Crave Hospitality Group is reimagining food and beverage delivery, and Percolate Tea is among the forward-thinking businesses that are participating in the original idea.
Crave created The Crave Collective, a 15,000-square-foot facility in the town of Meridian, located just outside of Boise, Idaho. The concept is geared around state-of-the-art kitchen suites for food/beverage businesses, each of whom has created a custom, designed-to-travel menu for delivery and pick-up orders only. The facility will host 16 restaurant or foodservice partners – including Percolate Tea – and a custom app makes it easy for customers to place orders.
Crave worked with each business, including Percolate, to determine and install the appropriate equipment for each concept. A conveyor belt runs down the center of the complex, allowing for maximum efficiency – so a finished order can go straight from the kitchen to the Crave expediters, who collect, double check, complete and deploy orders for delivery or pick-up for each of the 16 businesses.
The Crave Collective includes two covered drive-throughs for Crave’s “mobile servers” to receive orders. Diners who wish to pick up their orders from the Crave Collective can utilize its dedicated drive-through mobile order pick-up lanes, or they can also visit the Percolate Tea Bar for pick-up along with grab-and-go items.
Crave Hospitality Group announced the grand opening of this first location on Nov. 17, 2020.
"We are extremely excited to be part of the Crave Collective and the chef talent they have brought together to serve the greater Boise area," said Jeremy Godsil, founder of Percolate Tea. "The dedication to the best ingredients, product quality and focus on technology aligned perfectly with Percolate's core company values."
In a Forbes article last year, Godsil noted that he’s always been a tea lover and spent a lot of time going to the “coolest tea bars in Asia,” which inspired him to launch Percolate Tea in 2017. Since then, the company has been crafting delicious freshly brewed loose-leaf tea drinks made with premium ingredients. Their tea-based drinks range from naturally sweet and cold brewed iced teas to their flagship Matcha Royale. Percolate also launched its own line of canned tea drinks with functional ingredients like matcha and collagen. In addition to being featured at The Crave Collective near Boise, the company has locations in West Los Angeles, Hollywood and Downtown Los Angeles.
Percolate Tea is just one of the businesses debuting at the Idaho Crave location, which represents some of the top culinary talent in their respective fields: Lincoln Carson, this year’s James Beard nominee for Outstanding Pastry Chef, will open Merite Bake Shop, and Tony Gemignani, 13-time World Pizza Champion and two-time Food Network gold medalist, will open Tony G’s Pizzeria. Three brands are from award-winning chef and restaurateur Michael Mina, including the fourth outpost of International Smoke, his popular collaboration with celebrity entrepreneur, television host, and New York Times best-selling author Ayesha Curry.
Tech entrepreneur Devin Wade, industry veteran Chef Scott Howard, and Boise restaurateur Barry Werner co-founded Crave in 2019 and plan to expand to 10 additional locations over the next two years. They realized that the emerging delivery services model was not a viable option for award-winning chefs and restaurateurs, preparing food from their kitchens or remote kitchens and having it delivered by a third-party because of the subpar customer experience.
“The model needed to be reimagined,” says Wade. “Ours was designed from the chef and restaurateur’s perspective with a shared responsibility for customer satisfaction. From our fleet of dedicated ‘mobile servers’ to our on-site Crave Concierge available to answer any questions throughout the ordering process, we have created a system that brings service and high standards back to the delivery experience.”
While other delivery companies outsource their drivers, each of Crave’s “mobile servers” are employees of the company, paid approximately three times the minimum wage, and fully participate in its hospitality-focused culture. The drivers make one delivery at a time, ensuring that the food is en route for the least amount of time possible.
Crave invites customers to easily mix and match menu items from any and all of Crave’s restaurants, since they are all housed under one roof. And all of Crave’s restaurant partners specifically crafted their designed-to-travel menus based on seasonal produce, customer feedback and their own signature dishes.
To learn more about Percolate Tea, visit PercolateTea.com. To learn more about Crave Hospitality Group, visit CraveHospitalityGroup.com.