Golden Company Delivers Fine Seafood and Meats to Your Door

If you’re driving west through a certain quasi-industrial area in the foodie-friendly town of Golden, you might miss the warehouse and retail headquarters for Tonight We Dine Seafood & Fine Meats, a delivery service that offers restaurant-quality, top-of-the-line proteins, ranging from New York strip steaks to elk to orange roughy. Delivery services have exploded in recent years, but not all have been successful. Pine Melon, for example, recently shut down its grocery deliveries. But Tonight We Dine is doing just fine.

Though Tonight We Dine’s exterior is modest, inside it’s pristine and organized with military precision.

This could be due to the influence of manager Alex Campbell, a New Zealand native who served over twelve years in the U.S. Army. But there’s also a bit of whimsy; a fishing net hanging high on the wall holds several faux fish.

Owner John Feeney, who established the company in 1994, credits Campbell with rebranding the business (it was known as Horizon Foods until recently), starting with its new name and logo, which features a Spartan warrior. Both were inspired by the 2006 action film 300 and its memorable line, “Tonight we dine in hell!” The informative website is also new, allowing customers to order online.

Whether you’re dining in hell or just in the mood for a splurge on high-grade entrees, the business offers more than thirty options for beef, including gourmet Italian meatballs, Wagyu filet mignon, and Certified Angus beef tender tips ($29.49 per pound), one of Campbell’s favorites because of their versatility. Tonight We Dine buys from smaller ranches, and the herds are switched from a grass diet to a grain diet at eighteen months, which is more expensive. The bison and elk are free range.

“When you have quality-tasting food, it means that the animals are being raised properly,” Campbell says.

All of the meats and seafood are flash-frozen, a method used to quickly freeze perishables at a very low temperature, which helps to preserve the flavor and texture. The seafood includes many varieties that are hard to find in a grocery store, such as calamari steaks, wild Chilean sea bass and wild wahoo filets — perfect for fish tacos.

“All of our fish are flash frozen on the boat,” says Campbell. “As soon as it thaws out, it wants to decompose; that’s just nature.” Grocery stores typically spray their seafood with an antibacterial concoction to delay the fishy smell, putting customers in a race against time. Campbell’s customers can thaw out their haul when they’re ready to indulge.

Many of the poultry products come prepped. Chicken cordon bleu, gluten-free chicken tenderloin fingers and spicy chicken wings are available, along with all-natural chicken breasts (four five-ounce pieces for $24.90).

During the holidays, Tonight We Dine sees an uptick in orders of jumbo-sized crab legs and lobster tails, which are typically twelve-to-fourteen ounces compared to six-to-eight in the supermarket. The bison tomahawks ($56.49 per twenty-ounce steak), particularly popular among foodies, are large steaks with a long bone protruding that provides a handle. For grilling season, there are many burger options: Certified Angus beef or Wagyu for the more conventional consumer, elk and bison for the adventurous. The premium, natural-casing bratwurst is another possibility.

Only about 5 percent of the company’s sales come from walk-in customers. Strange but true, the rest come from door-to-door sales in mountain resort towns. “The advantage of going to the mountains is that the customers have fewer options,” says Campbell. “At the end of the day, our food presents well. When you open up the box, it’s vacuum-sealed and not frosted over.”

Slick brochures with general guidelines for cooking the products ensure that there will be no missteps, and there are even dog treats if your best friend is a gourmet. Delivery is free with purchases of $100 in the Denver area, and the minimum is $200 for outlying metro areas. All products are guaranteed for a year; if the customer isn’t happy with the product for any reason, it can be exchanged.

All of this comes with a higher price tag, of course. “As far as pricing goes, we’re an Apple IPhone, not a flip phone,” Campbell says. “There are only three of us here, so we choose neighborhoods where people have the disposable income to become regular customers. There are definitely less people eating out, and once they try our foods, they say, ‘What’s the point?'”

Founder Feeney says he’s in no hurry to retire. “I like to go up to Crested Butte or Steamboat and see my clients and friends,” he notes. Now we have the next generation, who grew up eating our food.”