We all know that the restaurant industry has been hit extra hard since the pandemic started. Restaurants had to quickly pivot to take-out and delivery as their main source of income, resulting in a heavy reliance on delivery platforms.
These same delivery platforms have been known to charge sky high commissions and engage in questionable practices. If only there was a delivery service that focused on high quality food and ethics!
Fortunately I’d like to introduce you to Fare. Fare is a food delivery service where you order from a gourmet, affordable menu curated for the Upper West Side. Over the past eight years, Fare and its sister company, CaterCow, have taken great pride in feeding groups high quality and reliable menu options.
Moroccan chicken, Teriyaki salmon, and Skirt steak entrees
This service sets itself apart from other food delivery platforms as their focus is on custom curating high quality menus that will delight both your senses, and your wallet (the restaurant’s wallet too, but more on that later). They only work with restaurants that pass their stringent vetting process, including having their employees order every meal on their platform so that they can get photographs, and ensure what they offer to you, will be delicious. The service makes your experience and delivery feel special since they partner with restaurants you won’t normally find on other ordering platforms.
Stuffed pepper, Poached salmon with herb yogurt, Short rib, and Chicken nicoise entrees
Fare lives by its name — they charge 0% commission to their restaurants, so your food cost gets passed directly to the restaurants you order from. Support your local restaurants without sacrificing convenience, quality, or price, and feel good about doing it, too.
You can check out their custom weekly menus, delivered right to your door, here: https://fare.catercow.com/
Feel free to give them a shout at fare@catercow.com if you have any questions.
Chicken marsala and various pasta entrees
How does this WORK? Do restaurants send whole meals, or pieces of meals that this service “curates”, to some central location? Going on their site, I see we are not told who their source restaurants are. The prices are incredibly low ($14 + 3 service fee) for tomorrow’s meals. Does one tip on top of this?
Hi Heidi,
James with Fare here. Thanks for thinking about us! The restaurant would send an entire pre-cooked meal ready for you to enjoy upon delivery (we are not a meal kit service).
If you click on the menu name, you’ll be able to see the name of the restaurant on the following page in the top left corner below the pictures. Keep in mind we do also work with dedicated catering companies who also provide menus on our site. You can also message us and we would be happy to provide the restaurant/partners name!
$14 + $3 service fee does not include tip, but does include all food costs, taxes, delivery, and to keep our business running and constantly improving. Tipping is done after the order is placed, the tip goes directly to the delivery person.
We are always happy to be of help so don’t hesitate to reach out to us at fare@catercow.com
It’s really no different than any of the others like Door Dash or GrubHub. They have the same business model.
How are different? It isn’t clear at all.
You charge for the food and a $3.00
Delivery fee. Then you ask the customers to pay tips.
Same old same thing! You’re just smaller and may not survive.
Hi Lydia,
Thank you for asking for further clarification. While it’s a similar model in the sense we work with restaurants and deliver meals to customers, that’s where it ends. Unlike the others, we charge a 0% commission fee to the restaurant, whereas the other platforms were charging 30%+, prior to Mayor de Blasio capping commission fees at 15% this year due to skyrocketing prices.
We’ve done a great deal of research into this topic and our reasoning for creating this service so if you want a more in depth look than what I’m providing here, I highly suggest you read our manifesto here: https://fare.catercow.com/manifesto/
No commission fees mean we pass along the entire cost of the food to the restaurant, this does not happen with other delivery platforms. That $3.00 is actually not a delivery fee. That “service fee” covers your food tax, delivery, and all operational costs associated with running our platform.
Tipping is never expected, but it’s a show of appreciation to the delivery person whose taking the care and time to bring your order to your door.
We only work with restaurants that we’ve actually ordered from, put through our multi-step onboarding process, and have actually tasted their food.
We “batch” our deliveries so that the restaurant can prepare to deliver one time to a specific building/neighborhood, it becomes costly for a restaurant to send multiple delivery people to you, your neighbor, the building next door and so on.
I would be happy to chat and provide you further insight into our service, the food, or anything else you’re concerned about. Don’t hesitate to reach out to fare@catercow.com and we can set up a time to hop on the phone.
Stay safe,
James