Rochester gets a lot of press — and flack — for its ‘signature’ cuisine, the Garbage Plate. And while the dish became synonymous with food culture in Rochester, the city’s cuisine is much more rich and diverse, built by an ever-expanding community of global cultures.
Chris Lindstrom aims to expand the impression people have of Rochester’s food scene. He’s the co-founder of NOMINATE, which presents curated meal pickup nights in Rochester and Buffalo (where Lindstrom is originally from). NOMINATE partners with small, usually minority- and immigrant-owned restaurants to give them a boost on slower weeknights while also helping diners expand their palates and, hopefully, become returning customers to the small businesses featured.
NOMINATE emerged during the pandemic, with the aim of assuaging hardships posed to restaurants — especially small, family-owned joints. It began by offering an alternative to ordering takeout through the big courier companies, which notoriously take a huge cut from restaurants, gouge customers with multiple fees, and generally take advantage of drivers.
“We were trying to find a way to do something where everybody won,” Lindstrom said. “The restaurant got to make money on an order, and anybody who was driving got to make money.”
NOMINATE has since pivoted from delivery to strictly pickup at three partner locations: Three Heads Brewing and Black Button Distillery in Rochester, and Nowhere Lounge in Buffalo.
On an average weeknight, maybe 15 or so people come to Seasons’ Noodle on Chestnut Street downtown, but the restaurant had 50 meals ordered through one of NOMINATE’s pickup events in August. Some of those customers have since visited Seasons’ Noodle.
“I like to work with (Chris), because he actually gave us a chance to have people who would not have been able to come into our store to try our food,” said Yunzhi Yan, owner of Seasons’, which specializes in hand-pulled noodles.
Diners can go to nominatemeals.com and select the date they want to pick up a meal. It’s a flat fee of $40 for a meal that feeds two people — ideal for date night in, dinner with a bestie, or a meal and leftovers for one — then, all they have to do is show up at that night’s pick-up location.
But the experience is also an adventurous experiment in letting go.
“The kicker is, customers have no idea what they’re getting until they pick up their food,” Lindstrom said. “We don’t want people not buying just because they aren’t familiar with the cuisine.”
That cuisine could be West African, Korean, Caribbean, or Soul Food. It could be a rice-based, spice-heavy vegan dish or a bounty of beef, broth, and noodles.
“We’re going to bring them the things the restaurant wants to highlight,” Lindstrom said.
The endeavor had its first event in January 2021 and spotlighted local small businesses Marty’s Meats, Zemeta (Ethiopian), Peppa Pot (Jamaican), El Latino (Dominican), and Sodam (Korean) in the first few months. Since then, NOMINATE has worked with dozens of restaurants, all of which are listed on their website.
“We offer the restaurants somewhere between 90 and 95 percent of retail for their food,” Lindstrom said. “We’re buying a bulk order on a quiet day.” Even the smallest events tend to net about $450 for the eateries.
Aside from his work for NOMINATE, Lindstrom, 40, works in engineering and automation and is the host of the local Food About Town podcast.
The other NOMINATE co-founders — Brandon Vulaj, Alex Vulaj, Raph Mabasa, and Nate Wagar — mostly help on the IT front. Lindstrom is generally the face of the operation. “My expertise is relationships with the small, minority-owned restaurants in Rochester,” he said.
NOMINATE’s pickup spots typically work with Lindstrom to offer a beverage pairing for the meal for customers to either take away or enjoy on the spot.
“If it’s at Three Heads, we pick a beer that’s going to best pair with the food that night,” Lindstrom said. “We want our partners to be excited to have us there as well. So if every step in the process can be a win for everybody, that’s the mission.”
Because patrons don’t know what the meal is — or even what restaurant is serving it — before they pick it up, it’s tough for NOMINATE to alter meals for dietary restrictions and preferences. A message can be sent to communicate allergies and dietary restrictions, and Lindstrom then lets the patron know if they’ll be able to accommodate or not.
At pickup, Lindstrom hands customers a sheet with info about the cuisine and where to visit the business in the future. “We always tell people to go visit in person after, being there in person matters more than people think,” he said. “The whole point is strengthening the sense of community through food.”
Eventually, Lindstrom would like to expand NOMINATE to offer catering, similarly curating meals for events held by companies and organizations that want to support small local restaurants.
“There should be a way for people to spend their money where their values are.”
Rebecca Rafferty is an arts writer at CITY and the producer-host of art/WORK, an arts conversation video series created in collaboration with WXXI. She can be reached at becca@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Nov 1-30, 2023.
