Quick Quotes (and One Hot Take)

Industry insiders on why DoorDash isn’t the devil (maybe?) and why growing greens indoors isn’t that hard.

Sometimes the best quotes stand alone. Here are a few from hospitality professionals we interviewed that didn’t make it into recent stories but have stuck with us—and are too good to stay on the cutting-room floor.

On keeping (and losing) staff during shutdowns…“When the pandemic hit, I let everyone live on unemployment and did a hard shutdown. I did the math and it was the fairest deal for everyone. Everyone else was doing takeout at half wages. A lot of long-term people decided to leave. We had people who had been here for 20 years who were burned out. We lost a lot of institutional knowledge.”—Kevin Daly, founder, Mountain Sun Pubs & Breweries restaurant group

On DoorDash delivery…“More people would rather come and pick up stuff than have it delivered. I thought DoorDash would be big. But I love that people want to come.”—Beth Ginsberg, co-owner, Zaidy’s Deli

On how one order led to three ghost kitchens…“It all started with fettuccine! The thought was that I didn’t want to just make dinner for one, so I decided to put it out on social media as a “pop-up” dinner. First we did five orders…it grew quickly and that’s when we decided to go all in and started Bet On Me.”—Francisco Quintana, chef-owner, Bet On Me (30Fourth Kitchen, Somos Vegetarians, and Linda Hermosa)

On indoor agriculture…“I met this guy who is growing bananas in greenhouses in Canada; he has four acres under glass. We’ve damn near depleted and run through bananas as a crop; one day they’ll be a delicacy. When I think of someone raising bananas indoors, I’d put my money behind that. [And] people are starting to grow almonds indoors because we can’t grow nuts outdoors anymore (granted, they are GMO). Throw money at that; that’s a hard problem. Lettuce isn’t hard.”—Sally Herbert, co-founder and CEO, Altius Urban Farms

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