After a limited trial run earlier this year, Katie and Ted Collier, along with Katie’s mother Belinda Lee and brother Johnny Lee, have secured a space in Creve Coeur where they will launch Vero Pasto – a meal delivery service initially offering a weekly selection of pizza and pasta. The Colliers, who also own Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria, hope to have the business open by the holiday season.
Unlike some other local options, Katie Collier said Vero Pasto (that’s “real meal” in Italian) will deliver the raw ingredients and customers will cook the dishes courtesy of written recipes, as well as You Tube tutorials.
“We’re doing this because we love our restaurant and love serving the community,” said Collier. “With a restaurant we can only reach so many people and we’ve been thinking how to expand and reach more people with our food.”
Meal kits will include the raw ingredients necessary to prepare pizza or pasta at home, including handmade pizza dough and extruded pasta along with raw vegetables and other components. New kits are available each week. The Lees and Colliers plan to source fresh, seasonal ingredients and hope to use local vendors like Volpi and Salume Beddu.
“We want this to be a fun experience,” said Collier. “We want it be easy but interesting so people can cook then say, ‘Wow, I made that.'”
Orders will be placed online. Delivery will follow a couple of days later with ingredients arriving in temperature-controlled packaging. Pricing is still being determined, but each kit pizza kit will contain items for two pizzas, and each pasta kit will serve four people and will run between $25 and $30.
“We’ll pivot and learn as we grow,” said Collier. “We’re starting off humbly and small, but we chose a space where we can grow quickly if we need to. The meal delivery system, like Blue Apron, is a new phenomenon within the last few years. We’ll learn and grow it naturally.”
This article appears in July 2016.