Seattle restaurant owner launches own delivery service

Tired of paying sky-high fees just to get dinner delivered in Seattle? After years of pushing the city to change delivery laws, one local restaurant is ditching third-party apps entirely and launching its own in-house delivery fleet. Fox 13's Lauren Donovan shows us how Yaku works and whether it can actually save you money. The website just went live and the owners here at Spicewalla, they tell me the demand here in just one week has already surpassed that of Uber Eats. DoorDash, Uber Eats, Caviar, Postmates, Grubhub, you name them, we've done them. And things just changed. Spicewalla owner Uttam Mukherjee tells me, especially in 2024, when City Hall passed the pay up legislation. Mandating all gig workers like delivery drivers get a minimum wage. Revenue fell 50% on the delivery companies the second it went into effect. And for the guy who's built a business on no fuss, low cost Indian street food, that's been a serious problem. Food that should cost you $10 to $15 in the restaurant now costs you about $40 on the apps. It just doesn't make sense. I don't think our food's worth $40. Uttam's new solution is Yaku, a name inspired by the animal. Yaks are known to be good delivery animals. But a fluffy beast won't be dropping off your meal. Uttam's hired delivery drivers. Our drivers are actually going to be employees, so they're not getting paid by order. They're getting paid to be available for four hours, eight hours, whatever that is. And he's pledging something no other service is currently offering, a $10 flat rate fee. The caveat being you will not be able to see any restaurants outside of the neighborhood when we do open other neighborhoods. Right now, we have five restaurants in Ballard on the platform. Among them, Ballard Pizza Company, Rachel's Bagels and Burritos, and they're signing up several more this week. Reporting in Ballard, Lauren Donovan, FOX 13 News.