His favorite dish (above): an organic turkey burger made with barley and kale, served with sweet-potato fries (baked, natch) and pear sauce. (
)
At the sound of the buzzer, 2½-year-old Michael Alexander Gural-Maiello races to the door of his family’s Greenwich Village apartment.
He’s had the same Pavlovian response ever since he could walk. Lunch is served!
Today it’s Chicka Chicka Boom Boom — organic chicken with curried yogurt, apples and golden raisins on whole-wheat bread, courtesy of Junior’s Fresh, one of Manhattan’s leading toddler takeout delivery brands, which charges an average $7.50 per meal.
Only in New York — where you can order in everything from condoms to Christmas trees — would a host of companies compete to bring gourmet food to the preschool set.
Michael Alexander’s parents have been loyal clients of Junior’s Fresh since its launch in October 2011; since then, newcomers Komi Organics of Brooklyn (signature dish: grilled arctic char with herbed quinoa) and Long Island City-based Mommy’s Yummies (hands up for sweet potato bisque followed by basil pasta with zucchini!) have gotten in on the act.
Deliveries of five lunches and five dinners from Komi come with a price tag of $180. Mommy’s Yummies charges $50 for a supply of three lunches and three dinners. Meanwhile Petit Organics — a 2-year-old baby-food delivery firm offering allergen-free pureed meals — will join the toddler-takeout trend this spring, adding dishes for kids 2 and up.
“It’s got to the point where we’re all educated on fresh ingredients and how it’s the best way to go [rather than] shelf-stable food with all the additives and chemicals,” says Michelle Marinis, 30, co-founder of Petit Organics and mother of three young boys. “People are trying to do the right thing with nutrition at every stage of childhood.”
Business is booming due to a growing number of customers — mostly time-strapped working parents — who are willing to cough up the cash for food combining convenience with farm-to-table wholesomeness.
Since the chefs cook with locally sourced produce, fish and meat, it’s no surprise that the menu is more Michelin star than McDonald’s.
“My kids are really into trying new things, and their palates are becoming quite sophisticated,” says mom-of-three Nicole Cain, a regular client of Komi Organics, which provides dishes such as Peanut Butter Yam Soup and Saffron Basmati Rice.
“It’s essential to me that they eat a diverse range of food and get the right amount of carbs, proteins and vegetables,” adds the 35-year-old resident of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. “This really takes the headache out of mealtimes.”
Natasha Gural-Maiello, 41, mother of Michael Alexander, applies the same logic. She spends about $60 a week on five Junior’s Fresh lunches, delivered in a special refrigeration pack every Tuesday at 10 a.m. sharp.
“It’s important to me to provide my son with healthy, locally sourced food,” she says. “Since I work from home with only a part-time nanny, it really helps me optimize the time I spend with him.”
The tot’s favorite dish is the Little League Burger, an organic turkey slider stuffed with barley, kale and raisins on a brioche bun. The meals are often dropped off by company founder Michelle Hoffmann, 37, who says business has spiked 500 percent since last spring.
Komi Organics founder Nokomis Pfeiffer, 36, who works out of Bedford-Stuyvesant, also favors the personal touch, making twice-weekly deliveries to clients.
“It’s very labor-intensive but satisfying,” she says. “I use a lot of vegetables, fish and whole grain, the kind of things which are difficult to get little kids to eat. I feel great when the parents say their kid enjoyed every bite.”
Cain and her husband, Terrance, 34, a computer engineer, spend $120 a week on five three-course dinners. Supplemented with the family’s own sides, the portions are usually big enough to feed all three of their children: Tehya, 10; Nigeta Kiya, 7; and Onya Uma, 2½.
“It’s not super-cheap, but it’s not super-expensive,” says Cain, who cites the difficulty of “trying to find good, decent food” to take out. “We’re a big family — all we’re looking for is some homemade happiness,” she says.
It’s a similar motivation for Rebecca Baseggio, 41, of Chelsea, whose 15-month-old twins, Milo and Gideon, devour $144 worth of baby food from Petit Organics every week.
“Yes, it’s a giant indulgence, but other parents spend huge amounts of money on vacations and designer clothes,” says Baseggio, whose husband works in finance. “We’d much rather the boys dressed in hand-me-downs and ate wholesome food. We’re convinced it will give them the best possible start in life.”
In addition to the nutritional advantages, Gural-Maiello, the mother of little Michael Alexander, cites an added benefit of the deliveries: a lesson in city-dweller’s manners.
“It’s very New York to have a delivery like this,” she laughs. “He knows to be polite when we open the door and to say a friendly ‘hello’ and ‘thank you.’”