Shift Happens: Innovative Businesses Adjust to a Pandemic Era

In early March, Graham Boswell, founder of the prospering vegan pop-up company Littleburg, found himself facing the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, having to cancel three events that month. He was left with an abundance of food and was forced to pivot his business in order to stay afloat. The next weekend, he transformed Littleburg into a prepared-meal delivery and curbside pickup service. Fortunately for him, this was exactly what people were seeking.

Littleburg is just one example of how food businesses have transformed due to the pandemic and, in doing so, have kept the essential connection with loyal customers and lifted the spirits of the local community. Littleburg, WECO Hospitality, Forklift Provisions and Season to Go are four inspiring and innovative small businesses that took this goal to heart.

Pre-COVID, Littleburg held eight to 12 pop-up events a month at breweries, festivals and restaurants, which allowed Boswell to “experiment with ideas and formats in a low-stakes way.” His new model still allows this. Littleburg’s seasonal, vegetable-centric menu is posted every Monday at noon. Customers order by Thursday at 5pm for a weekend pickup at Food rEvolution in Stoneham or delivery to Somerville, Cambridge, Arlington, Medford, Boston or Brookline.

Boswell says the a la carte menu is “driven by deliciousness and never compromises on flavor.” The items are prepared in a way that can be reheated and finished by customers at home. The Mediterranean-centric dishes, influenced by Boswell’s experience as a line cook at Oleana and by his Greek girlfriend’s roots, utilize local produce and reflect the season. Littleburg sources from Kimball Farm, Drumlin Farm, Verrill Farm, Curio Spice Co. and Olive Harvest, to name just a few. Some menu favorites include the Build-at- Home Gyro: handmade flatbread with pickled red onion, slow-roasted tomatoes, Greek-style shaved seitan, fresh cucumber and almond tzatziki. The Pide is another favorite: Turkish stuffed flatbread with homemade almond cheese and vegetable fillings that change with the season. All dishes incorporate a unique fusion of flavors.

With this sustainable business model, Boswell explains, “it’s cool to maintain a sense of community with clientele, even when we can’t be with them in person.”

WECO Hospitality is another example of a new farm-to-home- table pickup and delivery business that co-founder Gavin Lambert feels is “bringing joy to people’s lives through food.” Like many successful chefs, Lambert lost his job due to the pandemic. His then girlfriend, now wife, Rachel Amiralian, a creative and former television/film producer (and former marketing director at Edible Boston), had always envisioned the two of them starting their own business and this was the push to make it happen. A week later, they cooked and delivered their first dinner.

The couple began by preparing daily dinners for friends and family to finish at home as a way to connect during the pandemic. Eventually, the eager eaters insisted on paying; by week two, through word of mouth alone, a business was born. Every Friday at noon, they email an ingredient-driven menu and order form to their customers. The menu typically sells out within five minutes, Amiralian says. “People set their alarms to get their orders in by noon.” Customers then receive an email confirmation by noon on Saturday. Pickup is available from 4:30 to 6pm on the day of the order at WECO Acton. For delivery orders, the window is 4:30–6:30pm, depending on location. Meals are delivered in recyclable containers with instructions for reheating and finishing.

A new menu is crafted every week, with a different dinner item every day. As a former chef in Concord, Lambert fostered relationships with local farms like Applefield Farm in Stow. All dishes are based on the farm list they receive that week and made from scratch the day the crops are delivered. As Lambert explains, “We have a personal connection with our food and aim to appeal to the tastes of our WECO community.” The sourcing for these dishes is the most critical part. Amiralian notes, “Going into the week, we know how many people we are serving, so there is little to no waste. We have the metrics down to a science.”

The menu selecting process is innovative and collaborative, and features dinners like duck confit with beluga lentils, sofrito, black garlic, duck fat roasted sunchokes and frisée salad with grapefruit and hazelnuts; or pork belly miso ramen with wood ear mushrooms, sprouts, greens and a marinated egg in a tonkotsu broth alongside bok choy and sweet potatoes. The aim is for the remote dining experience to be fun for everyone. “We have met so many amazing people through this,” Amiralian says. “People appreciate that we have solved dinner for them.”

