![\"bike\"](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/bike.jpg\" "\\"bike\\"")
<\/a> When Matthew Reate was laid off from his retail job several months ago, he decided it was time to re-evaluate his life.<\/p>\n\u201cI was tired of working for somebody else,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then I thought about what skills I have and I realized I ride my bike everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Building off his love of cycling, Reate launched Manivela, a bike-driven food delivery service, in July. Although the idea is straightforward — customers simply call Manivela\u2019s dispatch with their restaurant order and delivery address — Reate said the concept is unique.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere really isn\u2019t anything like this that I found in my research,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are Chinese and Mexican restaurants in Chicago and New York that deliver by bike, but I couldn\u2019t find one that would deliver from any restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manivela — Spanish for \u201ccrank,\u201d as in the center part of the bicycle — focuses on Uptown and downtown, splitting the area into four colored zones. A delivery within one zone (restaurant to patron) is $5 ($4 for featured restaurants on Manivela\u2019s Web site) plus tip and the cost of the ordered items. Deliveries between zones incur a $5 base fee plus $1 per half-mile. Service is available from 11 a.m. to midnight from any open restaurant, even McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want a burrito at 10 at night, you just call up, give us your order and where to go, and you\u2019re done,\u201d Reate said. \u201cThen we take down the info and dispatch the order and it\u2019s on its way. The riders are already on-call in their zones so it usually takes less then 20 minutes for an order to be complete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jay Porter, owner of The Linkery in North Park, is a Manivela fan. \u201cJust a running tab on my patronage of Manivela,\u201d he wrote on his restaurant\u2019s blog, \u201cCasing the Joint,\u201d earlier this month. \u201cFirst time — Blind Lady pizza: arrived in Golden Hill in under an hour, food quality delicious. Second time — Burger Lounge: arrived in North Park really quickly, food quality delicious (burger warm and still medium rare, salad cool, milkshake intact). This is seriously an awesome service to our neighborhood. I am super appreciative of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reate said he has been surprised at how the community has embraced the concept, especially those he hadn\u2019t originally identified as his key audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of support from the bike community and they\u2019re thrilled to see something like this happen,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s the babysitters and the moms who call us for full dinners that I didn\u2019t expect.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not just food the Manivela cyclers will wheel over. One woman asked for a pack of cigarettes with her order. Another requested beverages. Reate said he is also looking into adding medication deliveries, particularly for elderly or infirm customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is all about quick convenience. If someone wants something we can get easily, of course we will do that. People are really appreciative,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In fact, as a former pizza delivery worker, he said he has been pleased with the way customers are paying his riders, who work for part of the delivery fee plus gratuities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I did pizzas it was $2-3 per place, but they\u2019re getting at least $5 every time. I wasn\u2019t expecting that but I\u2019m happy about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
If hungry customers don\u2019t have cash, Reate can invoice through PayPal to allow them to pay with credit cards.<\/p>\n
Reate said he looks for his service to be popular in environmentally conscious San Diego. \u201cMy hope for the company is to expand farther to the ocean and the beach areas. I really want to promote the local communities and shrink the distance we all travel each day,\u201d he said. \u201cPlus, San Diego is just a really great city to ride in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manivela<\/p>\n
(619) 512-FOOD (3663)<\/p>\n
www.foodbikes.com<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rider Switches Gears to Peddle Food Delivery By Christy Scannell When Matthew Reate was laid off from his retail job several months ago, he decided it was time to re-evaluate his life. \u201cI was tired of working for somebody else,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then I thought about what skills I have and I realized I […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":242863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Manivela: Peddling Uptown Food","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}