Our Origin Story
RocketGourmet was born out of a collaboration between a renowned local chef and downtown parking garage manager in response to the COVID Crises of 2020. When the crises hit, Chef Nancy Longo from Peirpoint Restaurant teamed up with the owners of Harbor Park Garage in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor to give away free meals to anyone in need.
Over three months, Heart of the Park provided over 20,000 free gourmet meals to anyone who asked, including hospital workers in COVID wings, essential workers, and the unemployed.
And then something amazing happened. As the community began to recover, our guests started asking if they could purchase the boxes they had previously been given for free, and in that request, the spark for Rocket Gourmet was ignited.
The goals were simply to:
Give back to the community of tips workers and other monthly parkers who suddenly found themselves in a perilous need. For many, the transition from gainful employment to waiting for unemployment was swift and painful.
Keep as many restaurant workers employed as possible.
Keep Pierpoint Restaurant afloat. After all, after 30 years in business, the restaurant has made notable contributions to the Baltimore community.
What Makes RocketGourmet Different?
RocketGourmet flips the script on the tired and typical restaurant delivery services. We empower local chefs to create menus designed to be stored cold and completed by you at home.
This process allows chefs to develop dynamic gourmet meals perfectly prepared in restaurant kitchens and then finished by you by following a few simple steps.
RocketGourmet opens up your dining possibilities by establishing convenient pickup locations so that you can order your meals in advance and pick them up at your convenience.
Since they are boxed and chilled, you can keep the food on ice until you are ready to dine. And when you do, you will be enjoying a gourmet meal that tastes as good on your table as it would in the restaurant.
How Does RocketGourmet Work?
Chefs who are invited to work with RocketGourmet are asked to design meals that are to be delivered cold such that the customer can complete the meal at home.
Gone are the days of ordering your favorite meals from restaurants only to have them land on your table long after they have been cooked to perfection.
Instead, meals are curated by chefs to be finished by you at home when you are ready.
The restaurants do the hard work, and all you have to do is follow a few easy steps at a time when you are ready to eat.
That way, when you sit down, you can enjoy your friends and family time at the table and not worry about the time-consuming work of preparing the gourmet meal.
Eruca Vesicaria
One may wonder why we included Rocket in the name for a service dedicated to the simple and often slow pleasures of gourmet dining.
The answer lies not in speed or spacecraft but the delightful pleasures of our favorite edible annual plant Eruca Vesicaria better known to most Americans as Arugula or to the rest of the English-speaking world as Rocket.
This leafy green is simple, spicy, delightful, and best enjoyed as part of a meal crafted with care. And therein lies the very essence of what we seek to provide with RocketGourmet.
and then