Special Report

18 Fancy Restaurants Offering Takeout and Delivery During the Coronavirus Crisis

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Some 24 states, along with major cities in a 25th (Texas), have closed their bars and restaurants in response to the spread of the coronavirus. In addition, some restaurants in states that haven’t imposed a ban have voluntarily closed. In all cases, though, the shutdowns apply only to in-house dining. The restaurants have the option of remaining open for takeout and delivery service if they desire.  

While this obviously means dramatic drops in revenue for the affected establishments, many restaurants feel that it’s better than nothing, not only as a source of income (no matter how limited) but also to allow them to keep at least some of their employees on the payroll and to serve their customers. Here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus and America’s restaurants.

Of course, many eating places have been providing takeout and/or delivery all along — among them sushi bars, Chinese restaurants, pizzerias, and delis. But the new situation has posed challenges for more upscale restaurants, and especially those that ordinarily serve rarified tasting menus, where presentation is often almost as important as flavor.

Surprisingly, though, a number of high-end places — including some with three stars from the Guide Michelin, generally considered the restaurant world’s highest accolade — have figured out a way to keep selling food to the public. These include some of the best restaurants in America.

In most cases, such places are able to do this by eschewing fancy creations based on luxury ingredients in favor of sandwiches, salads, and various kinds of comfort food. This gives diners the opportunity to patronize ordinarily pricey temples of gastronomy at bargain prices (in most cases, though a few places don’t offer that much of a price break), even if the food isn’t exactly the same.

Click here to see 18 fancy restaurants offering takeout and delivery during the coronavirus crisis.

24/7 Tempo has consulted the websites of more than a hundred top-rated restaurants around the country to discover which ones are now offering food to go. Further information was gleaned from a list of restaurants with takeout and/or delivery programs on the online reservation site Resy.

Some of the restaurants on this list provide their takeout and/or delivery options through the prepaid-ticket restaurant site Tock. In certain cases, the meals offered have sold out, but there is always a waiting list.

Courtesy of Acadia

Acadia
> Location: Chicago

Until it was forced to close earlier this month, this contemporary American restaurant, awarded two Michelin stars, served a single 16-course seasonal tasting menu for dinner, featuring dishes like “Aleutian crab, brioche, hollandaise, beer, brown butter” and “pork belly, sprout leaves, brisket, chowder,” for $215 per person. It has pivoted temporarily to curbside takeout, featuring considerably simpler fare (and less expensive), like spicy cumin lamb noodles ($12) and a lobster grilled cheese sandwich with chips ($16).

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Courtesy of Addo

Addo
> Location: Seattle

Self-described as “a restaurant that specializes in tasting menus, experiences, and rad times,” Addo usually offers several different 20-course themed tasting menus (one called “Silva — The Story of Washington” and another dubbed “Video Games: An Edible History,” for instance), at $185 per person. A currently available alternative is Adda@home, the restaurant’s version of a meal plan. For $95, Addo will prepare three meals, available for pickup or delivery, ready at the same time and date. The meals “will require gentle heating or a mix or two…”

Courtesy of Annie Z. via Yelp

Alinea
> Location: Chicago

Chef Grant Achatz’s highly acclaimed restaurant, Chicago’s only Michelin three-star, usually serves multi-course tasting menus of varying lengths priced from $210 to $395 per person, including tax and tip. After it closed, it started offering prepaid pickup “Comfort Food from Alinea” — a meal of beef short rib Wellington with a side of 50-50 mashed potatoes (half potatoes, half butter) and crème brûlée for dessert, for $34.95 per person. The bad news? It sold out almost immediately through the end of April — but there is a waiting list.

Courtesy of Kim N. via Yelp

Atelier Crenn
> Location: San Francisco

When Dominique Crenn was awarded a third Michelin star in 2018, she became the first woman in America to win that honor. Her multi-course tasting menus range from $345 to $475 per person (though the menu at the adjacent Bar Crenn, which has one star, is only $225). The equivalents are takeout Crenn Kits at only $35 and $55. The less expensive option includes soup and a mini-brioche, vegetable lasagna, and dessert. The other one has the same soup and brioche, vegetable fricassée, a cheese course with a baguette, and dessert. Crenn also offers several wine baskets to go.

