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When did dinner stop being an occasion and become just another transaction? The convenience of delivery apps has quietly hollowed out one of America’s most beloved rituals, Ellen Cushing writes. What began as a clever fix for busy eaters has transformed how we dine: Nearly three out of every four restaurant orders are now eaten somewhere else. Dining rooms sit half empty while chefs design dishes that can survive the journey to the customer’s home, and some waiters stand behind counters instead of beside tables. “Delivery saved us during the pandemic,” one restaurateur told her. “Now they are killing us.”
The rise of DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub has changed not just the economics of restaurants, but also their purpose. “A restaurant that doesn’t serve people isn’t really a restaurant—it’s something else,” Ellen writes. What was once a shared act of care—welcoming people in and serving them freshly made food—has evolved into a system designed for speed, not connection.
Derek Thompson anticipated this shift in 2019, describing how meal-delivery apps came to symbolize what he calls “convenience maximalism”—the instinct to make everything faster and easier, no matter the cost. Fueled by billions in venture capital, delivery platforms reshaped what we expect from food, making instant gratification feel normal while hiding the strain it places on workers, small businesses, and communities.
Today’s newsletter explores how food delivery became both a marvel of modern life and a warning about what we lose to our growing appetite for convenience.
On Food Delivery
The Innovation That’s Killing Restaurant Culture
By Ellen Cushing
Delivery has turned America into a nation of order-inners.
The Booming, Ethically Dubious Business of Food Delivery
By Derek Thompson
Meal-delivery companies are the ultimate symbol of the most powerful force in business today: convenience maximalism. (From 2019)
I’m Risking My Life to Bring You Ramen
By Darcy Courteau
How meal delivery became surreal (From 2020)
Still Curious?
- America’s loneliness epidemic comes for the restaurant: Last year, Derek Thompson wrote about how the restaurant recovery is not a simple story of universally positive outcomes.
- So much for cutting out the middleman: Instead of getting rid of intermediaries, the internet created entirely new ones, Kathryn Judge wrote in 2022.
Other Diversions
- How to make music popular again
- No one knows how big pumpkins can get. (From 2024)
- Don’t blow this, baseball.
PS
My colleague, Isabel Fattal, recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. “It is difficult not to be in awe when the clouds are on fire as the sun sets in Del Mar, California,” Steve S. writes.
We’ll continue to feature your responses in the coming weeks.
The post How Delivery Ate the Restaurant appeared first on The Atlantic.
