Growing up Ben Mackey was involved in many backyard barbecues.
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He eventually became a master BBQ chef in his own right and developed a passion and many skills feeding family and friends.
Now the salesman and his restaurant mate Chris Stojanovski have teamed up to provide the Illawarra with something new.
Mr Stojanovski is the owner of Fairy Meadow restaurant Costa Azzurra and using the Uber Eats technology and know-how he and his friend have tapped into a whole new market.
“It all started after Ben had this brilliant idea of doing some barbecue comps,” Mr Stojanovski said.
“We did alright and we decided why don’t we create some kind of business out of this. We both work full time and thought this was something we could do on the side.”
Mr Mackey works for Baines Masonry but since co-founding Deckle & Hide BBQ Co can be found after work cooking on a barbecue at home, on a trailer with all the equipment he needs or in the Costa Azzurra Woodfire Restaurant kitchen.
“It is a fairly simple model based on quality, efficiency and convenience. We run it through the Costa Azzura kitchen where Uber comes to pick up the orders. We already have the facilities here to run an extra kitchen which cuts down our costs.”
Deckle & Hide BBQ Co was born after the two men heard Uber Eats was coming to Wollongong last December. The virtual business has an extensive menu to compliment the growing range of digital-only menus popping up online. It comes as more and more time poor customers with busy lives seek a convenient way to experience the latest food trends.
Uber Eats provides virtual businesses such as Deckle & Hide with innovative technology so people can simply order a meal to order on their smartphone and have it delivered. Deckle and Hide is just one example of many new restaurant partner businesses being established with minimal capital investment.
It comes as more people are using search data from the Uber Eats app. As a result more than 300 virtual restaurants throughout Australia are now capitalising on underused kitchen space and creating more choice for customers.