Chef delivers her famous breakfast sandwiches in a bucket from her fire escape

Chef Cara Haltiwanger has found a clever way to continue selling her famous breakfast sandwiches during the COVID-19 crisis. She is using a pulley system from her fire escape in Hollywood, CA to deliver them to customers.

About four years ago, this bartender-turned-chef started setting up pop-up restaurants around Los Angeles, CA. Calabama is the name of her pop-up restaurant and hot sauce. Her breakfast sandwich quickly grew a following.

"The ingredients are simple. It's not reinventing the wheel. It's bacon, egg, cheese, grilled onions, avocado, and the sauce that I make on the side makes it special, but it's really the way that I cook it. It's cooked on cast iron grill, it's hot. Every bite is like a cohesive bite of all the things. But I think it's the sauce that sets it apart," said Haltiwanger.

But with the "Safer at Home" order, she isn't able bring those satisfying flavors to her loyal customers. Instead, they're going to her.

"To be honest, it was just kind of like a harebrained idea, I wasn't sure was going to work," said Haltiwanger.

Every Thursday, she posts a link in her Instagram bio. When you click the link, you buy a sandwich and sign up for a time slot on Sunday to pick it up. And when you get there, she lowers down your order from her fire escape.

She said she sells out every weekend - about 50 sandwiches in just three hours.

However, Haltiwanger said this business model is only temporary: "For now, it's about making some money to pay my rent because I can't do my regular work. And it's making people smile and that's just giving me life."