Although the Huffington Post reported Syracuse University students ordered more late-night food from GrubHub than any other campus in the country, the go-to food site might now be facing new competition. 

The newly-launched website HungryCuse.com was created by Bob Sheehan, along with his son Devin and his daughter Siera. The family owns the company Hungry College Menus.

The Sheehan’s have created similar websites for other campuses, such as HungryRhody.com for University of Rhode Island and HungryHuskies.com for University of Connecticut. The family’s goal for HungryCuse.com create a food ordering site that better caters to the local market.

“I think those sites do a great job of when you bounce from place to place, but I don’t think they do the best job in their own particular local markets,” said Devin Sheehan. “There is no focus there. So really, it comes from trying to do a better job, a better branding in each specific market we come in contact with.”

This past week, the Sheehans promoted the website with “Eat Cheap Week,” where they collaborated with restaurants to give special discounts for people who use HungryCuse.com.

Restaurants listed on their website include Cal-Zonies, Acropolis and Alto Cinco.

“The advantage is it promotes the site and the restaurants on the site,” Devin Sheehan said.

Bob Sheehan said his family has always wanted to start a website specifically for SU. The family lived in Binghamton, a city about an hour south of Syracuse, for 27 years before moving to Rhode Island.

“We did live in Binghamton for the longest time,” he said. “The kids grew up in Binghamton. We’re big Syracuse fans.”

The Sheehan family also stressed that interactions with students and local businesses are important, especially on social media platforms. Their main social media platform is Twitter, because it’s easier to find students constantly that way, said Siera Sheehan, HungryCuse.com’s social media marketer.

For instance, a female SU student retweeted HungryCuse.com, which resulted in a free pizza brought to her residence hall, Siera Sheehan said.

She said that the website would continue deals like this in the future.

Because the website was launched recently, Siera Sheehan said they have not received as much attention as they would like. As of Tuesday night, HungryCuse.com has 353 followers on Twitter and 77 likes on Facebook.

“I feel like I’ve heard of it, but I wouldn’t be able to tell you more about it,” said Alejandra Charrabe, a sophomore architecture major.

Charrabe said that, last year she and her floormates would use GrubHub about seven times a week. But if HungryCuse.com had coupons and was faster, Charrabe said, she would use the website instead of GrubHub.

Drew Perdue, an undecided freshman on the pre-law track in the College of Arts and Sciences, used HungryCuse.com to order food when the dining hall was closed, after his roommate told him about the website.

“It was really convenient,” he said. “I ordered from there the other night, so I just go on and they have my order saved and all that, so I just kind of plug in what I want, and it just comes to the dorm.”

Published on September 5, 2013 at 12:26 am

Contact Ellen: ekmeyers@syr.edu | @ellenkmeyers