Olympia brewery to offer ready-to-cook delivery dinners

OLYMPIA, Wash. — An Olympia brewery has come up with a new take on takeout by delivering drinks and dinners people can cook at home.

Nathan and Sara Reilly own Three Magnets Brewing.

Statewide coronavirus closures threw them a curveball.

“The first week of the shutdown we were down 65% in the pub and all of our wholesale distribution sales that we would normally have completely cancelled,” said Sara.

Business is building back up. Three Magnets Brewing is doing curbside takeout. Soon they'll add another meal method to their plate: prepackaged ready-to-cook dinners they'll deliver three days a week.

“These are things we can put in a cooler, put in a refrigerated truck, make one route, drop them off very efficiently and sell beer and deliver beer,” said Nathan.

They're calling it the Garden Movement.

The goal is to help people stay home by taking local food to them.

Three Magnets Brewing’s head chef will create special dishes that he'll prepare, cook, cool and package. They’ll offer three themed meals a week: Meatless Mondays, Wholesome Wednesdays and Friday Fundays.

“The first one I think we're going to be doing is a pastel Azteca, which is similar to an enchilada casserole,” said Sarah.

They plan to deliver the ready-to-cook meals to homes within a five mile radius of the restaurant for a $5 delivery fee. The meals can also be picked up curbside.

"On a scale of one, easiest to cook, to 10, most difficult to cook, we're looking at aiming everything one to four,” said Nathan.

The meals will feed families of two or four and cost about $10 per person.

Customers can also add beer, produce, Washington wine, coffee, sipping vinegars and even necessities, like toilet paper and gloves, to their order. The items will be delivered to people’s homes with their dinners.

"We are trying to do as many things as we can to include as many businesses as possible to help as many people survive as possible,” said Nathan.

The Reillys hope their creative meal movement catches on and helps their small brewery survive COVID-19.

"If we can get to the point where we're selling 100 to 200 meals per day, that could kind of make up the difference to keep our doors open,” said Nathan.

Three Magnets Brewing hopes to deliver their first dinners this Wednesday or Friday.

They’ll begin by offering 25 to 50 meals a day and gradually build. They plan to offer a meal subscription method in the future.

To sign up for notifications, visit Three Magnets Brewing’s Garden Movement website.

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