STEPHANIE DAILY’S childhood as an Indy food scion is one of the reasons she vowed she’d never open a restaurant. Her grandparents owned Dunham’s Prime Time, a Carmel prime rib and seafood hot spot for much of the 1970s and ’80s. “I loved the chaos of it and loved seeing my family making amazing things,” she says. “But owning a restaurant is for the brave. And I am not that brave.”
Instead, she went into digital marketing, hopping on the social media trend in its earliest days. She built a successful career in that arena, but says, “I was always the lasagna person in my family. If somebody had a baby, or passed away, that was my lot in life, to bring them a lasagna.” After one of her cousins noted her role, using the phrase “send a friend lasagna,” Daily says she realized “this might be a business.”
She launched her endeavor as a side hustle in 2019, but when the pandemic began in 2020, Send a Friend Lasagna blew sky-high. “Nobody wanted to leave the house,” Daily says, so someone ready and willing to bring a fresh (“Not frozen,” Daily repeatedly emphasizes) and made-from-scratch tray of comforting, filling lasagna was exactly what the world needed at that moment.
Though lockdown is a distant memory, Daily’s business continues to grow. At least six varieties of her signature dish are always available, as well as a gluten-free version and a multi-pan sampler, all available for delivery across Indianapolis. But don’t expect her to move away from delivery or into other types of dishes. “I like to keep things as simple as possible,” Daily says.”I believe in picking one thing, getting great at it, and staying on the path that’s working for you. Why make it more complicated for yourself?” sendafriendlasagna.com
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