Three years ago, Hana Fagut wanted a dish from Pastabilities for dinner. Her only problem as a freshman at Syracuse University — she didn’t want to leave her dorm to drive to the restaurant in downtown Syracuse, and she didn’t want to take the bus for 45 minutes, either.

“I was like, ‘I want Pastablities.’ But I didn’t want to go downtown, possibly get a ticket and wait for my food,” said Fagut, a senior neuroscience major. “It seemed like such a hassle. So, no one has opened a delivery service, and I was like, ‘I might as well.’”

Years later, Fagut’s late-night idea is coming to life. During the first week of October, CNYFoodToGo will launch in the SU community, catering to SU students, faculty and local residents on the Hill.

CNYFoodToGo provides consumers with an online platform to order food from more than 60 restaurants in downtown Syracuse and Armory Square. Consumers create an online account, select which restaurant they want to order from, pick their dish and check out using their credit card. Restaurants such as Pastabilities, LoFo and Lemon Grass have already agreed to work with Fagut, and Dinosaur Bar-B-Que is currently in talks to work with the company.

“We only focus on local business. We only do point-to-point transportation of the food, just to ensure it gets to the consumer hot,” Fagut said. “We have a 45-minute turnaround time. It’ll always be delivered in 45 minutes or less.”

Consumers will have the option to order until 3 a.m., Fagut said. In her original plans, Fagut did not want to provide late-night ordering, but changed her mind due to the latest statistics released on Aug.19 by GrubHub, stating that SU is the top school for late-night orders.

SU students and residents of the Hill regularly use GrubHub, another online food ordering company. The company allows consumers to order their food online from various restaurants around Syracuse, but Miriam Rossi, a senior child and family studies major, said using GrubHub is very repetitive. Rossi, Fagut’s roommate, said she is most excited to try Lemon Grass, even though the company will put a dent in her bank account.

“I think this is a really awesome way to support local businesses that GrubHub doesn’t take part in, and also an awesome way for students to expand what they’re eating and eat stuff that’s downtown that they may not have access to,” Rossi said.

With a set delivery fee of $5, no minimum ordering price and range of restaurants to choose from, Fagut added that GrubHub is no competition for CNYFoodToGo.

“Every place that we have is not on GrubHub,” Fagut said. “We’re giving students a whole new market to choose from. GrubHub is basically pizza and Chinese food. We’re giving them the option of high-end food delivery.”

The Couri Hatchery in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at SU played a key role in helping kick-start CNYFoodToGo. The Couri Haterchy is a student-centered business incubator that encourages and aids student startups to the point that they can function on their own. Fagut said the Hatchery was a main resource for her, and connected her with people to talk to in order to get her business truly up and running.

Terry Brown, the executive director of the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship in Whitman, directed Fagut and helped her reach her goals along the way.

“What I liked about Hana’s idea is that hers was, ‘I’m going to make it easy to get food into your home or your dorm,’” Brown said. “With her business model that she set up, I said I’d become a member in a minute.”

Brown said that Fagut took advantage of the Hatchery resources, including the attorney, human resources and advertising mentors. Those experts gave Fagut advice on how to excel in her weaker areas, and also gave her names of people to reach out to who may invest in her company. Brown added that without her perseverance, Fagut wouldn’t be where she is today — about to officially launch her company next week.

“She really had a passion for building a business in a local community and creating local jobs, so that’s admirable,” Brown said. “She’s persistent. She worked very hard for it.”

With friends, faculty and business partners behind her, Fagut is excited to start advertising her company. She said CNYFoodToGo will have launch parties on the SU Quad to show students how to use the website, as well as sending out emails to students to show off the company.

“I’m so excited for the launch and to have all this generated revenue,” Fagut said. “It’s going to be ‘bam!’ Look at us go.”

Published on September 30, 2014 at 12:47 am

Contact Jackie: jmfrere@syr.edu | @jackie_frere