DwellSocial app brings Chicago restaurants to the suburbs
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The app brings Pequod's Pizza to suburban diners. Photo: Carrie Shepherd/Axios
Chicago has some of the best and most diverse restaurants in the country, and a new app is giving suburbanites better access to them.
The big picture: DwellSocial delivers food from Chicago to neighborhoods that can be out of range for other food delivery services, like Norwood Park and Beverly, and suburbs across the region.
- Classic restuarants Manny's and Pequod's as well as neighborhood hot spots All Together Now and Irazu are among the options.
How it works: A calendar shows when DwellSocial drivers will deliver from a specific restaurant to a group of suburbs. Residents of those towns order by noon and choose either delivery or pick-up from a location DwellSocial determines.
- For example, Taste of the Philippines will be available this Thursday for suburbs including Vernon Hills and Libertyville.
Between the lines: Most of the restaurants include "finishing instructions" to heat up or complete a meal that's been on a lengthy commute.
Flashback: Northbrook resident Allen Shulman launched DwellSocial in 2020 during the height of the pandemic when he and his neighbors missed eating out.
- Shulman reached out to Pequod's to see if they'd be interested in making a delivery to the burbs if there were enough customers hankering for it.
- There were, and now, there are 50 restaurants and 56 suburbs and neighborhoods available on the app.
By the numbers: The app charges restaurants 10% and adds 18% to each bill that goes to drivers. This is in lieu of a tip to ensure drivers receive fair pay, Shulman says.
What they're saying: "It's still having the ability to enjoy great food with friends and family at home and not have to worry about traffic and the stress that goes with it, not have to worry about parking, babysitting, any of that kind of stuff," Shulman tells Axios.
What's next: Expanding DwellSocial to other metro areas is an ultimate goal, Shulman says.