Local entrepreneur delivers restaurant food to students
Many students at the University of Idaho and its neighbors remain unimpressed by the convenience of local food options and desire better access to higher quality food, said local entrepreneur Kyle Strid.
To combat the problem, Strid started a unique delivery service last week called Moscow and Pullman Dine-in Delivery, which delivers food to residences from restaurants that do not have an in-house delivery option.
Strid said his new company expands delivered food options greatly because it increases the number of restaurants where community members can order takeout and it expands delivery options to include finer, sit-down establishments.
YIshan Chen | Argonaut
Kyle Strid, owner of the delivery service company, describes his company. The first day of deliveries was last Friday.
Strid said the new arrangement will benefit both consumers and restaurants.
As of now Dine-in only delivers items from Seasons Grill and, as the name suggests, only in Moscow and Pullman. However, Strid said he is looking to expand in both of these areas by adding more restaurants and increasing the company’s reach. Unlike similar services elsewhere, Strid says his service is more dedicated to what it does and delivers food hot using unique technology.
Strid said the company’s target demographic is students who are too busy to dine out or are without transportation. He hopes Dine-in will eventually form an additional relationship with students in the form of employment.
He said Dine-in is still hiring and is a job that should appeal to students because of its lack of monotony. Drivers use their own vehicle for deliveries and under the payment system students can easily make $18 to $25 an hour, Strid said.
“I wouldn’t have started this business without finishing paying off student loans first either,” Strid said. “If I know I helped ease some of that burden, that makes me happy to do so.”
Dine-in went online with its first restaurant last Friday. hours are 5-10 p.m.,. but Strid said he hopes to expand the hours once more restaurants are added.
Dine-in charges $4 for deliveries from restaurants in the respective town and $6 for deliveries from the city across the 8-mile Moscow-Pullman border.
Executive Chef of Seasons Grill Dana Ludwig said he expects the new deal with Dine-in to create a synergy — where Seasons Grill restaurant benefits from word-of-mouth advertising through the delivery service.
Strid said Dine-in advertises for restaurants through social media to target the younger demographic as well as through radio and other means.
Strid said he got into this business, not from the restaurant or delivery business realm, but from the technology side of things. Strid said he worked in various IT jobs before his entrepreneurship and creating his own company has been much more fun than his past jobs.
Technology has been at the heart of the service since its creation, Strid said. For one, Dine-in’s service can be accessed by customers via its mobile friendly website. Dine-in advertises itself and its partners on social media and encourages customers to leave feedback on their Facebook page in this crucial early stage of the company. Additionally, Strid offers a free tablet to participating restaurants to communicate with the chefs.
The partnership between Strid’s service and Seasons Grill itself was born from social media when Ludwig found it on Facebook, as Seasons Grill can be a difficult place to find and did not come up in Strid’s initial search for local establishments.
Nishant Mohan can be contacted at [email protected]