kitchen with their friends, assembling multiple meals from prearranged menus, and leaving with a week’s worth of completed dinners. The reality: since two-thirds of the Sociale Gourmet shops only sell the completed meals, and Let’s Dish has added a similar “Dish-n-Dash” service, the “make-it” part of the business model could become vestigial by the time this idea has saturated your work-to-home commute. We are philosophically inclined to favor “Let’s Dish,” whose local founders are blowing up the concept nationwide. And nothing will ever replace the winning combination of Domino’s-and-a-Valium. But we put the question to the people: does anyone out there make-n-take?
Eat This Business Model
Oct 13 2005 — 2:00am
10 Reader Comments
5:09 pm
My wife has mentioned to me that she would like to do this. Mind you, she’s completely inept when it comes to anything in the kitchen that takes more effort than dumping the salad out of the bag and covering it with bacos and crutons.
So, she wants to go to this place and “learn” to cook and then bring home a week’s worth of meals for supposedly less than it would cost for me to do it myself.
If her claims are true and they actually teach her to cook while keeping the costs down, I’m all for it. Unfortunately I doubt any of that will come to be
5:13 pm
It’s huge down here. You get enough meals to feed a family of 4 for a month. 200-300 bucks. It doesn’t require more skill than the utter basics. Now that doesn’t buy the rest of your sundry items, so I cannot say whether or not you’d save in the long run, but for families with ridiculous schedules this is a step away from the fast food lines. If your dual income no kids, and you eat out a lot, it would save money too.
8:49 pm
I’ve done “Let’s Dish” and it’s pretty good. A decent price– when you compare what it would cost to do it all yourself. Some of the food is kinda bland, but you learn which dishes are good and which are so-so.
8:51 pm
We’ve done Mix-It-Up before and it works quite well. I think the food is definitely above average. They use a lot of quality ingredients and just limit the quantity of meat you use for a given dish. You are also given the option to “split” a meal, so instead of 6 chicken breasts you get 3 in two packages so it’s good for couples and other smaller families. You have to admit, anything that tries to move us away from a fast-food culture is good in my book.
10:26 am
Bud likes anyplace that caters to hottie housewives.
10:26 am
I suppose we’re all busy so food prepared by someone else, like the frozen pizzas I consume with alarming regularity, seems like a good business. But I wonder what’s happening/happened to family dinner.
In other news, a small movement is afoot, according to the NYT, of parents who toilet-train their infants. Putting aside the child psychology arguments about this, I wonder how many parents have the time, interest, or sensitivity to get to become familiar with the subtle hints a baby makes before lettin’ rip? Sunday’s article sez:
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“Most important, they say, is an increased emotional bond with the baby, forged by the need for the parent to pick up on subtle signs and act on them quickly. Proponents of the practice use the phrase “elimination communication.”
“It is enhancing that interaction and closeness, the intimacy between baby and mother,” said Thomas Ball, a psychologist in California who is helping develop a documentary about the technique. Unquestionably, in a child-rearing culture that thrives on sanitation and parental convenience, the prospect of supervising 20 deposits a day in the first busy months of infancy is daunting.”
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Maybe it’s unrelated to the conversation at hand–and who am I to judge anybody who wants convenient, healthy, non-pizza-oriented pre-made food?–but this age of parental convenience seems to fit with the make-it/take-it trend.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/nyregion/09diapers.html
10:47 pm
I am a married young professional who doesn’t have time to shop/chop/AND cook, and live for Let’s Dish. It is the best new thing since TIVO I have to say! The food is extremely fresh, the options are always beyond epectations. It allows my husband and family to sit down to a dinner every night, instead of wasting time at the grocery store or picking up fast food. There are choices for the kids, and they love the new meals every month. The stress has been taking off my husband and I to coordinate getting to the grocery store, and it made it so much easier on our entire family. All of my friends are now doing it, and we get together monthly now to prep all of our dinners.
11:44 pm
I just tried this for the first time, and it was great. I went with a friend (we agreed to the sign-upd date, and signed up seperately). I will probably use the “Get-n-Go” option that they offer, but if I have firends who are up for it, I will definitely amke and take again.
I went to Get Cookin in Coon Rapids. They’re new, and place was very clean. It will be interesting to see how it goes as they settle into their new space.
1:11 pm
I’ve been to a number of the places in town, Let’s Dish, Get Cookin, and Sociale. Without a doubt the Sociale Gourmet in Eagan was the best. It’s not the closest to my house, but the food choices and the environment won hands down.
I’ve been back again and again.
2:28 pm
I recently discovered Let’s Dish. I was skeptical at first – I love to cook at home, and am by no means untalented in this issue. In the days before kids, I used to spend 1 Saturday a month cooking 12-15 dishes, so I could freeze them for hurried nights. Getting a whole Saturday to myself now, with two kids under 6, is just not going to happen. But I am still unwilling to resort to McDonalds, Dominos, and the like. Let’s Dish allows me to go in for 90 minutes, and make enough food to cover a month’s worth of ‘Mom has to work late’ nights. Dad can generate a really good meal, with little brain work, while chasing the kids. I still cook at home most nights, but when you add up the cost of eating out, and factor in the nutritional value, it works out for us. And, the food is reallly good.