“You’re not quite sure what you’ll get when you go inside.”īabic Rosario, who has a Ph.D. “It’s kind of like when you pass by an Italian-Indian restaurant,” Ana Babic Rosario, an assistant professor with University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business, said. Monday’s announcement that King Soopers and parent company Kroger are partnering with a tech-powered, delivery-only restaurant chain to bring fresh-cooked meals to customers in Denver and three other cities raised some questions - and eyebrows. Work is underway at the ClusterTruck kitchen at 518 Grand Blvd.Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu “It’s the right-size city we can own and bring some value to.” “We’re from the Midwest and we feel Kansas City, Columbus and Cleveland are like-minded, similar spirits to Indianapolis,” she said. Rango said it’s no accident the ClusterTruck is clustering its expansion plans in the Midwest. The delivery is free, but drivers accept tips.ĭuring the initial few days of operation, a select “beta group” of diners will get their food free as ClusterTruck breaks in its operation. They pick up their food from the driver at their curb. ClusterTruck also plans to deliver only south of the river to start, but again, that could change to include North Kansas City as ClusterTruck measures the market.Ĭustomers order and pay for their food online. Initially, the hours will be from 11 a.m. The kitchen expects to hire 10- to 15 people per shift. The drivers are independent contractors, working when they want and according to demand. Menu items include breakfast croissants and burritos salads mac and cheese combinations hamburgers, wraps and sandwiches tacos Pad Thai pasta dishes and ice cream desserts. “They started in the tech world and developed the technology in house to make this possible,” Rango said Software developed by the company’s co-founders CEO Chris Baggott and Chief Technology Officer Dan McFadden, is used for the ordering, preparation and delivery of the meals. The ClusterTruck kitchen in Bloomington, Ind. “We’re not being super-public about the address because you can’t pick up food,” she said. There is no take-out or dine-in facilities, Rango emphasized. The Kansas City operation is one of three ClusterTruck plans to open in downtowns by late November-early December, the others are in Denver and Cleveland.Īnd it is strictly a kitchen preparing meals for drivers to deliver to customers. A third opened in downtown Columbus, Ohio last week. The first ClusterTruck opened in Indy in April 2016, followed by an outlet in Bloomington, home of the University of Indiana. “We have a pretty tight delivery zone to make sure our food is super fresh.” “We provide more consistency for our customers vs food coming from 15 different places. “Grubhub and uberEATS goes to restaurants to pick up food, we actually have our own kitchen,” said Gwen Rango, spokeswoman for ClusterTruck. The business plans to compete successfully with the likes of other online food delivery rivals uberEATS and Grubhub by preparing its dishes on site and delivering them to customers within a six- to eight minute drive time from its kitchen at 518 Grand Blvd.
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