Let’s Dish! customers are smart, busy women (and men) who desire to provide their families great food but are lacking the time, the know-how or both. With the menu planning, shopping, prep work and clean-up taken care of, Let’s Dish! helps customers get a great, nutritious and affordable meal on the table allowing more time with family and friends.

Learn more about Let's Dish!:

How It Works
Let’s Dish! customers register for a “dishing session” online at www.letsdish.com for a store and session that fits their schedule. There are 15 or 16 different menu options each month ranging from updated family favorites to sophisticated, ethnic cuisines to vegetarian choices. All of the dishes incorporate fresh, seasonal ingredients and are designed and tested by professional chefs.

Each customer selects four, eight or 12 dishes, designed to serve six. When customers arrive at the store, refrigerated workstations for each menu item are stocked with quality, pre-cut ingredients. Customers rotate through different food prep stations while socializing with friends. As they follow easy instructions to put together each entrée, the customer is able to customize the ingredients to meet the specific tastes of the family. A great staff is available to provide as much or as little help as needed.

At the conclusion of the two-hour dish session, each customer has prepared a month’s worth of dishes that can be brought home and eaten fresh or can be stored in the freezer and cooked at a later date. A variety of side dishes and desserts can also be purchased at the store to complete the meal. And for those who don’t have time to put meals together, there’s Dish-n-Dash – dishes that can be ordered ahead of time and picked up at the store.
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The Retail Experience
The Let’s Dish! store is designed for an inviting and social retail experience and is on par with the country’s best retailers. Customers are greeted with a fresh, energizing color palette and a modern, contemporary look. The store layout incorporates a “beehive” floor design that encourages interaction and is easy to navigate. Art and signage portray a fun, smart, cheeky environment that is designed with the customer in mind.

Let’s Dish! also sets the industry standard for food safety. It uses refrigerated prep tables to keep its produce and meats at a safe temperature, and all prepared dishes are kept in refrigerators at the store until the customer is ready to take them home.

As a segment defining chain and category innovator, Let’s Dish! has invested significant resources in food research and development and menu architecture to provide superior products to its customers. The company also uses tools such as its website, monthly newsletters and in-store feedback to receive a constant flow of feedback. This allows the company to really understand the needs of the customer and meet her where she’s at.

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About the Company
Minneapolis-based Let’s Dish! was one of the first retail meal preparation stores in the country when co-founders Ruth Lundquist and Darcy Olson introduced their concept in October 2003. Both corporate veterans, the pair was looking for a business idea that would add value to people’s lives. The answer was Let’s Dish!, a whole new way to feed families fresh, craveable food at home.

Lundquist and Olson spent two years laying the groundwork for Let’s Dish!, fine-tuning the company’s culinary profile, brand identity, technology, human resources, and operations. Let’s Dish! has been successful since opening its first store in the Twin Cities suburb of Eden Prairie in October 2003 and has quickly catapulted to become the breakaway brand in its category. This solid business foundation allows the company to focus on the customer experience and constantly innovate to meet consumers’ needs.

In July 2005, the company completed a $4 million dollar private equity transaction to support its nationwide growth plan. Currently, there are 20 Let’s Dish! stores open across the country including five company-owned locations in Minnesota, seven franchise stores (two in the Boston area, one in Columbia, S.C., one in the Kansas City, Mo. area, two in the St. Louis area and one in Westchester County, N.Y.) and eight licensed locations (four in Maryland, three in Virginia and one in Washington). By the end of the year, Let’s Dish! plans to open approximately 12 additional stores in markets nationwide. For more information about Let’s Dish! or to find specific store locations, visit www.letsdish.com.
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