Photo by Gado Gado
Mariah Pisha-Duffly was exhausted with the state of the restaurant industry. It was November in Portland, Oregon, and she was dreading another two-week-long closure of her Southeast Asian restaurant Gado Gado. For her and for every other restaurateur navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, it had been months of jumping through hoops and reinventing her business. This time patios were included in the shutdown, meaning establishments around the city were staring at freshly weatherized outdoor seating areas they couldn’t use, spaces that had been lifelines to their businesses while indoor dining rooms remained closed. “It’s been really challenging throughout the pandemic to constantly think of new outlets and new ways to pivot,” she says. But then, her partner had an idea: Why not offer meal subscriptions?