His theory seems borne out by data from Dishpatch, an online marketplace for makeaway boxes, which works with top chefs such as Tom Kerridge, Michel Roux Jr and Angela Hartnett, as well as restaurants like Ottolenghi and St John (which is launching a new kit in April). Despite the majority of its restaurant partners being based in London, two-thirds of orders come from outside the capital. In fact, the average distance between a customer and the restaurant they’ve ordered from is 77 miles, suggesting the kits might be an ideal way for customers to sample menus which they wouldn’t ordinarily get the chance to try.
“We never intended it to become a long-term thing, and initially I never even thought of retail as ‘hospitality’ but actually, once we started selling the boxes we received feedback from people saying how much they enjoyed them – such as families with young children who perhaps struggle to get out and about as much,” notes Sam Ward, managing director of the Simon Rogan Group which recently opened a third industrial unit in the Lake District to bolster its Home By Simon Rogan makeaway box business. “We realised they were making people happy and that, in essence, it is still ‘hospitality’ and the opportunity for us to create a memorable experience.”
According to Ward, when the boxes first started in 2020 they made up only around 11 per cent of the entire business, rising to nearly 20 per cent during 2021. Dishpatch’s data shows these are figures which are roughly on par for most restaurants offering meal boxes; certainly nothing to be sniffed at even as restaurants reopen.
Of course, without the captive audience of a locked-down nation, not all restaurateurs who dipped their toes into the delivery game during lockdown are putting too much stock in the trend.
“It’s a nice little cookie on top but it’s not make or break by any means,” says David Carter, founder of London steakhouse Smokestak, which still offers meal boxes but is focusing on in-restaurant dining. “From an operational perspective, it keeps the chefs busy on quieter days which is great and means we can keep a full team on during otherwise slower periods. However, I don’t think we will ever see the surge we saw in winter 2021 again. We did a roaring trade at the time but it has since dissipated inversely with restaurant dining on the up.”
Still, even if demand isn’t quite at the levels it was during the pandemic, there are good reasons to consider a box option. Unlike in-house dining, restaurants don’t pay VAT on meal boxes, so there’s the potential to generate an extra 20 per cent revenue, plus unlike a physical restaurant, there are no limits on capacity.
But rather than seeing makeaways as a potential rival to their in-restaurant options, Handling thinks there’s a more obvious reason they should continue. “Meal boxes are the best marketing tool ever,” enthuses the chef. “You can ship to all corners of the country and give people a taste of your stuff, be that cocktails from the bars or food from the restaurants which people would have never come to London and tasted before. If we can give the guests who buy from us something they really enjoy, the first place they’ll come to when they’re in London is us.”
The pandemic might be mostly over, but restaurant food at home is here to stay.
