ClusterTruck Offers Denver a Fresh Take on Delivery

As of Monday, December 4, ClusterTruck is showing Denverites a new way to experience delivery food. Located at the intersection of California Street and Park Avenue in Five Points, ClusterTruck’s delivery-only model offers an end to lukewarm food and soggy sandwiches with a simple promise: Food will never be more than six minutes from the stove when a customer receives it.

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An unassuming exterior houses ClusterTruck's kitchen. Drivers pull through the alley to pick up orders straight from the kitchen.

Veronica Penney

This may seem more like wishful thinking than an attainable goal, but co-founder Chris Baggott, a software engineer by trade, has numbers on his side and four successful ClusterTruck locations in Ohio and Indiana to back up his claims. Baggott coded algorithms to create ClusterTruck’s streamlined, assembly-line-style kitchen and delivery system.

Here’s how it works: A hungry customer within ClusterTruck’s delivery zone places an order. The order will live in "the cloud” until one of ClusterTruck’s driver’s is en route to the restaurant, ready to pick up the order. Baggott’s software will cue the chef to start cooking so that the order is finished at the same time that the driver arrives. The driver then takes the food straight to the customer, arriving within six minutes of when they left the kitchen, skipping heat lamps and extra delivery stops. The total process from order to eating takes an average of 21 minutes, though during peak times, the wait can creep up to 45 minutes.

ClusterTruck’s space resembles a large restaurant kitchen, with the addition of digital displays that prompt chefs to start orders at specific times, instead of a traditional paper-and-pencil ticket system. Here, ClusterTruck’s chefs cook up an array of culinary options, ranging from tacos and burritos to burgers, fries and fresh salads. Customer favorites include Mac & Cheese Buffalo Chicken and The Mug Double Burger, a tried-and-true recipe from Baggott’s first restaurant in Indiana.

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ClusterTruck's kitchens borrow from the assembly line to create an efficient process, meaning fresher food for customers.

ClusterTruck Bloomington

Baggott is passionate about using quality ingredients in ClusterTruck’s dishes, explaining that the majority of beef and pork is sourced from his own private farm, where animals are pasture-raised and antibiotic-free. With increasing demand, Baggott has also started contracting with other farmers.

“We have these farmers who are trapped in this system of corn and soybeans,” he adds. “We’re able to go out and say, ‘I will bring you the baby pigs, I will bring you the feed, raise them to our specifications, and you will make more money than you will on 2,000 acres of corn and soybeans.’ And that’s been really working well. We’re able to help those farmers have an alternative.”

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Starting at 8 a.m., hungry Denverites can get in on a Lazy Breakfast Burrito, featuring eggs scrambled with bacon, tater tots, peppers, onion and cheese, and topped with pico de gallo.

ClusterTruck

ClusterTruck's curbside delivery is available to anyone located between I-25 and Steele Street, south of I-70 and north of 12th Avenue. That means that customers can specify any delivery location within the boundaries, whether it’s a residence, office, brewery or auto shop. The website also makes group orders simple, allowing each individual to place and pay for orders separately, then have the meal delivered all at once.

ClusterTruck currently offers delivery beginning at 8 a.m. every day and closes at 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 p.m. on Fridays, and 9 p.m. on Saturdays.

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