Relayed reaction
The online grocery shopping world it is a-changing, and local player Relay Foods is looking to stay on the leading edge. The company, which has since 2009 offered customers the ability to shop for groceries online before picking them up or having them delivered, is rolling out a new way to shop its selections. Instead of browsing virtual aisles, Relay is now letting its customers shop for specific dishes.
Shopping online just for the ingredients that go into a particular recipe is nothing new. Meal kitting services like Blue Apron and Plated deliver everything you need to make several dinners on a weekly basis, and Relay itself already allows its users to shop from a collection of recipes on its website.
What’s different this time around, according to the developer of the new service, Graham Evans, is a larger number of and more regularly updated recipes, the ability to use personal recipes or those from other Internet sources, an easier search function and a system that ensures some of the ingredients for your various weekly meals overlap. What it doesn’t do is send pre-measured ingredients, like the other services do, and that’s a conscious decision.
“Something our research from people using meal-kitting services showed was they felt it was way too much packaging,” Evans said. “Two, they felt they had very little control over the process, very little control over the meals, and no control over the ingredients in the meals.”
Relay’s system, Evans said, allows customization to account for dietary restrictions and preferences for organic foods. And because the meal planning service is directly tied to an e-grocery store and doesn’t rely on pre-measured ingredients, it’s less expensive than Relay’s competitors, coming in at $5-6 per serving compared to $10-12.
Relay began developing the new meal-shopping system last October and rolled out a beta version for a test group in January. The public beta launch is expected to be on March 24.
“Our customers have complete control over the process,” Evans said. “We deliver them a meal plan that has been created by our registered dietitian…but they have the ability to swap in meals and ingredients.”
That’s juicy
Last week we talked about the vegan-friendly juice bar that’s coming to the old Coca Cola building on Preston Avenue. This week we heard from another local who’s planning on serving up fresh juice over in Belmont.
Real estate agent Eames Coleman plans to open Kareem Abdul-Jüsbbar on April 1 at the Tiki Bar on the patio of La Taza, and he will offer freshly made juices and smoothies starting at breakfast time. He said he found during a trial run last year in the pint-sized space on Second Street where Dr. Ho’s Holy Cow used to be, that juices aren’t especially popular after mid-afternoon, so he expects his hours to be 8am-3pm, which won’t affect the Tiki Bar’s nighttime operation as a casual outdoor boozy spot.
Coleman said he’ll be interested to see how so many juices fare in Charlottesville, especially downtown. He said he decided on Belmont so he wouldn’t step on anyone’s toes, and noted that Liquid Vegetarian Cafe and Juice Bar, a similar concept that opened on the mall more than a decade ago, didn’t last very long. But the health food scene has evolved since then.
If that’s not enough juicy news for you, we’ve got a few more tidbits floating around. Cville Juice, the downtown shop that was slated to make its debut in January of this year, remains unopened and quiet. The Charlottesville-made fruit and vegetable juice Lumi has expanded its distribution to dozens of Whole Food Markets and is available in 10-ounce bottles. And the guys making Caribe, the Dominican-inspired fruit juices mixed with aloe, are serving up protein smoothies exclusively at ACAC Fitness and Wellness Centers.
“Nobody’s even gonna have to eat anymore,” Coleman joked. “We’ll just ingest it all with a straw.”
Junction prepares to function
Camp has been quiet for the past three months over at Junction, the new Belmont restaurant launching across the street from The Local with hot-shit chef Melissa Close-Hart at the helm. But Close-Hart recently revealed in an e-mail the restaurant should be open by late summer or early fall. It’s the first time anyone involved in the project has hinted at an open date for the modern Tex-Mex joint.
Close-Hart said she took some time off between jobs in early March, with the first of the month being her last day at Palladio in Barboursville. Construction on her new culinary home at Junction apparently hit a standstill early this year for modifications to the site plan.
“Fingers crossed, we will start the new construction very soon,” Close-Hart said.
Between now and Junction’s highly anticipated opening, Close-Hart said she will be “revamping and running the catering” at The Local. So yeah, you might want to grab yourself some catering from The Local.