Food delivery is a major part of NYC apartment dwelling life, but sometimes the grub-for-cash exchange can seem so wham-bam-here's-your-receipt-ma'am.
Wouldn't it be nice if every now and then, your delivery guy belted out a song from Spamalot...or maybe a side of Beijing opera with your moo shu shrimp?
Yang Yu Bao (filmed above) takes the aria route as he delivers take-out for China Fun's Upper West Side location.
So are "delivery enhancements" the new frontier in NYC take-out?
We checked in with Agua Dulce, the hopping pan-Latin restaurant in Hell's Kitchen (increasingly known as "HellSea," owing to the area's burgeoning Chelsea demographic).
"I don't see who would want to hear opera or show tunes while their food is getting cold in front of them," observes general manager Frank Rossi.
For Agua Dulce, effective enhancements mean throwing in a free dessert for every order over $40, he says. And once a customer buys a cumulative total of $500 worth of take-out, he or she gets a coupon for free drinks and food consumed at the restaurant.
China Fun's delivery diva agrees most New Yorkers probably prefer their sesame noodles straight up.
"I don't think most customers would know what I was doing and like it," says Yang in a Q&A on the China Fun site. "But of course I would--if requested."
Meanwhile, a restaurant spokesperson notes, "Itzhak Perlman is a regular China Fun customer. It would be funny if he ordered in and got the Beijing Opera Guy as his delivery man."
