New York City is one of the culinary capitals of America and it's also in the running for the most diverse food scene in the world. Immigrants from every country and continent made a place for themselves in this city, bringing the flavors of their native cuisines with them. If you’re ready to spend a little time supporting local restaurants in New York City, and you'll encounter a world of new flavors and a never ending number of cuisines.
There are iconic neighborhood delis, authentic ethnic eateries, experimental fusion joints, and countless food trucks delivering perfection in a takeout box. No matter what you're craving, you can find it in the Big Apple. It's all just a delivery away.
As a New York City employer, you know just how strong of an incentive great food can be for your workers. Provide your team with great meals - and before you know it you'll start to see real upswings on efficiency, productivity, and morale. Even better, you'll be supporting local restaurants in NYC, helping to keep the money in the local economy.
At Fooda, we work with restaurant partners who specialize in delivering great food to workplaces just like yours. Let's look into some of the ways that Fooda can bring the flavors of NYC's food scene right to your office, shop, or other workplace.
Every local restaurant is someone's dream. These are small businesses, each looking to share their passion via homemade and passed down recipes while simultaneously providing a valuable service to the neighborhood. When you grab lunch at a local restaurant, you're directly supporting a lifelong dream and helping to build and empower a stronger community.
In a very real way, each neighborhood in the city is defined by its restaurants. These are places where people from a staggering variety of backgrounds can share a common experience around a delicious meal. Even if that meal is just a well-made cheese pizza, those hot slices bring people together. By supporting local restaurants in New York City, you're not only helping to keep them in business, you're helping to keep the city's communities vibrant and thriving.
In a workplace context, supporting local restaurants means bringing the variety, quality, and community of New York City's food scene directly to your team. It can be as simple as having the taco place next door cater lunch, or having an award-winning food truck drop by to celebrate the end of a busy week. By rewarding your team with excellent local grub, you're providing direct financial support to a vital neighborhood business.
When you support local restaurants in NYC, you're also helping to support the entire economic ecosystem of the city. Most local restaurants are small, family-owned businesses that are deeply rooted in the city. They hire local workers and often work with local suppliers and service providers. They may also offer deals to reward loyal customers and provide discounts to local organizations and businesses.
This helps to keep money within the local economy, and that's important even in a sprawling metropolis like ours.
If you want to understand the potential economic impacts of supporting local NYC restaurants, take a look at the workplace lunch order. According to at least one recent poll, around 5% of workplaces provide free or subsidized food programs. Around 33% of workers report regularly buying daily lunches from nearby restaurants. When an employer coordinates with their team to place a group order from a local restaurant, it's a huge win for everyone involved. Instead of that money going to a national fast-food chain or quick service restaurant (QSR), it's effectively reinvested into the local economy.
Not only does the restaurant owner make a tidy profit, but they also pass that money down to their chefs, line cooks, waitstaff, and everyone else who works at the restaurant. The restaurant thrives, their workers thrive, and their neighborhoods thrive. It's a classic win-win scenario and it won’t cost you extra.
Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of supporting New York City's local restaurants is the substantial environmental benefits. The most obvious of these is the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that comes from eating locally sourced ingredients, rather than having them shipped in from across the country. By choosing restaurants that use locally sourced produce and meats, you’re supporting New York-area farmers and reducing the transportation emissions that contribute to both health and climate issues.
New York City's food scene is filled with farm-to-table restaurants, and many more rely on area farmer's markets and sustainability-focused vendors to keep fresh ingredients in stock. This regional approach simply isn't economically viable for national fast-food and QSR chains, but it can work very well on a local level.
Consider the impact of a weekly workplace lunch order with one of the city's hundreds of sustainability-conscious eateries. Not only will you be directly reducing emissions by using a service like Fooda to manage the deliveries, you'll be further reducing your company's carbon footprint by chowing down on food that didn't need to be shipped across the country.
As it turns out, supporting local restaurants in New York City may be among the most environmentally sustainable things that your business can do.
Did you know that supporting local restaurants in NYC often means indirectly helping thousands of area nonprofit and charitable organizations? Many of the city's independent restaurants often donate significant amounts of volunteer time, financial support, and food to non-profit groups throughout the Five Boroughs.
By providing a steady supply of workplace lunch orders, your team is able to support these restaurants with the stability they need to give back to their neighbors in need. It's also helpful to work with a lunch services provider who understands the value of supporting the community. A good example would be our Fooda Gives Back program, our employee-driven service initiative.
Simply being aware of how restaurants in New York City support their community organizations can help to guide your lunch order decision making. For example, it’s common for local restaurants to proudly announce their participation in "dine to donate" events, making it that much easier to support their efforts.
