CHICAGO — As frigid temperatures set in, an increasing number of Chicagoans will opt to stay indoors and get dinner delivered.
For DoorDash, a food delivery service that recently expanded to Chicago, it's perfect timing.
Through DoorDash's iPhone app (an Android app is in the works for 2015) or website, city-dwellers can get food delivered to the privacy of their warm homes from restaurants where delivery was not available before.
Think Chipotle, Portillo's and XOCO, among a list of more than 100 restaurants.
Right now, that list includes restaurants in Lakeview, River North, Lincoln Park and the West Loop, but expect to see more restaurants in The Loop, South Loop, Bucktown and Wicker Park on the list come January, according to DoorDash growth manager Dylan Richter.
"There are a lot of restaurants that don't [offer] delivery because it's not easy for them or it's too costly," said Richter, who added that DoorDash aims to offer the service to even more neighborhoods soon.
Orders of less than $100 get a $7 delivery fee tacked on. The fee doubles for orders over $100, and there is no minimum order requirement.
Chicago is the latest city to get DoorDash, which was developed by a group of Stanford University students and first launched in Palo Alto in 2013. It's also in Boston, Silicon Valley, San Jose and Los Angeles.
Bringing the service to Chicago a month ago was a natural choice, Richter said, both because Chicago is a major market and because the city has a great food scene.
Richter sees Chicago's cold weather as an opportunity, rather than a deterrent.
"We want to prove to ourselves that we can have drivers on the road when it's 10 degrees out, and the food will come on time and be hot," he said.
To use DoorDash, users must first create an account and enter their home address. Then, they can select a restaurant and place an order.
Grub seekers can choose between an "ASAP" order or scheduling an order ahead of time, an option that's commonly used for group lunches, Richter said.
Unlike its competitors, Doordash drivers and bikers are assigned delivery orders, rather than claiming the first delivery in the queue.
The company uses a technology that helps pick the best drivers for the job, said Richter, explaining that if there is a traffic jam or if a restaurant is packed, the DoorDash algorithm will take that into account and assign the closest, best driver to the job.
Because of that, Richter said DoorDash offers the "quickest, most reliable" delivery service.
Plus, drivers don't "look at it as just delivery," Richter said.
For example, when the company first launched, the DoorDash team flagged an order of chicken noodle soup and two Sprites, thinking that the person might be sick. They then contacted the person behind the order to see if they wanted cold medicine delivered, too.
DoorDash isn't the first company to offer a delivery service for businesses or restaurants that traditionally don't deliver.
Postmates, for example, is another app-based delivery service that allows people to order anything from any store or restaurant and get it delivered within an hour. The San Francisco-based company was founded in 2011, and expanded to Chicago in March. Perhaps the best known delivery service is GrubHub, founded in Chicago in 2004. It went public earlier this year.
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