Chef Beto Gutierrez of The Tasting Home delivers a curbside meal kit. Credit: Photo by Mai Pham

Best Pandemic Food and Drink Idea: Curbside Pickup

Honestly, where has this brilliant idea been all our lives? To go food has always been somewhat pedestrian. It could be good, certainly, but no one was confusing it for a fine dining experience — even if you did light some candles and bust out a fine bottle of bubbly for that bucket o’ chicken. For all the horrors of the pandemic, one true change to the food world is the acknowledgment that we can get really good food and not have to sit in a restaurant to eat it. Some of Houston’s best restaurants began offering not just to-go food, but curbside. Just pull up, hang out and wait for your grub. Nevermind just how convenient it is for grocery stores (unless you are super picky about your produce). No doubt it has created some extra work for restaurants, but it was one way to stay alive during the first two years of COVID when almost no one wanted to dine-in.

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