At a swanky press release party at the Historic Heights Fire Station last night, Uber Houston General Manager Sarah Groen announced that the company will start offering its UBEREats food delivery service to limited areas in central Houston starting tomorrow. Drivers for the service will delivery freshly-packaged meals from Uber’s restaurant partners. The program was previously rolled out in Austin this past August.
Based on the chefs and restaurants at last night’s presentation and a partial list provided by Uber, it appears that the initial participating restaurants will likely include Coltivare, Revival Market, the forthcoming Eight Row Flint, Jackson Street Barbecue, Blacksmith, Mala Sichuan, Triniti, Common Bond, Latin Bites, Lucille’s, El Real Tex-Mex, Reef, Little Bigs, Indika, Pondicheri, Tout Suite and Sticky’s Chicken.
For now, Uber is keeping the delivery area limited to downtown and midtown and hours of service between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., mainly to ensure they can keep their promise to deliver meals in ten minutes or less. Here’s how that works: Pre-prepared meals by the chef are already packed and in the car. They’re held in temperature-controlled storage so they stay hot or cold as needed.
Chef Ryan Pera of Coltivare is designated as “Chef Zero,” which means his food is the first to be served for tomorrow’s rollout. As a special promotion offered only for tomorrow, people who order can get Revival Market’s Classic Bread Pudding free with purchase. Here’s what’s on the menu for the next two days:
Thursday, October 29
- Coltivare’s Slow Cooked Duck & Kale Salad $12
- Coltivare’s Black Pepper Rigatoni & Grilled Chicken $9
- Eight Row Flint’s Carnitas Tacos $8
- Revival Market Classic Bread Pudding: Free with meal purchase
Friday, October 30
- Jackson Street BBQ Trinity Plate $10
- Mala Sichuan Bistro Kung Pao Chicken with Dumplings $10
- Blacksmith BLT Sandwich $9
- Crave Cupcakes Uber Halloween Red Velvet Cupcake $4
People interested in ordering should look for the plate symbol on their Uber app. Menu and delivery area updates are available at the Uber EATS Houston web site.
The service joins several other recent restaurant delivery options in the Houston area, such as DoorDash and Zifty, and follows on the heels of Amazon’s PrimeNow two-hour grocery and merchandise delivery rollout, which started less than two weeks ago.
This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2015.