Gourmet to Go: Prepared Food 2.0

AUGUST 17, 2010

The newest wave of serve-at-home prepared food is a far cry from takeout, TV dinners and rotisserie chicken.

The movement toward farm-fresh food in the city’s restaurants is here to stay, but eating out isn’t always an option, and New Yorkers rarely have time to cook from scratch. Gourmet markets like Whole Foods and Citarella have been coming to the rescue with ready-to-cook lifesavers like ready-made pizza dough and carefully prepared heat-at-home meals. Brooklyn’s Marlow & Sons may have pioneered the trend in: At the front counter you can pick up your favorites from the restaurant in back, to go. Radish, a newcomer to the newly-chic strip of Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg is right on-trend. The store’s owners specialize in “seasonal prepared foods” made from locally grown ingredients and have employed a full-time chef to create “simple, fresh homemade foods that balance between family classics and homemade favorites” (via Village Voice).

Home-delivery superheroes Fresh Direct have raised the bar on convenience-plus-taste. Their newest coup brings to mind the the Automats of the ’50s: The company has dispatched a fleet of prepared-food vending machines; the credit-card-friendly machines exchange perfectly-packaged 4-minute meals from local restaurants like Tabla and Rosa Mexicano. The machines have turned up in a handful of corporate lunchrooms, and a few have even been installed in the lobbies of luxury Manhattan rental buildings (via Brick Underground) like the Chelsea Landmark.

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Gourmet to Go: Prepared Food 2.0

AUGUST 17, 2010

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