CHICAGO — You might think you’ve downloaded all the food apps you need. But a company that launched in Chicago over the summer doesn’t want to help you get reservations or figure out where to order delivery. Called Too Good To Go, the app connects you with food from restaurants and grocery stores that would otherwise go to waste.
The prices alone are truly tempting. Some genuinely popular Chicago restaurants frequently have offerings for $4 or $5. If a restaurant or a store has food that is still edible, but would be discarded at the end of the day, it can put it in a bag and sell it on the app.
As much as 40% of food made in the United States is wasted, making it the largest category of material dumped into landfills, according to the Food and Drug Administration. In October, the United Nations estimated 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from wasted food — if food waste were a country, it would be the third-biggest source of the emissions on the planet.
Too Good To Go, which launched in 2016 in Denmark, seeks to lessen the waste with its inexpensive grab bags from local restaurants, said spokesperson Allie Sale. The app takes a flat fee of $1.79 from each order, and the restaurant keeps the rest. The company estimates that it has diverted hundreds of thousands of pounds of food waste from landfills.
But is it worth it?
First, a warning: Don’t expect to be able to pick out exactly what you want when you want. This isn’t an app to compete with Grubhub or Uber Eats. There is no delivery option, and most pickup times for restaurants are either midmorning or very late at night. This makes sense, because places won’t know what is leftover until after dinner service.
You also won’t know exactly what you’re buying before you pay. To help manage expectations, Too Good To Go likes to refer to what you’ll pick up as a surprise bag. Most restaurants say they can’t make accommodations for vegans or vegetarians for the bags.
When ordering from Smoque BBQ, one of Chicago’s very best barbecue restaurants, the language is clear: “This bag might include just side portions and/or whole dishes depending on what is available.” At Roost Chicken & Biscuits, which excels at fried chicken sandwiches, the bag contains “a combination of sides, such as macaroni or greens beans, and/or possibly a portion of dessert.”
When I signed up for a $5 surprise bag at Bacci Pizzeria in Lincoln Park, I was instructed that “this bag might include pizza, just side portions, and/or whole dishes depending on what is available.” Luckily, I got two ridiculously huge slices — one pepperoni, one cheese — for $4.99. I could tell they weren’t freshly made, but once reheated at home, they were tasty. If I ordered from the app again tomorrow, I could get something completely different.
Derrick Tung, owner of Paulie Gee’s Logan Square and Paulie Gee’s Wicker Park, said he started using the service six months ago. While he doesn’t use it much at the Logan Square location, it’s been useful in Wicker Park because that shop sells pizza by the slice. “If the slices have been out for awhile, we pop them into bags in the fridge and put them on the app,” Tung said. “It keeps food out of the trash cans, and it helps people try the food that maybe can’t afford it.” Tung noted it helps recoup some of the money lost if the food had been thrown out, but certainly not all of it.
Along with working for Too Good To Go, Sale said she uses the app often. “I’ll go to the bagel shop, and get a baker’s dozen of bagels, and then pop them in my freezer,” Sale said. “Then I’ll have breakfast for the week.”
While there are similar apps that allow customers to scoop up nearly spoiled food from restaurants — Nosh, OLIO and Food for All among them — Too Good To Go is among the first available in Chicago.
Too Good To Go first launched in Denmark, before spreading to other countries in Europe. In 2020, it launched in New York City and is now available in 12 cities around the United States. It’s been growing steadily. “When we launched in Chicago over the summer, we had 40 partners that signed on in the first month,” Sale said. “Now we have over 400.”
You can download the app by visiting toogoodtogo.com.