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Courtesy of J. L. via Yelp

Blue Hill at Stone Barns
> Location: Tarrytown, New York

The ultimate farm-to-table restaurant, Blue Hill (with two stars in the Guide Michelin) is on the grounds of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, 30 miles north of New York City. Almost everything served on its multi-course, strictly seasonal tasting menu — priced at $278 per person — is grown, raised, or produced on the property. To meet the challenge of providing a pickup meal, the restaurant assembles a daily “resourceED box” called The Restaurant, enough to feed two to four people, for a total of $50. Though no specifics are given, the ingredients — which include broth, vegetables, protein, and grains, among other things — add up to a “make-your-own hotpot.”

Courtesy of Canlis

Canlis
> Location: Seattle

This emblematic Pacific Northwestern classic suspended regular operations the week of Mar. 9, posting a message on its website saying that “Fine dining is not what Seattle needs right now.” In place of its usual in-dining-room tasting menu ($135 for four courses), it has now set up three new options (weekdays only): Drive On Thru, serving a burgers or veggie melt with fries ($14) and the famed Canlis salad ($12); The Bagel Shed, with a menu of bagels, breakfast sandwiches, and coffee; and Family Meal, a daily changing dinner complete with a bottle of wine for home delivery (prices aren’t specified for The Bagel Shed or Family Meal).

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krblokhin / Getty Images

Commander’s Palace
> Location: New Orleans

Founded in 1893, this Garden District landmark, where Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse, among other luminaries, once ran the kitchen, is arguably the fanciest restaurant in New Orleans. Under ordinary circumstances, Commander’s offers a $95 seven-course tasting menu, as well as à la carte choices priced from $36 to $44. With the dining room closed, the restaurant has switched over to offering a frequently changing to-go menu, with appetizers prices from $9 to $15 and main dishes under $30 except for filet mignon and eggs at $44. Also available are “family meals” to feed four, priced at $69 and $99, and wine and beer by the bottle.

Courtesy of Dialogue Restaurant

Dialogue
> Location: Los Angeles

At this 18-seat Michelin-starred restaurant, the seasonal tasting menu runs $235. Until it’s possible to serve in the restaurant again, though, Dialogue is selling two different three-course meals for $35 per person. Current offerings are pork belly with braised tomatoes, roasted broccoli and gnocchi, and a slice of burnt Basque cheesecake and a vegetarian option including Midnight Moon goat cheese, salad of spigarello (a leafy broccoli), kale, and hazelnuts, and the same cheesecake. Wine, sake, and beer by the bottle are also available.

Manresa
> Location: Los Gatos, California

This Michelin three-star near San Jose usually serves a $185 tasting menu based on seasonal produce. While it’s shuttered, instead it’s selling “family meals.” The standard option currently includes lasagna bolognese (made with beef), Dijon-style green beans, kale and parmesan salad, focaccia with fennel, and chocolate chip cookies ($53 per person). A vegetarian alternative substitutes zucchini and romanesco broccoli lasagna ($48 per person). Wines are also available for pickup.

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Courtesy of Louise E. via Yelp

n/naka
> Location: Los Angeles

A Michelin two-star restaurant with a modern kaiseki menu, n/naki ordinarily offers 13-course tasting menus at $225 (for the vegetarian option) or $275. For now, though, it’s making bento boxes available for pickup. The particulars might change, but the restaurant promises “an assortment of Japanese comfort foods” including things like sashimi salad, shoyu koji roasted sweet potato, panko-fried shrimp with sesame aïoli, and grilled miso black cod with sunchoke purée. The cost is $38 per person.

Courtesy of NoMad

The NoMad
> Location: New York City

Though he is no longer involved with the restaurant, The NoMad was opened by chef Daniel Humm, who has three Michelin stars at his Eleven Madison Park. His most famous creation for the NoMad menu was his whole roasted chicken for two, stuffed under the skin with a mixture of foie gras, black truffles, and brioche crumbs. It’s priced at $98 when the restaurant is open for business — but it’s also the sole item The NoMad is currently selling for pickup. The price is $30 per person (so $60 for the whole bird) or $40 per person with sides and dessert.

