Sam Curry,
currysam@grinnell.edu

Grinnell students will still have a variety of dating sites to help them find love and companionship, but the recent retirement of Golden Dick, the Tinder of late-night omelet and breakfast food delivery, will leave them searching for a tasty snack to share with these newly made friends. The closing of Golden Dick marks the end of the first and last widely known student food delivery service on campus. Founders Reggie Sackey-Addo and Jack Muskopf, both ’16, have decided to end their small business venture and food service institution, founded in 2015, in order to enjoy their last weeks of college and the transition to the post-graduate world. Their plans were announced via Facebook on April 20, and they noted online that their final products had sold out within half an hour.

However, closing the business down does not mean that they didn’t have fun running it — fun that they say may possibly exceed future job opportunities.

“I think I’ll probably enjoy doing Golden Dick more than most of the jobs I’m applying for, because we run it however we want to run it,” Muskopf said.

Running Golden Dick allowed Muskopf and Sackey-Addo the chance to learn the ropes of running a small independent business. For example, they learned to change marketing strategies when the opportunity presents itself.

“We were originally thinking mornings [for] hangovers,” Muskopf said.

“But nobody ordered it,” Sackey-Addo added.

Although it took them only a few weeks to take off, Golden Dick’s first night did not go as planned. The two threw a party to mark the beginning of the operation, but their cooking left a lot to be desired.

“We made pancakes, but made them at really high heat … we went around trying to serve the people who came to the party … but they weren’t great. … I was thinking we weren’t going to be able to continue because of how bad we had been doing,” Sackey-Addo recalled.

“That was very discouraging,” Muskopf said.

However, it was only uphill from there. In the slight intermission when Muskopf and Sackey-Addo both went abroad during their third years, Keanan Gleason ’18, Kevin Anderson ’18 and Sam Sokolsky ’17 picked up the frying pan to continue the legacy. According to Gleason, working for Golden Dick was both a thrill and source of constant stress, as they had to compete with the rise of Yik Yak and competitors such as Filla-Dilla, a quesadilla delivery service.

“[It was] a phenomenon on campus, especially as it became more controversial with the rise … [of] our competitor, and rumors about how the school might shut us down, and how we somehow got caught up in the Yik Yak drama. All of that was so surreal in the moment,” Gleason said.

Although the seasons have changed, and the light touch of the spring wind is carrying Muskopf and Sackey-Addo to greener pastures, everyone involved in the operation said that they are sad to see it go.

“I think it’s such a great thing, and I wish somebody would take it over and keep it going. … I’m really sad, it’s been a really sad year for Golden Dick,” Gleason said.

Muskopf felt the same way, and noted that Golden Dick has been a formative part of his time at Grinnell.

“I’m heartbroken, honestly. I have really fond memories of it, [and] it was definitely a big part of my college experience overall,” Muskopf said.