Ghost kitchen

A ghost kitchen (also known as a delivery-only restaurant, virtual kitchen, shadow kitchen, commissary kitchen or dark kitchen) is a professional food preparation and cooking facility set up for the preparation of delivery-only meals. However, a ghost kitchen differs from a virtual restaurant in that a ghost kitchen is not necessarily a restaurant brand in itself and may contain kitchen space and facilities for more than one restaurant brand.[1][2]

A ghost kitchen contains the kitchen equipment and facilities needed for the preparation of restaurant meals but has no dining area for walk-in customers.[3][4] Ghost kitchens have emerged as a business model in response to the rapid growth in consumer demand for restaurant delivery meals,[3] and the lower costs incurred by using kitchen facilities located outside of high-rent, high-foot-trafficked urban locations.[5][6] Using a ghost kitchen allows established restaurants with dining-in service to expand their delivery operations without adding stress to the existing kitchen, frees up parking taken by the delivery vehicles, and allows them to enter new neighborhoods at lower cost.[7]

An individual can set up a ghost kitchen to start their own brand, which is identified with their own online restaurant.[8][9] One might choose to start up a ghost kitchen because setup costs are lower, and the time taken is shorter, than for a kitchen that also serves a walk-in restaurant. It might take only 3 or 4 weeks.[10][11]

Due to the money saved by not having a dining room and not hiring waitstaff, ghost restaurants have significantly lower overhead (even taking into account the expense of operating a delivery service or the fees charged by third party delivery companies like Grubhub and Caviar) and thus higher profit margins.[12]

Without a brick-and-mortar dining location to renovate, front-of-house staff, and paper menus to reprint, companies can also try out new brands and cuisines with less effort and expense.[13][14]

See also

References
  1. Albrecht, Chris (August 17, 2018). "A Quick Tour of Kitchen United's Virtual Kitchen Operation". thespoon.tech. The Spoon. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  2. Garlick, Hattie. "Dark kitchens: is this the future of takeaway?". Financial Times. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  3. Madhumita, Murgia (5 April 2017). "Deliveroo expands with standalone takeaway kitchens". Financial Times. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  4. Bromwich, Jonah Engel (2019-12-24). "Farm to Table? More Like Ghost Kitchen to Sofa". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-27.
  5. Sherred, Kristine (January 24, 2019). "Why 'ghost' restaurants are changing the delivery game". Restaurantdive.com. Industry Dive. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  6. "Inside a New York City 'ghost kitchen,' where 6 delivery-only restaurants share fridges, dishwashers, and counter space". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-02-17.
  7. Ruggless, Ron (March 5, 2019). "Kitchen United COO talks broad horizon for off-premise". NRN.com. Nation's Restaurant News. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  8. "The Rise Of The Dark Kitchen". Disruption Hub. 2018-06-05. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  9. Marston, Jennifer (2019-03-22). "Virtual Kitchen Network Keatz Raises €12M for Its Food-First Delivery Concept". The Spoon. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  10. Chamlee, Virginia (2016-09-30). "Are Virtual Restaurants Dining's Next Hot Trend?". Eater. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  11. "Why Start a Dark Kitchen?". Online food ordering connected with your restaurant | Deliverect. 2019-03-08. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  12. Chamlee, Virginia (September 30, 2016). "Are Virtual Restaurants Dining's Next Hot Trend?". Eater.
  13. Eisenpress, Cara (February 21, 2016). "Behold 'ghost restaurants': Order online, but don't try to show up for dinner". Crain's.
  14. Ungerleider, Neal (January 20, 2017). "Hold The Storefront: How Delivery-Only "Ghost" Restaurants Are Changing Takeout". Fast Company.
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