Posted 23rd March 2007, early morning
By Melinda Briggs
Want to have healthy dinners on the table for your family 12 days in a row, without chopping a vegetable, washing a dish or rolling up to a drive-thru window?
Dinner by Design in Hamilton Twp. makes the impossible look easy.
Here, in just two hours or less, customers walk in empty handed and walk out with six or 12 dinners they’ve assembled to cook at home. Entrees are put together from already-prepared ingredients at the store and packaged to go in the freezer.
A 12-entree kitchen session is $199; a six-dinner session is $109. And considering the customer doesn’t need to look for recipes, shop for ingredients, prepare the components or clean up, some would agree that’s a bargain.
For owner Diane Balcom, Dinner by Design is a dream come true. She was inspired to open this location after an acquaintance fell ill.
“We were bringing in all of these dinners,” she said. “A friend went to one of our [current] competitor’s and brought in some things from there and I thought, what a great idea! I went home and downloaded the application [for a franchise] that night.”
Balcom, with her mother and co-owner Carol Schilling, held the grand opening in February for their kitchen in the Shoppes of Grandin on Ohio 48. After working as an accountant for 12 years and earning a master’s degree in marketing, Balcom said she finally found a way to blend her education and work experience with something she loves — and be able work close to home.
“I live in [nearby] Stone Brook [subdivision], so this is close to where I live and close to people who I know can benefit from the service,” she said. The business is a family affair, with Balcom, her mom, sister-in-law and kitchen manager Karen Said and nephew Brian Coffey helping to greet customers.
Dinner by Design is the latest addition to the growing make-and-take meal business. While her store has several of the same elements as similar businesses in the Mason and West Chester area, Balcom said there is one important difference: the “grab-and-go” freezer. Here, an assortment of entrees, side items and even desserts are already made and ready for pick up.
“Not everyone has two hours they can spend to come in and do their meals,” Balcom said. “The grab-and-go lets someone stop and pick up a good dinner, even if they forgot to defrost something back home.”
For the ultimate convenience, Dinner by Design can also prepare complete sets of meals and have them ready for pick up for an extra fee. Group nights and private parties are also available. Customers can call to book their session, but Balcom recommends booking online.
The Dinner by Design team spend the morning hours each day prepping ingredients and assembling 15 work stations with the month’s menu offerings. Each station holds all the food needed to make the entree, along with spices, sauces, measuring cups and mixing bowls. Customers put together their entrees in foil pans, which are then are covered, labeled with cooking directions and placed in an upright, restaurant-style freezer. The staff whisks away any dirty dishes, and the customer moves on to the next meal to be prepared.
On a recent Friday night, two couples and a group of girl friends pored over the recipes for dishes like asparagus stuffed flounder and country breakfast casserole. Jill Obert, who worked on Shanghai roast chicken with her husband Gary, said the Dinner by Design concept holds a lot of appeal.
“I have a repertoire of about 10 dishes and they’re getting old,” the Hamilton Twp. resident said. “And we have a 2-year old and a 3-year old. This is just too convenient and it’s right around the corner.”
Menu items are family-friendly, with classics like this month’s BBQ meatloaf and turkey tetrazzini. But grown-ups will enjoy elegant entrees like asparagus stuffed flounder and raspberry balsamic glazed chicken. Each portion is generous, feeding four to six people, Balcom said. For that reason, her kitchen allows customers to order half-sizes of entrees and lets two friends split the dinners made in a session.
“It can be tailored to what your family likes,” Balcom said. “If you don’t like onions, no onions; if you like extra cheese, you can add extra cheese.” Certain dinners can be modified to make vegetarian dishes. Nutritional and food allergy information about each entree can be found on the company’s website.
Dinner by Design is a convenient way to get families back to the dinner table, Balcom said. After all, as she put it, “Life is not going to get less busy.”
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