Putting a Trend To the Test

· Party passes Although meal assembly kitchens initially touted the fun, social aspects of the experience, typical return customers want to get in and out in as little time as possible. What was originally a two-hour process of assembling dinners while chatting with friends and listening to music, patrons have mercilessly whittled down.

"My husband and I can do six meals in less than an hour," says Janet Desjardins of Clarksburg, a meal assembly veteran of three months. "As a result, I barely go to the grocery store now."

Of course, meal assembly kitchens still sign up plenty of parties and get-togethers. For private evening sessions, some places allow outside food and beverages or offer free wine between workstation hops. Avendra, the Rockville procurement-services company Desjardins works for, has booked an afternoon session at nearby Thyme Out in North Potomac for an accounting/finance department team-building exercise.

· Takeout transformation Once they're familiar and comfortable with the food, more customers are routinely paying from $15 to $25 extra to have assembly kitchen employees make their meals to order (hold the green bell pepper, substitute chicken for pork) and pack them up. All the customers have to do is pull their car up out front and deposit the meals in their cooler to take home. At least one location even delivers the pre-packed meals to your home (for an added fee, of course).

Those patrons are turning the business into more of a takeout operation, says Bert Vermeulen. He is the small-business adviser in Cheyenne, Wyo., whose Easy Meal Prep Association has made him the go-to industry analyst in two years' time. "They want easy pickup, on their way home from work. We're surprised that [home] delivery hasn't caught on," he says.

For the record, Vermeulen's ranks of "mystery shoppers" who check out kitchens across the country rank the food at Let's Dish! and Thyme Out as the best among the meal assembly kitchens in the Washington area.

· Cost wise Prices per serving are well under $5, which looks especially good when compared with the cost of prepared and restaurant food. Customers we talked to this summer told us they considered the meals an even bigger bargain once they had factored in less waste from unused special ingredients (that remaining half-bunch of cilantro, for example) and less time spent shopping for food in general.

· Flexibility, please Whereas six-, eight- or 12-meal minimums were the norm, meal assembly kitchens are now frequently offering three-meal minimums and, in some cases, are pricing entrees individually. That makes the enterprise more practical for singles and couples. Just about all the businesses will accept walk-in customers. But walk-ins may find the flank steak -- the most popular menu item this season, across the board -- long gone.

· Big-city blues There are no meal assembly kitchens in the District, and no plans for any in the works. What gives? Industry guru Vermeulen suggests that hard-to-find parking is a factor. To urbanize the concept, he says, pickup and delivery models must be fine-tuned.

Bonnie S. Benwick is an assistant editor. Candy Sagon was a Food staff writer from 1991 to 2006.