Fine Dining, On Demand

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Feb 24

Seth Sulkin’s new venture, Food-e, delivers Tokyo’s culinary best

While working from home a few weeks into the pandemic last spring, real estate developer Seth Sulkin noticed that his favorite premier Tokyo restaurants were largely empty. When he asked about delivery, most said they didn’t offer it, because commissions were too high. More importantly, they said the delivery itself is often poor and unreliable, leaving customers with late, shaken, cold, discolored, and disappointing food.

Such an outcome is annoying even for fast food, which dominates delivery, but totally unacceptable when paying for gourmet meals. “Most of the time, it’s a terrible experience,” said Sulkin, who was often frustrated by slow, inconsistent service. “Once I find a restaurant that works, I tend to order from it regularly, because ordering from a new restaurant is so terrifying.”

*Penne alla Norma from Andaz Tokyo’s The Tavern - Grill & Lounge*

Sulkin saw a business opportunity, as well as a way to help his favorite establishments survive. He would create a speedy, quality delivery service for top restaurants that would provide a satisfying dining experience at home, the office, or even the park. It was also a way to offset the negative impact of the pandemic at his other businesses: shopping centers and hotels. Food-e was born.

“I was able to create a business that would benefit from the pandemic and save my favorite restaurants. Those were my two primary motivations,” Sulkin said. “We’re trying to offer people the best restaurants’ food, delivered to wherever they want to eat, within an hour. That’s a brand-new concept.”

Pro Drivers

*US Strip Loin from The Oak Door at Grand Hyatt Tokyo*

Incorporated in May, Food-e GK began service on October 1 and currently provides meals from 35 top-end restaurants in central Tokyo. These include:

Nobu Tokyo
The Oak Door
Elio Locanda Italiano

More are being added each month.

It generally takes about an hour for food to be delivered after the order has been placed online at www.food-e.jp. Once the food is prepared, actual delivery time averages 10 minutes.

To provide fast, reliable service, Sulkin hired a Japanese delivery company with trained, uniformed drivers who are familiar with Tokyo streets and get around on motorcycles. Many well-known food delivery companies rely on part-time workers who may not know the streets well and, generally, don’t have an incentive to deliver food properly, Sulkin said.

“We’re trying to offer people the best restaurants’ food, delivered to wherever they want to eat, within an hour. That’s a brand-new concept.”

“We use only professional drivers. They’re fulltime and they’re careful with the food, so we don’t get complaints about the delivery,” he explained. “It’s just a completely different experience.”

Service is limited to a five-kilometer radius from the restaurants. Most are in Azabu and Roppongi. This means Food-e will deliver to Ginza to the east, Shibuya and Ebisu to the west, and Shinagawa to the south. “We’ve chosen this area because it has the highest concentration of customers who want to order this kind of food, as well as the highest concentration of high-quality restaurants,” he said.

New Approach

As part of his goal to help restaurants survive, Sulkin reimagined the usual business model. Typically, delivery services charge restaurants a high commission of 30–40 percent. This forces them to raise prices by the same amount or give up their profits. Customers pay a 10-percent service charge and, sometimes, a delivery fee of about ¥100, he explained.

*Seth Sulkin, chief executive officer at Pacifica Capital KK, Pacifica Hotels GK, Food-e GK*

Food-e flips this around and charges restaurants a much lower, undisclosed commission while customers pay a higher, flat delivery fee of ¥1,000 per order, which covers much of the delivery costs, Sulkin said. This allows menu prices to remain largely unchanged.

Food-e is also the exclusive delivery service for these restaurants. The minimum order is ¥3,000 for lunch and ¥5,000 for dinner. The average order is about ¥16,000, so all those factors are appealing to restaurants, he said.

In fact, upon hearing Sulkin’s pitch, restaurant owners have agreed to join Food-e with remarkable speed, usually deciding to do so at the first in-person or online meeting. He says it’s the fastest decision-making he’s seen during his 35 years working in Japan. “The terms we offer work for them in a way that none of the other delivery services do.”

To address hygiene and health concerns during the pandemic, Food-e requires drivers to wear masks, covers the food, and minimizes contact between drivers and customers. “We’ve been careful, and we haven’t had any problems.”

Delicious Pics

The Food-e website is fully bilingual and the company aims to have an app for Apple and Android devices in the near future.

To ensure that the site has excellent images, Sulkin has hired professional photographers to shoot appealing photos of the food. “Our goal is that, when you look at our photos, they will make you so hungry you want to order.”

Getting food to a customer within an hour means that chefs and restaurant kitchen staff must have ingredients at the ready and prepare meals very quickly. “Chefs are craftsmen and, for some, it’s terrifying to get a sudden order when they are used to only handling customers with advance reservations,” Sulkin said. “Some of my job is to convince chefs that there are ways to deal with these sudden orders.”

On the website, each restaurant will post the estimated combined preparation and delivery time — typically 40–80 minutes. Once an order is placed, the customer receives an estimated time of arrival. They can also check on the meal’s status to see whether it is being prepared or is out for delivery.

While other companies will deliver from high-end restaurants, Sulkin says many require orders two or more days in advance and their websites can be complex to use. Food-e, in contrast, is easy and the only one that will provide high-quality meals on demand.

In its first four months of business, Food-e has seen demand for delivery to corporate events or executive meetings, not just to homes. “If you want a high-quality lunch at an executive meeting, we’re the only place that can deliver it on demand,” he said. The company also had a growing number of advance orders, so is expanding that part of its website.

Will It Stick?

Sulkin aims to expand service later this year to a broader area, including Shinjuku and Nihonbashi. Eyes are set on linking up with local top restaurants in Yokohama next year, and then the Kansai region.

But he doesn’t plan to significantly expand the delivery radius from the restaurant much beyond five kilometers—perhaps to six or seven kilometers at the most—because food quality deteriorates as distances and delivery times grow.

An example of the adage “necessity is the mother of invention,” Food-e is a positive outcome of the Covid-19 crisis. “If it were not for the pandemic, I would not have thought about starting this business,” Sulkin said.

But will demand fade after the coronavirus subsides? Sulkin believes it will not, because the pandemic has brought what he sees as lasting changes to people’s behavior, including their eating habits.

“Japanese have been ordering delivery for hundreds of years. The business didn’t start with the pandemic, and it’s not going to go away when it’s over. Even when the threat disappears, people will probably not eat out as often as they used to. So, I think demand for delivery will be higher than before.”

**ACCJ Members receive ¥2,000 off* your first gourmet delivery with Food-e**

Food-e is one of the ACCJ’s newest member companies. And to introduce themselves, Food-e is offering all members ¥2,000 off your first order*.

You can order for immediate delivery or schedule your order for up to a week in advance.

With orders for 10 people or more contact Food-e directly at cs@food-e.jp. Food-e is fully bilingual with online ordering and customer service available in English and Japanese.

* ¥2,000 discount offer applies only to new subscribers on an initial order over ¥5,000.

**ACCJ MEMBERS RECEIVE ¥2,000 OFF* your first gourmet delivery with Food-e**

Food-e is one of the ACCJ’s newest member companies. And to introduce themselves, Food-e is offering all members ¥2,000 off your first order*.

You can order for immediate delivery or schedule your order for up to a week in advance.

With orders for 10 people or more contact Food-e directly at cs@food-e.jp. Food-e is fully bilingual with online ordering and customer service available in English and Japanese.

* ¥2,000 discount offer applies only to new subscribers on an initial order over ¥5,000.