You Can Order Food From 20 Restaurants At Once At New Wonder Location In Hoboken

HOBOKEN, NJ — The Wonder restaurant company, which sent food trucks staffed with chefs to various North Jersey neighborhoods during the pandemic, has traded the trucks for a new model: brick-and-mortar stores that offer food made to order from dozens of restaurants at once.

At the new Hoboken location of Wonder, which will hold its grand opening Thursday, Nov. 2, people can walk in and order from more than 20 restaurants, and get their food for pickup in 15 to 20 minutes or via delivery. Chefs in the back of the space prepare the food on site.

While there are a few tables inside for eating in, the concept is largely meant for ordering out for lunch and dinner.

"If you come in with friends, you might want a poke bowl, they might want a burger, and both of you might want to share an order of hummus, so you order from three restaurants at the same time," said Wonder Chief Marketing Officer Daniel Shlossman. "We've all been there, when you can't decide with a group or family what to order."

The restaurants serve a variety of cuisines, some from famous chefs, some with concepts created by Wonder, including Limesalt, a Mexican restaurant. Other restaurants on site include Bobby Flay Steak and Di Fara Pizza from Brooklyn.

They also can use fresh ingredients from one restaurant, such as fish from Sushi Nichi, in dishes from another, such as in Hanu Poke.

They've also utilized their team of chefs to create new dishes, such as the burger/taco combo served by Burger Baby, and idea that came from a TikTok trend.

The team at Wonder is constantly evaluating how their products are doing based on customer ratings, Shlossman said. The chicken cordon bleu sandwich from Mainstay, by chef Marc Murphy, is one of the most popular dishes at that location so far (see the photo above).

There are several new restaurants soon to be added in Hoboken, Shlossman said, including a dessert concept.

He said opening the Hoboken store — the fifth so far — is like a homecoming, as founder Marc Lore's Jet.com was once located in the same building on the south waterfront, at 221 River St.

One criticism the Wonder company got when it started in 2021 was that it might draw business away from local restaurants. Shlossman acknowledged that none of the 20-plus eateries serving dishes at the new location is local, but said that working with local businesses is in their future.

Besides the Hoboken store, Wonder has three locations in New York City and one in Westfield.

The Hoboken store is also delivering to a small part of Jersey City, they said.

Find out more about Wonder here, and check out these other recent stories on restaurant openings in Hoboken here.