Cater2.me, a one-stop catering operation that sources lunch from local vendors, is expanding to the metro D.C. area. The company, which was founded in San Francisco in 2010 and expanded to New York in 2012 and to Chicago earlier this year, delivers lunches for groups of ten or more.
"'Group lunch' is taking off, especially in startups and in tech," says Alex Lorton, cofounder of Cater2.me. "Providing a lot of food for employees is becoming more and more of a cultural norm."
Lorton and cofounder Zach Yungst sat through their fair share of company-provided "turkey sandwiches and mixed green salads" at their respective jobs with financial service companies before tiring of eating "the same thing we'd had a hundred times before," Lorton explains. Eventually, he started slipping away from group lunches to eat from local food trucks, and found their varied cuisine much more appealing.
"If the company is providing food anyway, let's make it easier for them and [a better experience] for their employees," Lorton says. "That was essentially why we started Cater2.me."
Behind the scenes, Cater2.me's ordering system keeps track of its clients' dining preferences, feedback and allergies. "We have a lengthy onboarding process [for new vendors]," says Lorton. "We source the best local places, tag all their menu items with allergen info and then use filters to match items for our clients."
So if a company has a standing order for burritos on Fridays, and they add two new staff members who are vegans, Cater2.me can handle the change. "We're streamlined for office managers," Lorton explains. "We've centralized all invoicing and tracking of deliveries. Office managers have more important things to do than order lunch."
From the vendor's perspective, Lorton says, Cater2.me helps foster relationships among new clients, and can do the sales and marketing team that local vendors don't always have time for. "We're not sourcing Cosi and Corner Bakery," he says.
Cater2.me delivers across the Metro D.C. region, including McLean, Falls Church and Reston in Virginia, and Bethesda and Silver Spring in Maryland. The company plans to bring on another 10 to 15 people locally in sales, marketing, operations and account management in the coming months.