Dinner at your doorstep(2)
Dinners on the Porch's menu each week also includes a dessert, a "super plain" kids meal for picky eaters and a GYTTW (Get You Through the Week) meal. The latter is intended for later use and often sold frozen. "I have this theory that if you can have two real dinners in the week, you can limp through the rest of the week without really cooking," Calvin said.
The other food is sold fresh. For the most part, the meals are fully cooked and come with simple instructions for reheating.
What sets Dinners on the Porch apart from most other meal-preparation businesses is the delivery. The delivery area is limited to mainly central Winston-Salem neighborhoods, such as downtown, Ardmore, West End, Buena Vista and Sherwood Forest. But with some friends, Calvin and Flowers have expanded the delivery area. They recently added the Greenbrier Farm and Brookberry Farm areas.
The menus often reflect Calvin's love of the food that she ate growing up in Texas. "I love Mexican food – tacos, enchiladas, taco salad, tortilla soup," she said.
Customers routinely mention Calvin's enchiladas as a favorite. Her Israeli couscous with vegetables is also popular.
But the menus are varied. Recent entrees have included Chinatown chicken salad and jambalaya with muffaletta sandwiches.
Calvin and Flowers have offered such kids meals as chicken and rice casserole, and chicken with plain noodles and edamame.
Desserts have included apple pound cake and chocolate caramel brownies.
Recent side dishes have been sesame noodles and Asian green beans, and crudités with a zesty dip.
GYTTW meals have included king ranch casserole and chicken and smoked Gouda penne pasta with sundried tomatoes and broccolini. Last week's GYTTW meals were two soups — African peanut and Colombian chicken and potato.
That variety also appeals to customers. "My family has been exposed to things I wouldn't necessarily be cooking," said Molly Kremidas. "For example, this summer we had Vietnamese (banh mi) sandwiches. Where else would I get that in Winston-Salem?"
Kremidas, who travels a lot for her marketing job with the Nylit fiber company, also loves the email ordering system. "I can be across the world in China and know that it's going to be delivered and that my husband won't have to worry about cooking a meal or taking the kids out for fast food," she said.
Calvin said she has enjoyed the challenge of the logistics of doing the shopping, the cooking and the delivery.
"For me the cooking is interesting. I'm a cook, not a chef. But all of the other stuff is even more interesting," she said. "I enjoy all of the stuff I have to figure out."
Calvin also has earned customers by giving them a little extra. Kremidas learned about Dinners on the Porch when friends gave them a gift last Christmas of an "elf on the porch," when Calvin's delivery people dressed as elves. "My children just loved it. We were hooked," Kremidas said.
Customers also enjoy reading Calvin's blog and the letters she includes with heating instructions in each delivery. "She's a very good writer. These letters are hilarious," Norman said. And Calvin often will add information, such as beer or wine pairings, ways to serve the food hot or cold, or other ideas.
"I thoroughly enjoy the blog," Kremidas said. "I love hearing the inspiration for the meal for the week, or I just chuckle at her stories."
Dinners on the Porch has become so successful that it's threatening to be more than just a side business. "We are kind of reaching a point where I'm not sure how much more it could grow and stay the way it is," she said.
Calvin said she tries not to think about how many hours she works. But, she said, "it's spread out and wedged in between carpooling the kids and all of the other (personal) stuff."
People typically order on Friday. Calvin and Flowers cook Sunday and Monday in the commercial kitchen of Sociale Gourmet on Knollwood Street. Deliveries are made Tuesday with the help of a couple of friends or part-timers. Then Calvin gets a bit of a break before planning the next week and posting the menu on the blog.
"It sort of is a full-time job," she said. "But it's a full-time job that I control to some extent."
Plus, she knows she'll always have Tuesday dinners ready for her husband, Matt Giegengack, and their three children.
And though Dinners on the Porch forces Calvin to do some serious juggling between work and family, it has its rewards.
"It's nice to do something that's really helpful to people. I like it when I get an email from people who say, 'We have not sat down to dinner in so long. Thank you.' "
