Amazon Prime Now Restaurant Delivery Heads East

Until now, Amazon’s restaurant delivery service has been exclusively serving busy diners in cities scattered up and down the West Coast, but that’s all about to change.

Amazon announced Thursday (Dec. 3) that the Baltimore area would be the first on the East Coast to have access to Amazon’s Prime Now restaurant delivery service. Amazon had previously spent time in early 2015 building up a delivery base for its non-dining on-demand options, which has made this launch much larger than others that had to begin from the scratch. Gus Lopez, general manager at Amazon Restaurants, said that making Charm City the service’s first stop on the Eastern seaboard was an easy decision, due to the eclectic mix of dining options.

“Baltimore’s vibrant mix of neighborhoods has created an equally vibrant food scene,” Lopez said in a statement. “We’re excited to offer Amazon Prime customers a fast and convenient way to enjoy some of the city’s best restaurants without having to drive or take a water taxi.”

The service will initially be available in areas covered by 10 Baltimore zip codes, with nearly 60 restaurants signed on as partners. However, like in other cities where Amazon’s restaurant city has already opened, Lopez expects more restaurants to join in time.

“We study different cities, and we were excited about the restaurant selection in Baltimore,” Lopez told the Baltimore Business Journal. “From a qualitative and quantitative assessment, there were a bunch of restaurants people in Baltimore were very excited about.”

This brings the total number of cities that are part of the dining arm of Amazon Prime Now up to four, with Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles already brought into the fold. While Lopez didn’t share any possible plans for future expansions, it’s hard not to see the launch of the service in the moderately sized city of Baltimore as a testing ground for larger and more lucrative (and more Manhattan-based) metropolises.