UP YOUR RESTAURANT’S TAKEOUT GAME- YOUR LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON IT
                     UP YOUR RESTAURANT’S 
TAKEOUT GAME- YOUR 
LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON IT
Making your take out menu travel-
proof boosts profits and diner loyalty
• Executing takeout can seem simple – until it isn’t. During a pandemic, 
when takeout and delivery are the best options for survival and 
repeat business is critical, to-go should get more love.
• “We weren’t sure if we were going to survive when this all started,” 
says Dash Harrison, co-owner of Curtis Park Deli in Denver. But 
heeding various measures while transitioning to takeout has allowed 
the company to thrive.
• When so much is at stake, it makes sense to take a harder look at how 
transport can affect the menu.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
• To Harrison, uncomplicating the menu has kept his sandwich shop 
going. A dish that has a long prep list or too much labor should be cut. 
“We want to give the customer options while still being mindful of 
food waste, food integrity and overall waste,” Harrison says.
GET AS MUCH USE FROM ALL 
INGREDIENTS
• To cut one dish over another, consider all the ingredients. “We try to 
marry food items on dinner delivery and party boxes so we don’t have 
to keep too much inventory in-house,” says Andrea Correale, 
president of Elegant Affairs, a New York and Long Island-based 
caterer.
• Ingredients that do double or multiple duties also reduce labor, 
especially important when illness is more likely than ever to impact 
staffing. “Many composed pasta (dishes) all use some combination of 
four sauces,” says CEO Elliot Schiffer of Denver’s Mici Handcrafted 
Italian.
FERRET OUT TAKEOUT DOWNERS
• Dine-in food that works for takeout is food that keeps, says Correale. 
“Items that hold well and don’t get dried out easily,” she says. Foods 
that eat well at room temperature or reheat easily are good choices.
 PAY CLOSER ATTENTION TO 
PACKAGING
• It’s not just the food, but what it goes inside of, says Schiffer, who moved 
from foil containers to recyclable plastic bowls so the food can be 
reheated in the microwave.
• “Especially during this time, it is difficult, expensive and bad for the 
environment to use multiple containers for a single dish,” Schiffer says.
• Packaging helped Geja’s Cafe, a longstanding fondue concept in Chicago, 
transition to takeout
by packing cheese in heatable containers. “This COVID time has caused 
us to stretch out of our comfort zone and add a bit of reinvention,” says 
proprietor Jeff Lawler, who also gives out equipment for fondue at home.
• Contact Us
• Address 1
• 110 Glen Cove Avenue, Glen Cove, New York 11542
• Address 2
• 240 West 30th Street, New York, NY 10001
• Phone
• (516) 271-1619 / 212-991-0078
• Website
• https://elegantaffairscaterers.com/