As the top workplace food program provider, Fooda knows a thing or two about connecting businesses with authentic community eateries. In fact, 70% of Fooda's partners are independent restaurants, caterers, and food trucks. By working with us, your company will be supporting local restaurants in NYC while also gaining access to an incredible variety of cuisines.
Who are these restaurants? While we'd love to name them all, this is New York City we're talking about. We have hundreds of partner restaurants in the city, and we're adding more every day. As you read through this list, consider how curious and excited your team would be if they could try out even just one of these restaurants every week.
1. Takumi Taco
Address: 75 9th Avenue
Located in Chelsea Market, Takumi Taco serves an inspired fusion of Japanese and Mexican flavors. While everyone else is ordering pizza again, your employees will be deciding between Japanese Curry Beef or Chipotle Shrimp in their taco bento box.
2. DiSO’S Italian Sandwich Society
Address: Usually somewhere on 46th, with another truck somewhere on 52nd
Don't think "food truck," think "Italian deli on wheels." DiSO's offers authentic, high-quality Italian sandwiches. Imagine the smiles on your teams' faces when they get a waft of warm focaccia. It's a welcome upgrade from standard boxed lunches.
Address: 1528 Amsterdam Ave
An American bistro serving a menu of updated Southern-style dishes, Home Sweet Harlem's menu is home cooked heaven. From Shrimp & Grits to a full "Weekday Brunch," their catering options are ideal for bringing the whole team together.
Address: 10 W 46th St
KD46 puts a kosher certified spin on classic international dishes. From burgers and charcuterie boards to sushi and egg rolls, KD46 makes unbeatable meals that can be enjoyed without any added anxiety.
Address: 265 W 23rd St
Featuring a menu of "100% vegan comfort food," Urban Vegan Kitchen offers plant-based and kosher-certified takes on globally inspired dishes. Even self-proclaimed carnivores will struggle to keep their mouths from watering after looking at what this eatery has to offer.
6. Caffe Bene
Address: 80-27 37th Ave, Jackson Heights
This European-style cafe has locations all over the world, but only one in New York. If your workers are hungry for some hearty sandwiches and wraps, exceptional salads, delectable baked goods, and incredible coffee, consider a catering visit from Caffe Bene.
Address: Take your pick from five NYC locations
Offering an expansive selection of more than 40 empanada options ranging from Caribbean-style roast pork to Indian-inspired curried chicken with chickpeas, cilantro and scallions, there's truly something for everyone on your team at Empanada Mama.
8. Souvlaki Bar
Address: 30-18B Astoria Blvd, Astoria
From tender, marinated skewers of perfectly savory beef kebabs to their signature selection of "yeeros," SVL Bar is ready to deliver the authentic flavors of Greek cuisine to your workplace.
9. Kuu Ramen
Address: 1275 1st Avenue and 20 John Street
Since 2016, Kuu Ramen has proudly served its signature ramen, donburi, poke bowls, and hand rolls to New York City's hungriest workers. Perfectly balanced Japanese entrees are hard to beat as a workplace crowdpleaser.
10. Dorado Tacos
Address: 28 East 12th St (between University & 5th)
Offering a menu inspired by Mexican-style street food, Dorado Tacos offers iconic dishes like Baja California-style fish tacos and Mission-style burritos, all made with fresh, seasonal produce and traditional herbs and spices. Perfect for an elevated Taco Tuesday experience.
Whether you want to coordinate a catered team lunch, or introduce a rotation of daily restaurant Popups in your workplace or cafeteria, Fooda makes supporting local restaurants in New York City easy and delicious. We'll help you create the perfect corporate food service program for your company.
Through the Fooda App, your team can place consolidated orders from multiple neighborhood restaurants. Forget about the logistics of managing multiple delivery orders and drivers. A dedicated Fooda team member will deliver the meals on time, every time.
Want to learn more about how Fooda can solve your workplace dining needs? Give us a call, and we'll show you how we can help.
If your company is interested in supporting local restaurants in New York City, we'll be happy to reach out to them about joining the Fooda network. While we can't guarantee that your favorite restaurant will join up, there's a good chance they will.
Fooda works with companies of all sizes, from small offices to giant corporate campuses. While none of our solutions are a great fit for every business size, we can always design a program that works for your budget and headcount.
For simple delivery and catering programs, Fooda can have your account up and running almost immediately. For more complex setups, like our onsite cafeteria replacement programs, it typically takes 2-4 weeks after the initial consultation with a Fooda expert.
