How a healthy food delivery service drives more orders using text alerts

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Honey + Thyme’s mouthwatering menu changes every week. Text messages help them keep customers up-to-date on the latest items that are available to order.


Chicken risotto with Swiss chard and butternut squash. Kung pao pork seasoned with sesame, ginger, and sweet chili sauce. Roast salmon with cauliflower, chickpeas, and lemon yogurt.

If you feel like you’re reading a menu put together by a professional fine-dining chef, your hunch is correct. But you don’t have to have to make a reservation at a restaurant to try these dishes. Thanks to Chef Josh Charles, you can have them delivered right to your home or office.

Who is Chef Josh Charles?

As a teenager, Josh received a copy of Thomas Keller’s French Laundry Cookbook. This would completely change his life. After attending culinary school, he took the lowest position possible at the fine-dining restaurant Elaia+Olio in 2012. His name would go on to appear at the bottom of the menu a mere five months later. It took less than half a year for him to become the establishment’s chef de cuisine. This would prove to be just the beginning of a successful career as a chef.

He went on to become the Executive Chef at Element restaurant, where his small plate menu showcased the best ingredients from the Midwest. His talent hasn’t gone unnoticed. Sauce Magazine named him one of their “Ones to Watch” in 2014 and Feast Magazine listed him as one of the 9 St. Louis Chefs to Know in 2017. After his son was born, Josh was looking for a change of pace. He wanted to spend more time at home with his family. It’s this desire that led to the creation of Honey + Thyme.

Delivery food that’s actually good for you

Just say no to Grubhub and Uber Eats. Honey + Thyme is a food delivery service that serves real, healthy food. Josh took what he learned from his nearly 10 years of experience in the fine dining industry, and made it easily available to families. Honey + Thyme sources as many items as possible from local farmers and suppliers. And the majority of their dishes feature vegetables as the centerpiece, despite not being vegan or vegetarian.

Here’s how it works: first, you place your order on the Honey + Thyme website. On a set delivery date, you can either swing by a pick-up location and grab your order for free—or have it delivered to your address for a small fee.

There’s no preparation necessary. All of their meals are ready to eat. You can even order extra and store it in the freezer, they just recommend eating your meal within five days.

Using texts to facilitate ordering

When you’re preparing food with local, seasonal ingredients, it’s important to know as soon as possible how many people you’re cooking for.

This way, you have plenty of time to source all the ingredients you need. Honey + Thyme’s menu changes every week. Text messages allow Josh and his team to alert customers as soon as a new menu is available so that they can get their orders in right away.

We have a new menu available for February 18th delivery, order by Saturday 10pm! https://txt.st/SWNJDG

Signing up for these updates is a breeze for customers. Honey + Thyme has a sign-up form on its website so that people can quickly opt in. Customers can also text the keyword “HoneyAndThyme” to their number.

Josh was seeing success with email but knew right away that SMS would be a good choice for his menu updates. As he explains it, “A lot of people miss their emails, but they don’t miss their texts.”

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