With the economy down and food prices up, many restaurants are in a bad spot. But gourmet delivery food has turned out to be a booming niche. Around Puget Sound, better restaurants and upscale caterers report delivery orders are up, as more executives stick to their desks and order in. Sure, they may be giving up the chance to unwind and network at their favorite eatery, but they still want the kind of fabulous fare they would have consumed if they lunched out.

On a recent weekday midmorning at a south Seattle business park, the loading bay at Gourmondo Catering is stuffed with neat brown cardboard boxes full of brie-andgreen- apple panini, curried lamb gyros, steak-and-spinach salads and more, with labels showing them bound for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, law firm Heller Ehrman, Starbucks and others.

The lunches go for $11-$12, several bucks above many competitors' box-lunch prices. But the higher price point hasn't scared off customers.

Gourmondo co-owner Alissa Leinonen Gallagher says sales in the first half of this year were up 30 percent. She expects sales for 2008 to top $3 million. Busy executives are responding to Gourmondo's pampering, which includes full-size bottles of its own dressings tucked in with each salad.

"Box lunch has really exploded, and companies are buying bigger volumes," Gallagher says.

Perhaps sensing this trend, growing Seattle- based delivery chain Organic to Go intro- program at the end of May. For $17.50, timepressed execs can tuck into such dishes as an organic tri-tip steak salad or a spinach wrap filled with organic prime rib, gorgonzola and bacon. Topped off with extras including fruit tarts, homemade pasta and a bottle of Honest Tea, the Executive Boxes sold nearly 200 units in the Seattle market in the first two weeks, says Organic to Go communications vice president Wendy Tenenberg.

At automotive software firm The Cobalt Group in downtown Seattle, marketing manager Amy Hatch reports managers like to face breakfast meetings with Organic to Go quiche platters. For lunch, the favorite is ordering pasta salads and sandwich platters from Il Fornaio. Another recent hit was blackened salmon Caesar salads from the Southlake Grill, ordered online through restaurant-takeout aggregator Restaurants to Go. Southlake offers the same menu as sister eateries Greenlake Bar & Grill and Eastlake Bar & Grill, says operating partner John Schmidt.

Restaurants to Go CEO Randy Bennett says his sales were 26 percent ahead of 2007 -- itself a boom year -- by early June. The company represents more than 50 Seattlearea restaurants online. Which restaurants are benefiting most from the eat-in executive trend? Bennett says California Pizza Kitchen is tops, followed by Italian restaurants, including Buca di Beppo, and Thai eateries.

Why do executives -- or their harried secretaries -- turn to ordering from restaurants instead of caterers? Besides enabling you to eat your favorite restaurant dish at your desk, the restaurants are better at handling those lastminute executive meetings, Bennett says.

"A lot of secretaries call and say, 'I know it's 10:30, but I need lunch for 45 at noon,'" he says. "We can do that."

House-made baked goods are the edge at Il Fornaio, says general manager Ross Lincoff. The Seattle unit of the fine-Italian chain recently introduced a new catering menu and marketing materials, the better to spread the word on their offerings. At Il Fornaio, lunch delivery is part of the overall catering business, which doubled in volume last year. Lincoff believes sales will double again in '08. Besides Cobalt Group, Lincoff says regular order-in clients include Gene Juarez spas, Merrill Lynch, Nordstrom, and law firm Bullivant Houser Bailey.