DoorDash Adds Shipping Option to Deliver Local Restaurant Favorites Nationwide

In the most basic sense, DoorDash helps restaurants with delivery. But if delivery was simply about sustenance, most customers could just scrounge together a meal at home. Instead, at their best, restaurant delivery apps are about fulfilling cravings: getting the exact meal you want with minimal effort.

But as anyone who has ever wanted a cheesesteak outside of Philadelphia can attest to, some craveable items are only done properly in a specific area or even at one specific restaurant. And so, we've been seeing a rise in nationwide restaurant delivery, whether it's iconic brands shipping items themselves or services like Goldbelly working on their behalf.

Now, nationwide restaurant delivery appears to be taking its biggest leap yet into the mainstream: DoorDash has announced it's added the option both to its own app and its Caviar platform.

Nationwide Shipping (as the new service is generically called) can now be found on both the DoorDash and Caviar apps, allowing customers to "order delicious meals and items from iconic restaurants and retailers across the country and have them delivered directly to their doorstep," DoorDash explains.

Just don't expect instant gratification: Users have the option to either schedule a delivery date up to three months out or choose ASAP shipping — but even with the ASAP option, DoorDash explains that these products "will arrive two-to-four days from date of order on average." (The service lets you know the expected delivery date before checkout.)

And needless to say, with a few days turnaround time, what arrives won't be the same kind of piping hot meal you'd expect from a standard DoorDash delivery. Instead, be prepared to unbox your items from insulated packaging and unthaw if need be.

One example is Caviar's partnership with the Carbone. Nationwide Shipping is launching on the app with an exclusive kit from the New York City-based Italian restaurant that "includes Carbone Fine Food sauces, dried pasta, an apron, recipe cards, and exclusive access to a video cooking demo by Mario Carbone." So more of a meal kit. Another launch partner is Big Shake's Hot Chicken in Nashville which is selling deep-fried turkeys exclusively on DoorDash. Though preparation instructions aren't provided, some sort of reheating is inevitable.

The takeaway is that Nationwide Shipping is a different sort of service than the usual DoorDash order, but if you're tired of your ordering from the same pizza joint over and over again, you'll suddenly see a lot more options: Other launch partners DoorDash name-drops include Carlo's Bakery, Katz's Delicatessen, Momofuku, Chocolate and the Chip, and Get Maine Lobster.

"We're incredibly excited to partner with DoorDash and honored to be one of the first merchants signing onto their Nationwide Shipping launch," Mark Murrell, CEO for Get Maine Lobster, stated in the announcement. "DoorDash is a trusted brand that's going to help us introduce more people to the heritage and flavors of Maine lobster and fine seafood."

Meanwhile, DoorDash pushes one other benefit to Nationwide Delivery: Sending food gifts for the holidays. "This holiday season, and for all holidays and gift giving events to follow, consumers can send a gift to a friend or loved one," the company explains. "Consumers can simply select the items they want to send as a gift and add a gift message that will be included in the packaging."

Gifting pastrami has never seemed so sensible.