With large and small events canceled by mid-March, both Forklift Catering and The Table at Season to Taste/Season to Taste Catering were forced to make drastic changes to their services. At the start of the pandemic, Forklift Catering in Needham Heights had to furlough all its staff. Dennis Tourse, chef and owner, explains “Distributors were still able to deliver, so we were forced to reimagine the future.” Robert Harris, chef and owner of The Table at Season to Taste and Season to Taste Catering echoes this sentiment. “It’s like riding a wave. I learned early on that people who are malleable enough and able to pivot are the ones who will survive the pandemic.”

In June, Forklift Catering first dabbled with ready-made food for a fundraiser and subsequently decided to pause, regroup and officially formulate a new service called Forklift Provisions in August. They use the takeout app Toast for ordering and pivoted to a whole new way to run their business, maintaining a commitment to the highest standards and continued use of locally sourced ingredients.

A new, seasonal menu is posted Friday morning each week and stays open until 1pm on Tuesday for curbside pickup or delivery the following weekend to clients in the Weston, Wellesley, Newton, Needham, Chestnut Hill and Brookline areas. They’ve broadened to Cambridge and Somerville with Boston on the way. The executive chef and team formulate the menus a few weeks in advance. They use all the same local distributors as before. The menu includes rotating options of Meal Sets built for four people that feature dishes like beef Bourguignon with chive sour cream mashed potatoes and sautéed haricots verts with toasted hazelnuts or vegetarian enchiladas with Mexican street corn salad, and are designed with basic instructions for finishing at home. As Tourse notes, “These menus are designed by caterers who know how to bring the dishes to an almost-done point.” There is always a vegetarian or vegan component to a Meal Set, and dishes can also be purchased a la carte. The menu always has various specials and desserts available with each order, plus a bit of pizzazz with the season like “Make Your Own Caramel Apples.”

Forklift aims to create an experience for customers to eat a special meal at home in a more elaborate and sophisticated way than takeout. Tourse jokes, “It’s a reason to change out of your sweatpants, shave and make an event at home.” Another appealing quality is that many dishes can complement home cooking with sauces that can be repurposed, and also many meals can be enjoyed a day or two later, or last as leftovers for a few days.

Robert Harris at Season to Taste in Cambridge also had to drastically pivot his businesses in light of the pandemic. He was traveling to Denver in early March, learned of the pandemic while there, and by mid-March, all 20 of the catering company’s scheduled events and their school food deliveries were canceled. In just a few days, Harris was forced to shut everything down. All revenue was disappearing, but he was committed to the terms with his vendors. He had to brainstorm ways to use their goods and keep the business afloat.

As Harris explains, he and Executive Chef Mark Thompson “casted a lot of lines,” and discovered that the takeout option proved to be the most promising. They “spitballed” a menu in early April and signed on with third-party delivery services. “It was a mess at first,” he says, to establish a rhythm when receiving 30 takeout orders between 5 and 6pm. Over time, the three-person cooking line, social distancing in a tiny kitchen, had to be creative and find their stride.

The new venture, Season to Go, offers meals for pickup and delivery Tuesday through Sunday. Once an order is placed, it is ready that day for pickup or delivery to select areas. The menu features snacks, starters, mains, dessert and wine to go. The seasonal, individually packed dishes include spicy adobo half chicken: a roasted Statler breast and a confit thigh with a scallion arepa, mole and mango. There’s also house-made rigatoni: slow-braised lamb shoulder, farm peppers, green olives, spiced tomato sauce and cotija cheese.

Harris says, “We have noticed a lot of new customers, mostly in North Cambridge, who are seeking delicious, restaurant-quality meals at home.” It is a weekend treat for many, he says.

littleburgveg.com
wecohospitality.com
forkliftcatering.com
seasontogo.com

This story appeared in the Winter 2021 issue.