September 15, 2011
The Big Idea
Midnight Delivery Service
Bob Ford
General Manager of Foodservice (Cura Hospitality)
Heritage Valley Health System
Sewickley, Pa.
Cura Hospitality is under the umbrella of Eat'n Park Hospitality Group. Our café wasn't open at midnight at either the Sewickley or Beaver campus. We saw that we had an opportunity. We had two Eat'n Park restaurants in close proximity to the hospitals. In June, we started Night Smiles, a midnight delivery system to employees at the two hospitals.
Orders can be placed by calling one of the restaurants by 1 a.m. seven days a week. A driver from one of the restaurants delivers the food at 2 a.m. We wanted to make sure no cash was handled, so we sell $1 vouchers that are used to pay for orders. At Sewickley the vouchers are dropped off by 2 a.m. in the operator's office. At the Beaver campus, we have Night Smiles voucher drop boxes located throughout the hospital. The driver comes in with security and picks up the vouchers and drops off the food at a central location and people come down when they can to pick up their food. Being that everyone has different break times or nurses can't get off the floor, the vouchers are handed in ahead of time. With the pricing we rounded up to the nearest dollar so there is no change. Delivery, gratuity and taxes are included in the price.
We have a Night Smiles menu that is basically the entire midnight menu that you would see at an Eat'n Park restaurant. We have everything from appetizers, a wide variety of a breakfast items and a myriad of different sandwiches to choose from. We have sides that include garden side salads, home fries and vegetables. We have salads like a Buffalo chicken salad, and Italian classics dishes such as chicken Alfredo pasta.
