Lara Hoyem brings heat-and-serve meal service Dinnerbell to the mid-Peninsula

Menlo Park resident Lara Hoyem has worked at a number of startups focused on making life easier for the consumer. That experience has all come together in her latest venture, Dinnerbell, co-founded by Lara and Maria Reiling.

“It’s part of Nextbite, a company started to help restaurants capitalize on delivery,” she explains. “As we learned more about restaurants, we realized there were a lot of under utilized kitchens.”

The heat-and-serve meal service is available in Atherton, Menlo Park, East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, Redwood City, Redwood Shores and Stanford. The made-to-order dinners are delivered Monday through Friday between 3:00 and 5:30 pm and can be ordered up to two weeks in advance or by midnight for next day delivery.

“As a busy, working mom, for years I was looking for a solution to provide an easy, delicious dinner offering to my active daughters, but everything I tried eventually fell short of one or both of those criteria,” says Lara. “Dinnerbell solves this dilemma for me and other families on the Peninsula.”

The core Dinnerbell meals are on the menu year-round and offer eight-plus main courses and 10-plus sides including fresh salads and vegetables, potatoes, pasta, grains and freshly baked breads. These are prepared in partnership with Chef & CEO Eric Barnachea, a 35-year seasoned cooking professional, and his team at Catered Too, a catering company located in East Palo Alto.

The Dinnerbell menu offers options for everyone in the family, including Tender Roasted Chicken Breast (pictured) and Cedar Plank Salmon as well as vegetarian and vegan options — Mama’s Veggie Lasagna and Vegan White Bean & Wild Mushroom Cassoulet, as example. For the kids, it offers Pocket Pizzas, Chicken Tenders and a Ripper Dog.

The Dinnerbell service garnered a vote of confidence from another working Menlo Park mom, Michelle DeWolf, founder of The Festive Table. “As someone who has worked with children and families in the community for a decade around cooking and meal planning, Dinnerbell meets families where they are,” she says.  “As a parent of a vegan, flexitarian and carnivore, I can feed my family with Dinnerbell, they are satisfied and I feel great.”

Photos courtesy of Dinnerbell