McAllen business expands restaurant delivery options beyond pizza

McALLEN — Local residents couldn’t have custom-made ice cream from a local creamery or botanas hand-delivered to their homes before Heberto Hinojosa created a business to do it.

Hinojosa, 27, is a school principal in Houston. But the Rio Grande Valley native began thinking about a delivery business when he was in college and decided to make it a reality.

He opened RGV to Go for business in early September. Since then, he has made more than 800 deliveries in the Rio Grande Valley, he said.

“My heart is in the Valley,” he said. “I was born and raised there. I’ve lived in Austin and Houston — both are cities that have this type of service and the Valley didn’t. So I figured it would be a good opportunity to do it.”

After graduating from Texas State University, Hinojosa began studying other business models of delivery services in the bigger cities. He took some pointers from one service and developed his own Valley-centric way to operate.

“We call and confirm it with the restaurant and deliver it to your home,” Hinojosa said. “You don’t have to do anything except pick up the phone.”

Hinojosa’s business has four drivers. Customers can order online and have the option of paying with cash or a credit card.

The service doesn’t charge extra money per item like some delivery businesses elsewhere. The service fee — between $2.99 and $7.99 — is tacked on to whole orders, depending on the distance between the restaurant and the customer.

For instance, a customer ordering from Buffalo Hot Wings in Edinburg and lives in Mission would pay the larger fee because they are further away from the food, Hinojosa said.

Hinojosa’s drivers deliver to McAllen, Edinburg and Sharyland during the week from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m. On weekends, they are open from noon until 10 p.m.

Jessica Rodriguez was tired of only being able to order pizza as delivery food. When a new delivery service opened in the area, she was one of the first to try it.

“It’s convenient,” she said. “With all of these cold days, I have kids, so I don’t have to take them out.”

Rodriguez, 30, of McAllen, has tried many of restaurants offered by RGV to Go. She said her family plans to try all of them and they often order delivery now since the service gives stay-at-home customers more options.

“It gives (moms) a day off from cooking,” she said. “And what I like is just the assortment of not having to order pizza all the time.”

Marble Slab Creamery in McAllen is one of about 16 local businesses that participate in the delivery service.

The owner, Maya Advani, said she never thought of delivering ice cream, but thinks this is the right kind of service to do it for her.

“A lot of customers have asked me if they delivered,” she said. “Ice cream cakes are what (customers) like to have delivered.”

She said one advantage of being part of the business partnership is that she’s able to do business with people who either can’t get to her store or don’t feel like driving.

“It’s just a convenience to offer this to the customers,” she said.

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Lindsay Machak covers business and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4462.