Take-out customers want quality food without complication and want it fast – with an emphasis on fast.  In a service market increasingly focused on instant gratification, fast food providers are striving to reinvent delivery services to meet the demands of customers who have very little time to spare but desire healthier, sustainable food options.  In the San Francisco Bay area, start-ups like Sprig and SpoonRocket have seized the opportunity by introducing a fast food delivery model that promises the delivery of warm, healthy meals in 20 minutes or less.  So far, they have garnered some success.  Sprig recently announced it will be expanding its hours and areas of delivery, and both entities have raised millions in seed money.

“Bite Kite,” a start-up based in Cambridge, Massachusetts recently threw its hat into the ring by promising one of the fastest food delivery services in the greater Boston area.  The first to bring the Sprig/SpoonRocket business model to the northeast, Bite Kite hopes to replicate the success of its western counterparts.  Like Sprig and SpoonRocket, Bite Kite’s speed of delivery intends to attract diners pressed for time by offering delivery of low priced, healthy cuisine to one’s home or office within 25 minutes or less.  Focused on simplicity, Bite Kite provides only three meal choices a day for lunch and dinner in Cambridge, Somerville, and sometime this month, Boston.  Customers select meals through an iPhone app and within minutes, their orders arrive.  In order to provide products as swiftly as possible, Bite Kite has taken a page out of Uber’s playbook; drivers are placed in strategic locations in their respective market areas with pre-prepared meals on-hand so that orders can be delivered almost immediately after receipt.

At first glance, it appears Bite Kite has a viable approach to delivering on its promise of promptness.  But in an emerging era of customers seeking organic and local food sources, satisfaction with the quality of Bite Kite’s product may ultimately determine whether patrons come back for more. The websites for Sprig and SpoonRocket use words like “simple,” “wholesome,” and “fresh” to describe their products.  Likewise, Bite Kite’s website provides that there are “no shortcuts on quality” with their meals.  While quick service will be the bedrock of the Bite Kite model, quality will greatly influence their likelihood of success.  In the end, only time will tell if Bite Kite can meet the taste test.