It’s true — well-fed employees are happy employees. Some of NYC’s largest tech startups have lunch perks that dreams are made of — like Taco Tuesdays and farm-to-table catered lunches on the regular. See what’s for lunch at some of these local companies.
Marketing tech startup Bluecore offers employees a remote work program, PTO and other perks that give them the flexibility to come into the office as it works with their schedules. But with Bluecore’s selection of catered lunches, employees have a big reason to make an appearance. Software engineer Giuliano Giacaglia gave us the inside scoop on lunch at Bluecore.
What's your favorite food or drink that Bluecore provides?
Taco Tuesday are the best. My grandma was originally from Guatemala and used to make tacos every Saturday. Other days, I enjoy Ripe, which offers good wholesome lunch options.
What's another food perk you'd love to have in the office?
We have an assortment of healthy snacks in the office like apples, avocados and greek yogurt but I would love more fun and silly snacks like Sour Patch Kids.
Edtech startup Codecademy takes two things very seriously: teaching people how to code and making sure its employees are well-fed (and caffeinated). Product Marketing Manager Dhruti Deshpande has only been with the company for three months and is already hooked on the company’s limitless snacks and coffee. She told us what’s in the kitchen most days.
What's your favorite food or drink that Codecademy provides?
I'm going to cheat and say coffee. We have a Slack channel called #caffeinators dedicated to brewing delicious specialty coffee throughout the day. One of our engineers, Jon Samp, built a cool app called "Single Origin" to help people make coffee using different brewing methods. Recently, one of our designers brought in Kopi Luwak coffee for the office to try, and we tested out a few ways of brewing it.
What's another food perk you'd love to have in the office?
This is a tough question since the office keeps Justin’s Almond Butter and dried mangoes, which are two of my favorite snacks. I’d have to go with Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel Sesame Seasoning Blend. I like to sprinkle it over avocados (already provided), and I've even turned a few coworkers onto it.
Marketing tech startup Custora already provides farm-to-table catered lunches for employees nearly every day, but employees can still dream about what else they’d like to have on tap. Enterprise Sales Director Michael Harris, who has been with the company for two years, gave us a breakdown of what’s for lunch.
What's your favorite food or drink that Custora provides?
Farm-to-table catered lunches from Greentop Farms, an urban farm in NYC. They offer build-your-own salad bowls including a meat protein (e.g. organic chicken), grains, legumes, roasted veggies, fresh veggies and a bunch of dressings. It's super delicious and sustains you throughout the day without weighing you down.
We're incredibly lucky at Custora; Greentop caters every Monday for our weekly all-hands meetings and we also use Stadium for our Custora-provided lunches Tuesday through Friday.
What's another food perk you'd love to have in the office?
A fancy, La Marzocco espresso machine would awesome for an afternoon (espresso) shot and iced red eyes in the morning. That said, we already have two cold brew kegs on tap from Stumptown and Grady's. Our coffee situation is pretty next-level.
There are catered lunches, and then there are staff chefs. At Stack Overflow, two chefs cook up gourmet lunches for employees every day of the work week. Director of people operations Joe Humphries has been with the company for over five years and the appeal of a personal chef has yet to get old. He gave us a little more insight into the food at the office.
What's your favorite food or drink that Stack Overflow provides?
I always like “breakfast for lunch” day. I'm a sucker for bacon.
What's another food perk you'd love to have in the office?
We have chefs on staff (Cory and Alex) who cook a hot, gourmet lunch for us every day. It just doesn't get better than that.
At fintech company ValuePenguin, every day is different — and that goes for lunch options as well. Lauren Slutsky, head of talent, has been with the startup for close to a year. She gave us the inside scoop on what the team eats every day.
What's your favorite food or drink that ValuePenguin provides?
On Monday and Fridays, everyone orders through a Seamless account. Lunch on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday is catered from different restaurants all over Manhattan. A team favorite is poke bowls.
What's another food perk you'd love to have in the office?
Our kitchen is already stocked with all types of healthy food, but I’d love to see more fruit — you can never have too many fresh fruit options.
Adtech company PulsePoint makes lunchtime a priority. From a vast selection of seasonal fruits to healthy lunches, the startup makes sure its employees are well-fed. Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist Sydney Fleming explains.
What's your favorite food or drink that PulsePoint provides?
We receive catered lunches twice a month or every other Friday. My favorite lunch to date has been a ‘build your own market bowl’.
What's another food perk you'd love to have in the office?
Our office manager Mya is really good at mixing up our snacks options (healthy and not-so-healthy), and she makes sure we have seasonal fruits to munch on all of the time. If there was one thing I could wish for, though, it would be a cold brew coffee keg.
