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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Jennifer Marston

Just Salad’s Latest Menu Innovation: Adding Your Carbon Footprint to Your Meal

One of our favorite topics here at The Spoon right now is the reinvention of the restaurant menu. Social distancing and new guidelines around restaurant reopenings are forcing businesses to forgo the standard reusable menu and adopt digital versions customers can view on mobile devices. It’s a big switch and not without its operational headaches. But it also opens up a lot of doors in terms of the kind of information that could eventually be available on the restaurant menu. 

For example, the carbon footprint of your lunch.

Fast-casual chain Just Salad announced today it will now label all of its menu items with a corresponding carbon footprint. The score for each menu item is calculated in partnership with a team at the NYU Stern School of Business, and will reflect “the total estimated greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of ingredients in each menu item,” according to a press release from Just Salad.

These carbon footprints will first rollout on the chain’s website. Since digital menus are becoming the norm, it’s unclear if those changes will make it to physical menus, or indeed if those will even be in stores in the future. An exact date for the carbon footprint info on online menus has not yet been set.

Just Salad’s online menu is already fairly robust in terms of the nutritional information it provides customers about their meals. Hovering over an item pulls up the same nutrition facts one might read on the label of a box in the grocery store, and, for build-your-own salads and wraps, updates itself based on each ingredient you add to the mix. 

Since the carbon footprint scores for Just Salad’s menu items aren’t yet live, we don’t quite know what they’ll look like in digital format. I imagine they’ll be merged with the ingredients interface in some way so that a customer can view the nutritional and sustainability info of their meal in a single place. And while there was no mention of it in the press release, one imagines food traceability information could also eventually make its way into this new format. 

The carbon scores are a small step in menu development, but very telling in how this mandatory push to digital menus could welcome a new era of transparency when it comes to knowing where our food comes from and how our eating impacts the planet. In the ongoing quest for silver linings to come out of the current restaurant industry upheaval, this is definitely one of them.   

Allset’s Tech Gives New Meaning to the Concept of Quick Service in the Restaurant

Not so long ago, the idea of ordering your food before you got the restaurant then sitting down in the establishment’s dining room to eat it felt unnecessary. Why go to a restaurant dining room at all if you’re in that big of a hurry? Why not hit the quick-service chain down the road if you’re that badly in need of quick service?

Flash-forward to now, and being able to order ahead is becoming a must-have for restaurants, in or out of the dining room.

This is what Allset, a company based out of San Francisco, wants to address. In addition to currently offering a bundle of contactless features restaurants can use during this current restaurant industry upheaval, the company also allows customers to order food ahead of time for any type order, whether they’re eating in the dining room or taking it to go.

More than ever, restaurants are finding they need to offer high-tech order-ahead features for both in-house and off-premises meals, and that both speed and minimized human-to-human interactions are important parts of that process. Some companies — third-party delivery services and a slew of restaurant-tech products — offer these things for pickup and delivery orders, but they typically come at a high cost and don’t include any solution for the actual dining room.

Allset doesn’t have any significant competitors when it comes to offering a package that addresses every restaurant experience, which is probably a big reason demand for the service is up. Over the phone this week, CEO Stas Matviyenko said the company has been busier than ever as restaurants scramble for solutions to help them navigate the new normal. “[The pandemic has] changed the way people dine, the way people want to dine. The way restaurants have to serve people [has] changed dramatically.”

Allset, which was founded in 2015 by Matviyenko and Anna Polishchuk, started as a service for dine-in restaurant experiences. Users could choose a restaurant via the Allset app, order and pay for their meal ahead of time, and have their meals ready within about five minutes of their being seated at the restaurant. The company added a takeout component to the business in 2019, a fortuitous move considering the entire industry went off-premises a few months ago. 

As Matviyenko explained to me, Allset was actually working with a contactless pickup solution before the pandemic hit. Seeing inefficiencies in the usual pickup order process — flagging a staff person down to notify them of your arrival, waiting around for the order — the company started offering a way for restaurants to streamline that process. The “ideal” experience, he said, would be for a customer to order and pay for their meal, find their food in a designated pickup area, and be able to grab it and go without ever interacting with staff. Allset actually raised $8.25 million to further develop this concept at the end of March, just as dining rooms were shutting down.

