Food delivery service making its mark in the mountain west

A food delivery company is making a mark in the mountain west area.

Cafe Courier, which does most of its service online, has only been offering delivery services in Idaho Falls for about three months now.

Business has been booming for them from the start.

Some people compare this food delivery service to Uber. It is a service that has its drivers on-call and they are quick!

John Allen is the founder and CEO of Cafe Courier.

He said customers can actually ‘have it their way’ with this service.

“Getting exactly what they want. If they want a gluten-free, Mackenzie River Pizza, along with side salads, they can get it,” Allen said with excitement.

Customers have the convenience of having their food delivered, whether it is a home, office or hotel and the delivery charge starts at $3.99, he said.

Cafe Courier opened in 1989 and was founded in Columbus, Ohio. Allen said he was inspired by a pizza pasta show in Chicago in 1988.

“I talked to the right person at the right time and he introduced me to the idea of restaurant delivery. Back then there were only a handful of companies doing it. I decided to quit my job about three months later,” Allen said proudly.

The rest is history.

Cafe Courier later moved to Bozeman, Montana in 2001. Now, it is spreading like wildfire in the mountain west area.

Just like almost everything, there is an app for it!

Not only are companies ordering for business meetings, people are ordering from home as well.

“We definitely see an increase in business the colder the weather, the rainier, the hotter. Any kind of extremes, we tend to see an increase,” Allen said.

With about 15 restaurant partners in Idaho Falls, and growing, Cafe Courier is ready to take on Idaho.

Boise and Idaho Falls are the first two have its services in the state.

Austyn Arends has been a delivery driver for the company for about a month now.

“I enjoy driving my car, so it’s cool to do that for a job and it’s kind of like self-employed, so I’m able to like do it on my own time and kind of set my own schedule when I need to. So it’s nice,” Arends said.

Looking ahead, the company is planning to open in the Pocatello area this March. The company also has its eyes on Twin Falls too. Allen said he likes to open in smaller cities.

There is also another business doing food delivery service in Pocatello. It is called Pocatello Food Express.