Downtown Greensboro restaurants launch subscription boxes to boost business

Downtown Greensboro restaurants turned a stretch of slow foot traffic and recent closures into a survival experiment: 15 eateries teamed up to sell 150 subscription boxes at $205 each, and the first run disappeared in about a week.

The effort, called Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen, emerged as owners tried to steady business after multiple downtown restaurants announced closures, including Dame’s Chicken & Waffles, M’Coul’s Public House, Liberty Oak and ‘Cille and ‘Scoe. Around the same time, downtown owners pressed city leaders on a deeper problem than marketing alone, pointing to parking, safety, lighting, noise, police patrols and the strain created by road closures and people without housing. Greensboro City Council later took three business engagement walks downtown, and five council members joined the final walk to hear concerns and ideas, including a downtown employee parking program.

The boxes were designed as a practical, repeatable sales tool. Fifteen restaurants joined the project, among them Pangaea, Machete, Yokai, Savor the Moment, Chez Genese, Blue Denim, The Sage Mule, Breakfast in Paris, Neighbors, ‘Cille and ‘Scoe, Chandlers, Lewis & Elm and Jerusalem Market on Elm. Each box featured dishes from five participating restaurants and changed weekly, giving customers a way to sample multiple kitchens without committing to one stop on a night out.

The first trial run included 150 boxes total, split evenly among three options. The Southend Box brought together Chez Genese, Lewis & Elm, Savor the Moment, Blue Denim and Yokai. The Northend Box included MACHETE, Jerusalem Market, Chandler’s, The Historic Magnolia House and The Sage Mule. The Hamburger Square Box featured Cille and Scoe, Neighbors, Breakfast in Paris, Pangaea and Cheesecakes by Alex. All three were built to feed two to four people, and each box cost $205.

Kathryn Hubert, the owner of Chez Genese, said the idea grew out of the way downtown businesses leaned on one another after recent storms and closures. She had already tested the concept with grab bags made from leftover bakery items when snow was expected, and both sales runs sold out. That response, Hubert said, showed there was real demand for something collaborative, useful and distinctly downtown Greensboro.

Chez Genese is a French-inspired restaurant with an employment model that integrates adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, through Compass Greensboro, which was founded in 2020 to build life, social and vocational skills. For Hubert, the subscription boxes have become more than a marketing campaign. They are a way to generate sales, introduce diners to other downtown kitchens and give Greensboro’s restaurant row a better chance to hold together through another difficult season.