Treating yourself to takeout right now is a great way to support local business and get a delicious meal while you're at it. For one local family, there was an extra surprise added to their takeout order: a cameo from Patrick Chung.
As an investor in Parker's Pub in Wrentham, Chung is close with the owners and staff, and when he was picking up his own to-go meal last week, he ended up pulling off a surprise for a family of local Patriots fans. After a mistake in an order, Chung was asked to personally deliver the takeout meal and a gift card to the customers.
His reaction: why not?
"What's going on right now, it's crazy. People are in their houses depressed, and things like that will help. For the restaurant, it'll help also, like 'I didn't know Parker's Pub had Patrick Chung going out and delivering food,'" he said. "I thought it'd be a nice little gesture, just to put some light in people's lives a little bit because there's a lot going on and people need to smile."
When Chung arrived at the customer's house to drop off the food, the woman who answered the door didn't recognize him, but her husband and kids are big Patriots fans and saw a video Chung posted on his Instagram later that day. Since Chung missed saying hello to the rest of the family, he went back and snapped a picture.
"I was like I'll just go back there and give them a picture, just kind of surprise them, give her a hard time," he said. "It was cool. They were laughing about it."
In addition to his involvement with Parker's Pub, Chung is an investor in Boston's Rochambeau, and as an avid cooker himself, surrounding himself with people in the food industry has been a resource and a motivator to try new things in the kitchen.
"I like to cook, so I cook all day. I just throw some things together," Chung said. "I just kind of waste time because we have nothing but time right now ... It's good to get to know a bunch of other chefs because I like to cook, but I'm no chef. I can learn a lot of things from them."
Ultimately, Chung said his surprise side hustle as a delivery man was no big deal. He is just a regular guy who wants to brighten people's days when he has the chance, and that's what matters most at the end of the day.
"When I pass away, I want people to say, 'Damn, man, that was a cool dude,' not he played football and he was good at football," Chung said. "I'm just a regular guy that bleeds red. I just happen to be blessed with a talent. That's all it is. At the end of the day, we're all human, and everyone needs a laugh."
