Chef Patrick Keogh, who has been operating the Shreddies Food truck for a little more than a year, has recently expanded his offerings by starting a weekly chef-prepared meal delivery service in Steamboat Springs.
“I’ve been cooking for a couple of private clients,” Keogh said. “My wife is a nanny and was working with a family who wanted me to cook food and deliver it to them so that they could spend more time with their kids and less time cooking.”
Before he knew it, Keogh was cooking weekly meals for eight families with his new venture Shreddies Suppers, and that number has continued to grow. Each week Keogh creates a menu, prepares the food and then delivers it to the customer’s doorstep. Customers simply need to reheat the meal before sitting down to eat. Chef Keogh views the new business as a way build on what he is doing with the food truck, and to supplement his income during the winter when his food truck is shuttered.
“I think this model is easily scalable,” Keogh said. “I’m doing about 15 to 20 families right now and 15 to 20 deliveries. I could do up to 60, and that’s where I hope to be in the next two years or so.”
Shreddies Suppers posts a new menu at noon on Thursdays and customers can order online through Tuesday with meals arriving between 4:30-7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Meals are placed in a reusable insulated bag. Keogh said the concept is not a subscription-based service and that customers can go to ShreddiesSuppers.com and order however many meals they want. Delivery is currently limited to Steamboat Springs. Delivery is $20 for customers ordering less than $100 worth of food and free for orders of $100 or more.
“Each week I have at least one soup, one or two salads and three or four entrees,” Keogh said. “I have a lobster boil here that’s got potatoes, corn, lobster tail and sausage — so that’s a meal in a box. Then I have things like this chimichurri steak, where you can buy the steak with mashed potatoes and broccoli on the side, which I think helps people with picky kids or restricted diets that maybe don’t want mashed potatoes and broccoli.”
Shreddies Suppers also has a few baked goods or sweet treats on its menu each week.
“This week we have mini-eclair bites, last week we did zucchini bread and we’ve done cinnamon rolls in the past. We do some breakfast foods and we always have about 10 to 12 things on the menu each week that people can mix and match,” Keogh said.
Chef Patrick KeoghJohn F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
Currently Keogh and two other staff members are doing the work, but as the business grows and demand increases, his hope is to add additional staff.
“I do a new menu every week, so I really want to offer it to chefs that want to test their creativity and like to do something new each week,” Keogh said. “It’s also really flexible hours, which was something I was looking for — not the long traditional hours of a restaurant. This is something I can do in a couple of days, so I can come in late or I can come in early, which is not really something you find in the culinary business.”
Currently his other business venture, Shreddies Food — a local food truck — operates from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays in the Billo Premium Cannabis lot, 3150 Ingles Lane, and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fridays at Elk River Pet and Ranch, 2680 Copper Ridge Circle.
Customers can also find the Shreddies Food truck on Saturdays at the Main Street Steamboat Farmers Market on Yampa Street.
Next year, Keogh plans to cut the food truck operations back a bit, operating one day a week at Billo and Elk River Farm and Feed while continuing with the farmers market.
“I really love that I reach locals and specifically families with (Shreddies Suppers),” Keogh said. “Talking to our customers, they found it super helpful just getting dinner on the table, and that’s really rewarding to me. Coming from a background of cooking in restaurants and catering, where we’re cooking for a lot of tourists or special events, this is really something that people can enjoy week to week.”
John F. Russell is the business reporter at the Steamboat Pilot & Today. To reach him, call 970-871-4209, email jrussell@SteamboatPilot.com or follow him on Twitter @Framp1966.
Dining and Cooking