The Table is a student start-up that has recently begun delivering their customers’ food straight to their door. They are currently operating out of a church basement on Emerson Street in Evanston, IL.
Kayla Blaise (left), Joe Weinberg (center) and Revika Singh (right) are all employees at The Table. Due to COVID-19 concerns, the employees stay distanced and masked during their shifts at The Table. But Weinberg, Blaise, and Singh aren’t the only employees - The Table employs a handful of Northwestern students who rotate shifts weekly. The Table offers their customers a choice of fried chicken nuggets, seasoned French fries, and/or a waffle, along with their five different sauces. Blaise, one of The Table’s head chefs, seasons the fries after pulling them out of the frier. She’s been cooking since middle school, and is able to toss the fries with ease. The Table launched their Instagram account this past August, and have used it as their main form of marketing. Before COVID-19 hit, The Table had planned to operate as a late-night food cart. However, in light of the global pandemic, they changed their fall quarter model to delivery-only. Customers can order food online between the hours of 10pm and 1pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at https://thetable.getbento.com/ While some of The Table’s original customers thought the chicken nuggets were pre-made, they are actually battered and fried in-house. The Table officially launched its late-night delivery model on September 25th. The start-up originally began in 2018, but found little success selling breakfast sandwiches and smoothies from its on-campus food cart. Blaise sifts powdered sugar onto a freshly-cooked waffle. The batter is also made in-house with a recently improved recipe. The three employees began their night by prepackaging their homemade sauces into small containers. The sauces available are: spicy mayo, barbecue, honey butter, cinnamon maple syrup, and ranch. Blaise adds lemon juice to The Table’s homemade spicy mayo. All of the condiments at The Table are made in-house, except for the ranch. Weinberg draws a smiley face on a customer’s bag. “There’s nothing else we really write on there,” he says. “It’s fun.” The Table gets approximately 7 to 10 orders a night, so the employees have a bit of downtime during their three-hour shifts. Weinberg packs up an order into an insulated bag. He’s doing the deliveries tonight, driving around Evanston to deliver the orders right to the customer’s front door.