Food delivery service from UberEats coming to Tacoma early in ’17

A new restaurant delivery service will ensure we all have one more reason to stay home in our pajamas.

UberEats will launch in Tacoma in early 2017. It’s a nationwide restaurant delivery service capitalizing on the vast network of drivers for the ride-hailing company, Uber.

Using a separate app called UberEats, diners in cities with UberEats can order food from a number of restaurants.

Uber drivers pick up food and deliver for a fee. In some markets, the fee is waived if an order threshold is high enough. It’s not yet known what the fee structure will be in Tacoma.

UberEats is recruiting restaurants in Tacoma and building the app infrastructure.

“Tacoma eaters can expect to find many of their favorite local restaurants on UberEats when we launch early in 2017. We will make sure our customers get the food they love quickly and conveniently,” said Nathan Hambley, Pacific Northwest communications manager for Uber. He said UberEats launched in Seattle a little more than a year ago and has since expanded east and north of the city.

One Tacoma restaurant owner is anticipating interest from his diners.

Steve Naccarato, co-owner of the Stadium neighborhood’s Shake Shake Shake, has already signed on to the service.

“We had always wanted to be able to deliver, but the logistics in doing so are difficult in terms of staffing, the transportation, insurance, etc.” said Naccarato. “We don’t have those barriers with UberEats.”

He said his diners have been asking for delivery since he opened his burger-and-shake restaurant in 2013. “It’s just another simple way we can service our customers, especially when they don’t have a lot of time at lunch to leave their place of work, find parking, order, eat and be back in time.”

Naccarato said he plans to offer the full menu, but will have to see which of his menu items are the most portable. He’s worried about his shakes melting and, “Skinny fries don’t travel well, for example, so it will be a work in progress.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2016 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Food delivery service from UberEats coming to Tacoma early in ’17."