How many times have you come home from work and found yourself too tired to cook? But you also don’t feel like going out. And you really don’t want pizza again.

That familiar struggle is what drove Owensboro entrepreneurs Devin Taylor and Jonathan Brandle to start Big O Takeout. As husbands, business owners, and fathers of young children, Devin and Jonathan thought finding a way to provide local food delivery options would be a marketable solution.

“People need variety,” Taylor explained. “We knew similar models worked in larger cities, and we thought Owensboro was ready for something like this, so we jumped on it.”

After looking at some major market models and talking with other businesses in similar sized towns, Taylor and Brandle adapted their own model specifically for the Owensboro market.

Turns out they were right in a big way.

Big O Takeout launched in February 2017 with six participating restaurants. Today, there are nearly 30 Owensboro restaurants participating and another six in the Henderson market. But that number fluctuates because new restaurants are added every day. Fazoli’s, for example, signed on the morning of this interview.

Taylor says the concept brings value to both customers and business owners. Customers love the convenience of having hot food delivered to their home or office. The model is perfect for busy families, or for having food delivered for office meetings.

Business owners love Big O Takeout because Taylor and Brandle have streamlined the process with their own delivery drivers. All the restaurants get free marketing and advertising through the site and phone app, and at-home customers free up table space in the restaurants.

Rising sales numbers help explain why restaurants are jumping on board left and right.  “We’ve tracked 3,500 orders to the most popular restaurant alone through our site since we began,” Taylor said, adding that several other restaurants have seen orders well into the thousands.

Despite the volume, customers usually have hot food at their door within 30 minutes to an hour of placing their order (through the app or online) thanks to a dedicated staff of available delivery drivers who are cued at precisely the right time to be waiting at the restaurant before the food comes off the line. That little trick, Taylor says, is the difference between Big O Takeout and other national food delivery models. “We work with the restaurants to know food prep times so our drivers are ready and waiting. They put the food in insulated bags to keep it warm. And depending on where the customer lives, food typically arrives from the restaurant to their front door in 8-10 minutes.”

How it works

BigOTakeout.com walks you through the whole process. It takes a few minutes to enter your account information for your first order, but then all information is stored in a secure system. Then you choose a restaurant, look at the menu, and add your order to your “cart.” You can choose to pay with cash on delivery or by credit card online. As soon as you click “send,” your order is sent to dispatch, a delivery driver is notified, and the order is prepared at the chosen restaurant. The customer pays normal menu price, plus a $4.99 delivery fee and a tip for the delivery driver.

And here are a few little inside tips: group orders can be split between multiple credit cards if it’s a large gathering or office meeting, but there is still only one delivery fee of $4.99 for the order.

Also, downloading the app is recommended for ease and accessibility. The app lets you store your favorite orders, which allows repeat orders with one click.

Ordering ahead of time is recommended. You can even order days in advance by choosing a day and time for your delivery under “delivery time” in the order window at checkout.

By the way, if you’re looking for a part-time, seasonal, or full-time job where you can set your own schedule, Big O Takeout is always hiring drivers.

So the next time you don’t feel like going out; or the next time you’re craving something from 54 or downtown, but you don’t want to drive to 54 or downtown; or the next time co-workers decide to order out; remember, you now have options.

Here’s a list of participating
restaurants in Owensboro
(but check the site for the most up-to-date listing):

Bee Bops
Beef O’Brady’s
Bernie’s BBQ
Chop Stick
El Toribio
Fazoli’s
Fetta
Firehouse Subs
Fuji of Japan
Gangnam Korean BBQ
Gene’s Health Foods
Genuine Broaster Chicken
Huddle House
Lure
Maloney’s
Marathon 54 Food Center
Mikato Steak and Sushi
Pan Asian
Penn Station
PizzAroma
Popeye’s
Ritzy’s
TGI Friday’s
Thai Food
Wheatgrass Juice Bar
The Hajimari Sushi Bar