The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the restaurant industry especially hard. Hundreds of restauants have been forced to close in Ottawa resulting in thousands of restaurants.
Many of the restaurants that have managed to stay open have had to change the way they do business, switching to a delivery and take-out service. But two local restauants in particular have managed to think way outside of the box.
OCCO Kitchen on Innes Road established an online market shortly after the province of Ontario ordered restaurants to close their dining rooms. Vistors to the market (occokitchen.com/occomarket) can order various fruit and vegetables, uncooked meat, dairy and egg products and a limited number of kits including a Caesar Salad kit for 4-6 people and a Nacho kit for 4-6 people. Delivery within Orléans costs $5 and most delliveries can be done within 24 hours.
Rather than offer a take-out and dellivery service, Meatings BBQ closed their store front restaurant on St-Joseph Blvd. and instead focused their efforts on their online store using their catering facility on Youville Drive.
The online store (meatings.ca/store/) gives customers the ability to purchase prepared vacuum-packed food items like pulled pork, beef brisket and ribs along with sides like mac & cheese, cornbread and coleslaw. You can even order from a selection of craft beers from Beau's, Stray Dog and Broadhead.
Orders are delivered based on location. Deliveries east of downtown including Orléans are made on Tuesdays and Saturdays while orders going to the west end are being made on Thursdays. Orders need to be be placed by midnight on the day before delivery and they must be pre-paid using Pay Pal or a credit card.
Both OCCO and Meatings follow social distancing protocol by ringing the customers doorbell and leaving the food on the door step.
(This
story was made possible thanks to the generous support of
our local business partners.)