Did you know that Momofuku Ando was the creator of instant ramen noodles? Me neither, until Expa (where I work) teamed up with the incredible folks at Momofuku + David Chang to create Ando - a new online, delivery-only restaurant.
Soft launched previously, we are now ready to share Ando with you all (no more waitlist!) as long as you are in the current delivery zone. While I am a bit biased, this has to be some of the most delicious beta testing I have ever done. Do yourself a favor and try the cheesesteak - it’s so good!
Want a taste of Ando? For this week only, we’re giving every customer in our delivery zone a free Ando Combo through our iOS app, which includes a half NYC cheesesteak, orange soda, and Milk Bar Mini cookie. Happy ordering!
@chrismessina@ericfriedman Ando is a big believer in delivery as a service and UberRUSH is helping us to power an amazing experience. Just like other product businesses that deliver in days/weeks use UPS/Fedex, I think that new delivery-based businesses will use UberRUSH to fuel their deliveries that are in the 24 hours timeframe.
@eriktorenberg@ericfriedman Great question! Almost 11 years ago, David Chang staged at Otto for a week under Mario Batali’s insistence that he had to learn about delivery systems. Glad he did it because since then, he has embarked on a journey learning the techniques necessary to craft truly original food that delivers well. Last year, he and his team at Momofuku were looking for a partner with who had the technical and startup business background to help.
Over the past years, I’ve been lucky to learn the food and logistics markets through my investments companies like in Uber, Convoy, Washio and Sweetgreen. In watching these companies grow, I became excited about the opportunity to build an iconic new food experience via a mobile-first and delivery-first approach. The only thing that was I missing was a partner who truly understood food.
Luckily, both of us were connected via a mutual friend last fall and Ando was born. It's now available in NYC via iPhone and we serve restaurant-quality food, made for delivery, so that our customers can eat at their desk, in a park, or on the couch in their underwear.
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I just ate at Momofuku Friday and love love loved it. David Chang is a culinary god in NYC, so it's going to be especially cool when you a) don't have to wait in line for two hours b) will be able to get his food outside of NYC [and the select external locations he has].
The business model(s) of food in the US is by tech standards "undisrupted" insofar as there is high fixed cost without a focus on scalability. It's exciting to see an experienced, successful operator team up with a veteran, legendary chef. This is both going to be an exciting product as an end customer and a cool business to lead the next generation of food companies.
I've worked with Matt Keesan, the CTO, and he's one of the sharpest product / engineering minds I've ever seen.
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Love Momofuku. This is arguably the missing piece of the restaurant and food delivery business: a renowned restaurant and chef backed by modern day tech creating great dishes designed for delivery.
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Are there plans to expand into other cuisines as well?
@weinberg81 we are always trying to innovate at Ando - from food to creating new experiences for people to order. So look out for good stuff as we will always be on the move.
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@hooman_radfar Selfishly hoping to get a #kosher option (relevant in NY mostly) one day ;)
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