More than 25 DeKalb restaurants now offer delivery through EatStreet

DeKALB – The Junction Eating Place is ready to deliver – literally – on one of its customers’ most frequent requests.

General manager Chris Bahramis said the longtime family restaurant at 816 W. Lincoln Highway has offered carryout for many years, but over the past seven or eight years, customers started asking more often whether Junction delivers.

“Maybe three times a week, three to four times a week people have asked us,” Bahramis said.

On its own, the restaurant couldn’t hire that kind of manpower, and driver insurance was difficult to arrange for the restaurant on its own, Bahramis said.

Enter EatStreet, a Madison, Wisconsin-based food ordering mobile app that serves more than 250 U.S. cities. In DeKalb, Junction has joined a roster of more than 25 eateries that have delivery service through EatStreet, which acts as a virtual food court – sort of a middle man between restaurants and customers. People can use their device to look through their options and place their delivery order.

Other local restaurants that now offer delivery through the service include Tapa La Luna, Omi Sushi, Los Rancheros and Buffalo Wild Wings.

DeKalb restaurants that had their own delivery staff previously but now will outsource their deliveries with EatStreet include Pizza Pro’s, Fushi Yami, Pita Pete’s and Vinny’s Pizza.

Matt Howard, CEO and co-founder of EatStreet, said the company does its best to recruit the drivers restaurants had before. He said the company definitely doesn’t want to get the former drivers laid off and makes it a priority to bring them on board through EatStreet.

“Ultimately, those are some of the best drivers out there,” Howard said. “They know the market, and they’ve been there for a while.”

When talented drivers stay on the road, everyone benefits, Howard said – the drivers, the restaurants and EatStreet.

“It’s usually a win-win-win for all three,” Howard said.

Howard said it’s hard for most restaurants to have their own delivery staff, and that most businesses working with EatStreet didn’t have any sort of delivery service previously.

Restaurants outsourcing food delivery relieves the burden of trying to staff and train drivers on top of running a restaurant, Howard said, adding that it also might be a more cost-effective way for local restaurants to offer delivery.

“It really takes a lot off their plate,” Howard said.

Howard said the presence of Northern Illinois University made DeKalb a logical next market for the business.

EatStreet hired 40 drivers before it launched the DeKalb service, Howard said. He said the company hopes to add 60 to 80 more driver and operation specialist jobs in the area in the next few months.

Bahramis said the workflow for hosts and servers doesn’t change all that much with the delivery service in place. If an employee hears a sound notification from the tablet mounted by the restaurant’s phone, they just write down the order from the app on a meal ticket and bring it to the kitchen, as they would for pickup orders.

Bahramis said the restaurant staff jumped at the chance for Junction Eating Place to finally offer delivery to DeKalb residents in the comfort of their own home. He said the restaurant already had two orders as of 1 p.m. Tuesday since the delivery service went live, and he was giddy about it when the first delivery order for the restaurant went through Monday night.

“You know, times are changing,” Bahramis said. “People don’t want to leave their house and like to stay home.”

Howard said he finds that some restaurants that initially held off from joining the delivery service end up joining within the first three to six months the service is in the area. He said the goal is to have all of the restaurants in DeKalb deliver through EatStreet.

“Our job is to make it as easy as possible for diners to order the food from local restaurants that they love,” Howard said.