By Angela Caito

Nearly ten years ago, Matt McKenna opened his food delivery business, Double Time Delivery, in Johnson City. Now, he’s ready to start delivering restaurant goodies not only to those who work downtown, but to those who live in practically every area of Elizabethton and Hampton. While there are other companies delivering restaurant food to residents, Double Time Delivery is the only service that is a local, family operated food delivery business that delivers food from restaurants that don’t already offer delivery services.

McKenna is originally from upper New York State, but you can consider him a local resident because he relocated to Northeast Tennessee in 1998 when a friend moved to the area. His plan was to stay for a year and then return to New York, but there was something about this beautiful land that tugged on his heartstrings and made him realize that he was home. His daughters were born in Elizabethton and he says that he loves the people of Elizabethton.

McKenna said, “I like the people here and I enjoy the fact that it’s relaxed here and everything doesn’t have to be extra fast paced. Everybody is really nice and honestly, this area reminds me of Upper State New York with the hills and trees.”

Delivery services to Elizabethton business and residents will start on Friday, Aug. 2, and the business will deliver from almost any restaurant in Elizabethton to customers who live within a 17-mile radius of the restaurant. For delivery to Elizabethton, the restaurant must be in Elizabethton. McKenna says that this is so the food will be hot and in good quality when it arrives at the customer’s home or business.

Double Time Delivery has a larger service area than other food delivery services and McKenna said that he decided to make the area larger so he could serve those who have no other options for delivery. This includes areas like Stoney Creek, Gap Creek and even Hampton where people have not had access to restaurant delivery services.

The business is open all year, but they do close on major holidays including Christmas and Thanksgiving. They close early on Halloween to help ensure children who may be walking door to door to trick-or-treat are safe.

Double Time Delivery has local restaurants including Jiggy Ray’s Pizzeria in downtown Elizabethton and Miso’s that are considered “in network” and they are actively seeking more restaurants to partner with them. If a customer orders from a restaurant that is not in the network, they will be charged a small service fee, but orders made to in network restaurants have no service fee. It’s beneficial for restaurants to partner with Double Time Delivery to help bring in more customers.

McKenna and his family enjoy shopping in downtown Elizabethton and love frequenting businesses including Jiggy Ray’s Pizzeria, family owned and operated restaurants and other small businesses in the area. Since he is a small business owner himself, all the money that he earns from his food delivery business goes right back into the local community whether from paying taxes, utility bills or shopping downtown with our local small business owners.

Downtown business owners as well as businesses and residents throughout Elizabethton can begin placing orders through Double Time Delivery on Friday, Aug. 2. To place an order, customers can visit the website at: www.dbltime.com or call 423-262-8581 to speak to someone to assist with placing an order.

Angela Caito is a freelance writer, film producer and publicist who writes a variety of columns nationwide. Sidewalk Stories is an initiative to help promote our local Elizabethton businesses. To contact Angela to be included in Sidewalk Stories you can email her at: angela@netfilmalliance.com