Service Safari: Hub Thai
One of my favorite comfort foods is Thai food, and recently, I found a place in the east village called Hub Thai which I can’t get enough of. I decided to choose this location because it’s always felt very convenient and accessible for me.
I usually go Friday afternoons, right after my in-person class, so I can take advantage of the lunch-special menu. This consists of one entrée and one appetizer for about 10 dollars, which for the quantity of food, I find rather affordable. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, many services have had to adapt, and Hub Thai is one of these. They provide every possible method of access to their food; delivery, take-out, pick-up, or outdoor dining. (though they don’t have a lot of space to work with, and no noticeable form of heating for the winter). With a menu outside, you can choose what you want to eat before heading inside.
After walking through the doors, the obligatory hand sanitizer station awaits you, as well as a machine to check your temperature, though they don’t seem to use it for customers. The space is small, so they have a marker on the ground to indicate where to stand when ordering. In case you hadn’t decided previously, they offer another menu for you to choose from. Looking around the small decorated space, the first thing that comes of notice is the large TV in the corner of the wall, providing silent entertainment for any customers waiting for their food (though the quality of entertainment is subject to change on a case by case basis). While it is currently winter, they also have a large air conditioner ready for when the summer heat arrives, not only for the sake of customers, but most likely also for the workers there. They also have a public bathroom, which while may seem obvious for a restaurant/food service, is sometimes not the case in smaller restaurants, especially during the pandemic.
When it comes to ordering food, the process is simple, quick, and rather typical; you order, you then pay, and then wait for your food to be prepared. They accept both cash and card, which is always convenient, and the food prepping process never takes longer than 10 minutes. In the case of take-out, the food is stored in a paper bag within a typical plastic bag for transport. The order and price is stapled to the paper bag, and each component of the meal is kept in their individual containers. Let’s take an example of a vegetable stir fry with a Thai salad; the Thai salad will be in its own little plastic compartment, the stir fry as well, and the rice will be served apart in the small white boxes that are all too familiar. Napkins and cutlery are provided as well, so the meal can be eaten anywhere. On one hand, this process makes eating the food extremely convenient and accessible. On the other hand, from a sustainable standpoint, not only is there a lot of wasted plastic, but properly disassembling the containers, removing the staples, and sorting/organizing the trash is not the easiest task.
Overall, in comfort food fashion, this service does a great job at providing fast, easily-accessible, tasty and cheap food, allowing for little commitment on the side of customers while also providing them a standard restaurant experience when needed (this may be an oversight, as I have yet to dine there). In doing so, they sacrifice more sustainable practices for the sake of making their business affordable to a larger array of clientele.