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Courtesy of nonesuch

Nonesuch
> Location: Oklahoma City

The capital of Oklahoma might not be the first place people think of for refined tasting-menu dining, but in 2018 Bon Appétit named this 20-seat establishment the best new restaurant in America. Its ten-course menu goes for $110 per person. On March 19, however, after shutting down its dining room, Nonesuch began offering a limited menu for pickup (with delivery promised for the future). Sample offerings: bison broth ($8 per quart), grilled vegetables with yogurt and seasoned bread crumbs ($15), and okonomoyaki (Japanese pancake) with pork belly and Szechuan pickles ($15).

Courtesy of Peter Luger, Inc.

Peter Luger
> Location: Brooklyn

This iconic New York steakhouse, established in 1887, doesn’t offer tasting menus, but a prime steak for two costs $114.90 and a wedge salad with bacon, tomatoes, and blue cheese goes for $19.95. The restaurant doesn’t take credit cards, either — just cash, checks, debit cards, or house charge cards. Much of the regular menu is now available for takeout, but prices are the same as for dine-in. Besides steak and salads, choices include a burger for $16.95 ($22.40 for a cheeseburger with fries) and six jumbo shrimp for $29.905.

Courtesy of Pineapple and Pearls

Pineapple and Pearls
> Location: Washington D.C.

With two Michelin stars, this restaurant offers “elegant yet playful” tasting menus of about nine courses priced at $325 per person, with drinks included. (A shorter menu is served at the bar for $150 per person, without drinks.) While it isn’t selling takeout meals directly, the same owners’ catering operation, Rose’s at Home, is offering delivery of two-night and three-night packages. Such dishes as lychee salad with pork sausage, baked rigatoni alla vodka with garlic bread, and pickle-brined fried chicken are on the menus. An eight-course Pineapple and Pearls menu, delivered, is also available from Rose’s at $250 per person ($300 on weekends).

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SingleThread Farm – Restaurant – Inn
> Location: Healdsburg, California

The 11-course tasting menu at this Michelin-three-star restaurant in the Sonoma County wine country is priced at $330 per person. The restaurant’s to-go program, in contrast, now offers a changing menu of complete dinners for four — built around such main dishes as hearth-roasted turbot, organic Petaluma chicken, or pork, shrimp, and scallop gyoza hotpot — for $75 total. The restaurant also gives patrons the chance to buy meals to be provided to seniors and needy families in the hospitality, viticultural, and agricultural industries.

Courtesy of Gabriela H. via Yelp

Spago
> Location: Beverly Hills

The flagship of Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant empire, considered one of the world’s most influential restaurants of the past 30 years, Spago is offering some of its classic dishes for both curbside pickup and delivery. The price is $59 for a three-course meal. Among the choices are braised short rib ravioli or petite smoked salmon pizza as an appetizer, and almond-crusted Ora king salmon or 38-day-dry-aged prime New York Steak as a main course, with Della’s Chocolate Truffle Cake for dessert.

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Courtesy of Sushi Ginza Onodera

Sushi Ginza Onodera
> Location: Los Angeles

This is hardly your standard takeout and delivery sushi parlor. A seasonal omakase (chef’s choice) menu costs $300 per person, with course extensions for $100 and $150. While this Michelin two-star is closed for regular business, however, it’s making a limited menu available for pickup. This includes a futomaki (maki sushi roll) assortment at $80, an appetizer combination (spear squid, monkfish liver, and abalone) at $85, and a mixed sushi chirashi bowl at $150.

Courtesy of Cecilia D. via Yelp

Vespertine
> Location: Los Angeles

Holding two stars from the Guide Michelin and named the single best restaurant in Los Angeles by the late Pulitzer-Prize-winning restaurant critic Jonathan Gold in 2017, Vespertine describes itself as “a gastronomical experience seeking to disrupt the course of the modern restaurant.” In ordinary times, the multi-course tasting menu runs $295 per diner. The restaurant, however, is currently serving family-style dinners for pickup or delivery, comprised of wagyu beef brisket, crispy-skin chicken thighs, salads of organic lettuces and greens and roasted black carrots, delicata squash gratin, Anson Mills farro risotto, and chocolate chip cookies and a brownie — all for $49 per person.

 

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