What’s In Store? Quarantine Kits!

Restaurants convert into pop-up markets with great deals on grocery staples.

Screen Shot 2020-03-19 at 2.36.23 PM
Screen Shot 2020-03-19 at 2.36.23 PM

CityBook will continue to add to this article as more news becomes available.


Is your local grocery store is understocked or overwhelmingly crowded? Several local restaurants are thinking outside the box and creating grocery bundles for pickup and carry-out. Here are some of our favorites!

  • Local Foods in Rice Village converted its lobby into a pop-up farmer’s market with local bread, coffee beans, olive oil, select produce and more; guests can grab a few items or call in an order. Here, shoppers can also snag deli items like free-range chicken breast, pork, boiled shrimp, sirloin, ham and sliced cheese. A $99 family pack includes pints of hummus, vegan queso and campechana; quarts of pozole, egg salad and strawberries; a dozen boiled eggs; a bottle of local hot sauce; six pretzel buns and six chocolate-chip cookies; and a gallon of either tea or lemonade. Veggie boxes ($25) may include broccoli cauliflower, sweet potato, carrots, kale, beets, Brussel sprouts, tomato, lettuce and chard. Other staples (even toilet paper) are available inside as well.
  • Cuchara also converted its parking lot into an outdoor market, and currently carries milk, eggs, fruit — and margaritas to-go!
  • At Flying Saucer, a $55 grocery bundle (available on UberEats and customizable by phone) includes two pounds of chicken wings, eggs, cheese, avocados and more.
  • What's better than a pop-up grocery store? How about a virtual farmer's market! Dish Society has great deals on locally sourced produce — $32 for a box that's chock-full! — as well as bread, orange juice and more. Order and pay online, then schedule a pickup at any location (except Finn Hall).
  • Both locations of The Federal Grill are offering groceries at wholesale prices. Find meat, lettuce, milk, eggs and more!
  • National media darling Nancy’s Hustle has reopened after taking a few days to regroup, and is newly dubbing itself an “apocalyptic bodega.” Order online and grab unique housemade items like spicy vegetable sauerkraut and “salsa macha,” along with staples like EVOO, coffee beans and more.
  • Whiskey Cake’s "non-essentials" package gets you two whole marinated chickens, 12 burger patties and a pound of housemade sausage. What a steal! The restaurant's other quarantine kits change daily, but usually include a dozen-plus eggs, a gallon of milk, a pound of butter — and a roll of toilet paper.
  • State Fare's take-home offerings are broken down into grill kits and "southern home cookin'" kits; the former touts options like two smoked ribeyes with two loaded baked potatoes and asparagus, or 12 shrimp with bacon, cheese and barbecue sauce, while the latter supplies you with the goods to make homestyle chicken-fried steak or a "big ol' breakfast."

Hay Merchant & Georgia James' Oven-Ready Dishes To GoHay Merchant & Georgia James' Oven-Ready Dishes To Go

  • Underbelly Hospitality is offering take-and-bake plates with options like Wagyu meatlof and chef Chris Shepherd's world-famous Korean braised goat and dumplings.
  • Perry's in Memorial City is now a steakhouse and a grocery: A $62 grocery pack touts two filet mignons, two chicken breasts, one dozen eggs, two strips of bacon, red potatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, roma tomatoes, onion, corn on the cob, two loafs of homemade bread, a half-pound of butter, a gallon of milk — and the restaurant's signature steak seasoning and steak butter.
  • Introducing Bernie's Bodega at Bernie's Burger Bus in Bellaire! (Its other locations are temporarily closed.) Snag premium products like the restaurant's house blend of ground beef, its yummy juke sauce, Slow Dough buns and more. Even better? To help out community members who are suffering during this crisis, the bodega is name-your-price.

AT TOP: Whiskey Cake's daily grocery bundle 

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