Fine dining to-go

"It was one of those rainy nights when Rachel and I were having some beers at the bar. Bicycle delivery came up somehow and we both decided it would be a great idea." Jean-Paul Beauliau, employee of Chaing Mai Tai, begins his story. "Both of us are bike people and bike all winter. We thought it would be great to deliver a good quality meal to people with bikes." Rachel Dow passed away January 12, 2008. The bike delivery idea faded.

Closing in on two years since her passing Beauliau launched the new Chaing Mai Tai bicycle delivery service. With a modest roll out in  October he hoped to work out the kinks as more patrons in Uptown become aware of the service. The service started with a 4 p.m.-to-close schedule six days a week. The owner, Charles Lodge, purchased the Burley trailers for the food, but the the couriers are required to use their own bikes and Beauliau has agreed to offer low-priced bicycle repair to all of the staff couriers, so it's obvious that he's the essential motivation and peddle power behind the service.

Lodge also says it's a great time to start delivery considering all of the construction around the restaurant that has isolated them from their customers.

What started as an idea blossomed into action around what Beauliau believes is very  modern. He believes it's the future, it's sustainable and why not? His eagerness and ease with which he responds, exhibits his overwhelming enthusiasm for the project.

I ask him if he has any plans for 3-wheelers or tire studs for those really rough weather days and he says he's looked into both but says he plans on being out there through the winter unless there's two feet of snow and the plows haven't come. He's going to stick with his well used two wheel workhorse road bike. He welcomes the weather-rain, snow, "That's when we get busy. " People don't want to go out in that stuff."

I asked him how it made him feel to finally get the idea off the ground since Dow's death. He paused, his faced relaxed and he said, "My first delivery was for her." 

To order Chaing Mai Thai bike delivery call 612.827.1606.