Looking for a specific dish or new Delaware restaurant? Try this popular Facebook group

The owner of Newark-area Sonora Restaurant & Bar was chatting up her first customer of the day when she learned he was the one who created a popular Delaware restaurant Facebook group when the pandemic first hit.

At a time when restaurateurs were on their heels doing takeout only, Bill Salerno began the page to connect the state's eateries with hungry customers in a show of support.

When Melissa Ferraro realized Salerno was the person behind the page with a not-so-catchy name "Delaware Restaurants that offer takeout and delivery" (facebook.com/groups/3266453716715888), she ran from behind the bar and gave him a big hug before insisting to buy him a drink.

"The page boosted us more than anything I could have done on my own," says Ferraro, who moved her restaurant from old New Castle to Chesmar Plaza off East Chestnut Hill Road during the pandemic. "Small restaurants like ours probably got through it because they gave us a forum."

Not only did restaurants begin posting their menus and takeout specials once it appeared on March 16, 2020, but foodies began using it to ask for recommendations, whether they were looking for a specific dish or a certain type of restaurant.

Nearly 3½ years later, the page now boasts 15,000 members and is still a go-to resource not only for crowdsourcers looking for new spots or fantastic foods, but also eatery owners promoting themselves, whether it be specials, events or new menu items.

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The hungry single guy behind it

Salerno, a Delaware Justice of the Peace Court judicial clerk who lives in Newark, loves to eat out and rarely cooks at home. So when COVID-19 shut down dine-in service at his favorite restaurants and sparked the takeout/curbside pickup trend, he wanted to do anything he could to help them stay in business.

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"Basically, I was a single guy worrying about whether or not I was going to eat the next day," says Salerno, who teamed up with friend Joe Conway to moderate the page. It still has the same cover image that he hastily grabbed off the internet that night: a stock image of a Chinese food takeout container.

"I just shared it with my friends and it snowballed from there," he says.

Conway had more experience running Facebook pages as tour ambassador and partner with the now-defunct First State Brew Tours, a bus tour that brought beer fans on tours of craft breweries across upstate Delaware.

He quickly instituted rules that helped make the page a success. He made it a members-only group to mostly eliminate spam and bots and also disallowed negative reviews, making it more of a positive resources than other similar sites.

"The name is 'Restaurants that offer takeout and delivery,' not Yelp. If you don't have a positive review, act like an adult and take it up directly with the establishment," the rules state.

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The result is an upbeat town square for First State restaurant lovers, which is searchable. So if you want to find Tuesday specials or the best fried chicken sandwich and there's already a post about it, you can pull it up at any moment.

Members search for everything, even 'Barbie'-themed specials

In recent weeks, hungry readers have asked others for places that offer everything from beef Wellington and cannoli French toast to standout potato salad and even "Barbie"-themed specials.

Wilmington's Meaghan Serres posted a request last month asking for the best empanadas in the area, and it generated 25 comments and plenty of suggestions.

She was near the end of her pregnancy and about to embark on an "empanada quest" as a date night adventure with her husband before the arrival of their son.

They were able to visit two spots before his recent birth and give both a thumbs up, including Carmen's Kitchen (1644 W. Fourth St.), a Puerto Rican restaurant not far from her Little Italy home.

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The other was Doggy Style, a hot dog joint that also has Caribbean specialties at 3301 Lancaster Pike, located just outside of the city limits and tucked away in The Cannery shopping center.

"We would have passed it and would have never known it was there," she says. "I really like supporting local businesses. I found out about a lot of restaurants I didn't know about on the page, so it's a really good way to find new places to go."

Delaware Restaurant Association is among its fans

You can even count Karen Stauffer, senior director of communications and strategy for the Delaware Restaurant Association, as a fan.

She's been a member since the beginning. And even though it's her job to represent the estimated 19,000 eating and drinking places across Delaware, she says she still learns about new spots from members who tap into the page's hive mind.

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The group came at just the right time and still helps the industry rebound after a once-in-a-lifetime challenge.

"It just exploded when they launched and it made a big impact," Stauffer says, adding she's somewhat surprised that its popularity has continued post-pandemic. "But it should stay around as a place for people who love restaurants and need information."

Her staycation just got a lot yummier

Milltown's Stephanie Gillis discovered the page at the beginning stages of the pandemic, looking for restaurants doing takeout. She's still a user, recently asking for recommendations for local restaurants during her weeklong "staycation," writing, "I'm going to eat through my week. ... No chains."

Her post received 66 comments and she is now on her own quest for new spots for lunch and dinner while off from work.

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She's already used the site before, going to Wilmington's Kozy Korner for the first time after reading posts about the 101-year-old Union Street institution best known for its breakfasts.

"I've lived in Delaware my whole life and had never eaten there," she says.

For Salerno and Conway, a home brewer who lives in Bear and works as a technical writer for his day job, they still sit back and marvel at what they have created, even if they didn't always know how impactful it was.

After Ferraro gave Salerno a hug at Sonora, she explained to him how important the page was for her business. She could post on her own Facebook page and reach out to her own followers, but his group allowed her to reach thousands of new potential customers at a time when every new patron counted more than ever.

Ferraro says: "He had no idea about how the restaurant owners felt. It was huge."

Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and Twitter (@ryancormier).

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Facebook group finds Delaware restaurants that offer takeout, delivery