It happens every year like clockwork: the long, leisurely days of summer begin to fade, and suddenly, September is breathing down our necks. Camp trunks come home, school calendars are tacked to the fridge, and the city jolts back to life. On the Upper West Side, that means 8 a.m. drop-offs at PS 87, recitals at Kaufman Music Center, soccer at Riverside, and PTA meetings tucked between dentist appointments and subway delays. It also means we’re once again left wondering: What’s for dinner?
Enter Feast & Fettle, a New England-based meal delivery service with a cult following that has quietly made its way to the Upper West Side.
Feast & Fettle (or F&F, as their members affectionately call it) isn’t just another meal delivery app in a sea of soggy takeout and random recipe kits. It’s something far more elevated, and far more practical. Each week, F&F delivers fully-prepared, ready-to-heat meals made from scratch in their own kitchen. No chopping, no sautéing, no post-meal sink pile-up. You just pop a dish in the oven or microwave, and voilà: a roasted salmon with herb butter served alongside lemony green beans and roasted potatoes that tastes like it came from a cozy bistro on Columbus Avenue.
But what sets Feast & Fettle apart, particularly for West Siders, isn’t just the quality of the food (which is excellent), but the ethos of the service. These aren’t mass-produced trays; the service is a thoughtful, local-feeling experience curated for families and individuals who care about what goes into their bodies, but don’t always have the hours to slowly-braise pork shoulder or hand-layer lasagna.
The menu is a rotating mix of comforting classics (think: braised short ribs with whipped potatoes) and lighter, seasonal fare (enter: grilled chicken with lemon-pepper marinade, served alongside roasted zucchini and summer farro salad). And unlike subscription meal kits that have you juggling spice packets and searching for garlic cloves, these meals come done. Like, actually done.
There’s also something delightfully analog about the whole operation. Orders are placed weekly through an easy-to-use website, and meals arrive in insulated bags that are picked up and reused each week. There’s no wasteful packaging, no tiny plastic ramekins of parsley to toss in the compost. Just real food, made by real people, and delivered with the kind of attention to detail that feels increasingly rare.
And while Feast & Fettle has made a name for itself in communities across New England, its arrival on the Upper West Side feels like a perfect match. Here, where time is tight but values run deep, where family dinners matter but so do piano lessons and work conference calls and school board meetings, Feast & Fettle offers an unexpected sense of calm.
It’s also worth noting: fall is arguably the best time to try a service like this. As September barrels in with its back-to-school madness and the quiet end of summer bounty at the 97th Street Greenmarket, Feast & Fettle offers a bridge. A way to ease into routine without defaulting to pasta again. A chance to gather, briefly, even if everyone’s eating at different times between cello practice and algebra homework.
So whether you’re a busy family juggling after-school chaos, a couple looking to skip the Seamless spiral, or a solo Upper West Sider who simply refuses to eat another sad desk lunch, Feast & Fettle might just be your new fall essential.
Curious to try it yourself? Feast & Fettle is offering West Side Rag readers 20% off your first week, plus free delivery for the rest of the year.
