Food delivery options in St. Albert have diversified thanks to a business called Skip The Dishes. Now you can get ice cream, specialty pizza and burgers delivered right to your doorstep.
The delivery network came to St. Albert in January and currently has more than 15 local establishments available to order from.
Andrew Chau, co-creator of Skip The Dishes, says the service provides locals with a unique selection of delivery options.
“This enables restaurants that don’t normally deliver with a delivery network of couriers,” he says.
Skip The Dishes launched in Edmonton in 2014 and has served over 10,000 people since. Chau says after the service began in the city, bringing it to St. Albert was a no-brainer.
“It was a matter of demand,” he explains. “We had hundreds of requests from people from St. Albert asking for us to come to St. Albert. It was one of those things where we couldn’t ignore all those requests.”
Through SkipTheDishes.com, St. Albertans can order from establishments such as Marble Slab, Montana’s Cookhouse, COBS Bread and The Beer Hunter and Grill, to name a few.
Using the app, a customer can put in their credit card details and place an order. Once it’s placed, the customer can GPS-track their delivery on Skip The Dishes until it arrives.
Amanda Lysak, who has used Skip The Dishes four times since it arrived in St. Albert, says she was excited when the business came to town.
“It's nice to have bigger variety than just pizza for delivery, especially with two kids, going out for dinner just isn't possible sometimes,” she says, adding that she wishes there were more local restaurants to choose from on Skip The Dishes.
Patrick Szakszon, co-owner and manager of Famoso in St. Albert says he knew the service was coming to St. Albert about a year before it arrived. He says he knew it was something the restaurant needed to get involved with.
“We signed up for it because we felt it would be a good opportunity to grow our business and an easier way to get our name out there,” he says.
Joining Skip The Dishes was confusing at first, but once the staff became familiar with the delivery service and how it worked, things became more fluid.
Szakszon says they receive deliveries on an app, which rings an alarm when a delivery comes in, a noise that was new to the team.
“It was pretty confusing at first, I’m not going to lie, but I like to think we adapted pretty well to it,” he said. “We’re hoping that it only gets busier from here.”
They currently average around six to seven deliveries on a slow day, and over 20 deliveries on a busy day.
Ravinder Rawat, owner of O'Maille's Irish Pub & Eatery, says at first he didn’t know if he wanted to get into a partnership with Skip The Dishes.
He took over the restaurant last December and began opening the pub during lunch hours in January. It was around this time that Skip The Dishes gave him a call.
“I was kind of thinking of not doing it, because I was in the initial stage of opening this place for lunch so there was a lot of other work I had to do,” he says. “But I thought ‘why not?’ and after they called I decided to go for it a few days later.”
Rawat says he found that there was little work to be done on his end. Upon receiving an order, the cook would start making the dish as they would any meal. Then a courier with Skip The Dishes would appear to take it.
Rawat says the delivery network has been a positive experience. On a slow day O'Maille's receives between four and six delivery orders. On a busy night they’ve received larger orders amounting to over $100.
“It’s pretty good, I can’t complain. We get more orders now than we would have before,” he says.
The only other online delivery service similar to Skip The Dishes that is available in St. Albert is Just Eat, where people can deliver from All Hours Pizza & Donair, which is a restaurant based out of Edmonton.
For more information or to place a delivery on Skip The Dishes, visit https://www.skipthedishes.com/st.-albert/restaurants
