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Dining made easy thanks to delivery service
The Flying Tavern
Marc Diaz (far right) poses with the Turlock Poker Room crew after delivering lunch to their business in April (Photo contributed).

Name of business: The Flying Tavern

Type of business: Food delivery service

Location: www.theflyingtavern.com; @theflyingtavern

Hours: Lunch delivery 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; Graveyard delivery 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday

Contact information: 209-595-1113

Specialty: Unique food offerings

History of business:

Born and raised in Turlock, longtime chef Marc Diaz wanted to provide a dining option for his town that not only tasted good, but was also helpful to customers. Thus, The Flying Tavern was born in April, offering sandwiches, tacos, burgers and salads that not only feature a flair for the unusually tasty, but can also be delivered at almost any time to nearly any place.

“I’ve been a chef in the area for 13 years…I have a problem settling down and am always trying to learn new stuff, so I got to the point where I knew I didn’t need a lot of money to start this business so I just did it and decided to see what happens,” Diaz said. “My whole goal is to do something different and do it for the people of Turlock.”

The Flying Tavern features free delivery of menu items like house-made tri tip sandwiches, grilled-to-order burgers and tender tacos that can be personalized to each customer’s liking. While Diaz often delivers lunchtime orders to patrons at work or to Turlockers at their homes, his graveyard hours on the weekends allow him to drop food off for hungry bargoers downtown as well.

“We even deliver to the bar, which I would have loved when I was young,” he said. “A lot of people call for food who don’t want to drive and get something because they’ve been drinking. Perfect, that’s why we’re here…we cut all of the mess out of the middle of getting great food late at night.”

In addition to classic menu items like burgers and fries, Diaz has been experimenting in the kitchen to provide customers with truly unique flavor combinations. Most recently, The Flying Tavern has offered a pulled pork sandwich held together not by bread or a bun, but by an apple fritter donut from Fail’s Donut Factory. Topped with a coffee barbecue sauce and apple ginger jalapeno coleslaw, the flavor is one of a kind.

“Working in someone else’s kitchen, I was always executing someone else’s dream and menu…I’ve learned that people like creativity,” Diaz said. “Some people see me put pulled pork on an apple fritter and say, ‘Oh God, that’s got to be awful’…but you take all of these incredible elements and hopefully it actually works, and it does.”

The Flying Tavern offers catering for events as well as delivery outside of normal operating hours as long as proper notice is given. The menu also caters to keto or paleo dieters if specified, Diaz added. The Flying Tavern is a relatively new business venture, and is looking for supporters to back the project at kickstarter.com.