But just because the industry is leaning heavily on off-premises nowadays doesn’t mean Allset is forgetting about the dining room. Matviyenko suggests that a technology like theirs is actually more important nowadays. Restaurants — which have always operated off thin margins — now have to contend with lower sales because of reduced capacity requirements in their newly reopened dining rooms. They will want to turn tables faster in order to get more transactions on a day-in, day-out basis, and one way to do that is to cut down the time a customer has to wait between sitting down and actually getting their food. As well, there are people who would just prefer to grab a quick bite for lunch without eating it from a takeout box, and this is an area Allset has always served. 

It doesn’t hurt that the restaurant menu format is also changing, thanks to reopening guidelines that suggest businesses use digital menus. Baking pre-order into that digital format seems just mere steps away, rather than the giant leap it would have been pre-pandemic.

Currently, Allset is waiving all commission fees for restaurants, and the app is free for customers to use. Matviyenko said since the COVID-19 crisis began, they’ve been getting much more interest from restaurants large and small. Moving forward, he says he expects to see the company grow much faster than before.

Mercato Partners Launches a $90M Fund for New Restaurant Concepts

Investment firm Mercato Partners announced today the launch of its inaugural food- and beverage-focused fund. Called Savory, the $90 million fund will invest in “compelling, up-and-coming restaurant concepts,” according to a press release sent to The Spoon.

Specifically, the fund will focus on “emerging multi-unit concepts,” according to the announcement, and the Savory website says the fund is investing in restaurant operators with 2–20 units to help them with further growth.

That’s no small feat nowadays, with the restaurant industry still flailing from statewide dining room closures brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even with reopening guidelines in place and many businesses operating dining rooms again, no one is 100 percent sure how to proceed forward or, for that matter, keep growing. Even huge brands are shuttering locations, laying off staff, and filing bankruptcy. Smaller restaurant chains are even worse off.

Savory noted as much in today’s release, also adding that the unprecedented changes brought on by the pandemic will close many restaurants for good but also open up opportunities for “brands that are fresh, nimble, and well-funded to prosper in the food and beverage landscape for years to come.” No doubt all of these challenges are baked into the various strategies Savory will work on with its portfolio restaurants.

Three concepts so far are in that portfolio: Mo’Bettahs, R&R BBQ and Swig. Savory said in the release it can profitably grow concepts at a rate “exceeding 40% year-over-year” and that it has continued to do so even during the current crisis. 

The operations team behind the fund is made up of over 50 restaurant industry vets and have expertise in everything from real estate development to supply chain logistics, facilities management, and event management. Tech isn’t specifically mentioned, though the bulk of the operations team comes from the Four Foods Group, a restaurant operator whose past portfolio brands include Little Caesars. Little Caesars has been among the brands to leverage tech to enable more off-premises orders. Kneaders, also in the portfolio, has also doubled down on off-premises orders and the tech that goes along with that during the pandemic. 

The fund was created by Mercato Partners founder Greg Warnock partnered and restaurant industry veteran Andrew K. Smith, who also started Four Foods Group.

In Sweden, Plant-based Meat Is Getting a Bit Fishy

It’s no secret the alternative-protein market is skyrocketing in terms of both growth and new innovations. Already today we’ve written about Motif Foodworks’ efforts to make better fat for plant-based burgers and Japanese startup DAIZ’s recent $6 million funding round. 

And here’s another one to watch: a Swedish startup called Hooked, which is developing the “world’s first” plant-based shredded salmon. Food Navigator ran a profile of the company today, detailing how the company wants to address the unsustainable nature of the seafood industry and why they chose shredded salmon and tuna as their first plant-based products. 

Demand for seafood is growing — and harming the health of the planet at the same time, Hooked founders Emil Wasteson and Tom Johanson told Food Navigator. 

“By consuming Hooked’s products, consumers can enjoy seafood without any of these negative consequences. We are meeting the rapidly increased seafood demand with healthy and tasty alternatives with a production that can scale without harming the planet.”

Those products include plant-based shredded salmon and tuna, which are made from soya protein isolate and meant to be used in pastas, pizzas, wraps, and more.

‘We want to mimc the real nutritional value of [conventional seafood]. Most of the plant-based meat the you see on the market…may have good texture and taste, but the nutrition is not there,” said Peter Liu, Hooked’s CTO.

Hooked is focusing on European markets to start, though they may find a greater demand for their seafood products if the salmon and tuna do indeed deliver on taste, nutrition, texture, and price point.

If 2019 was the year alternative protein infiltrated the mainstream, 2020 is shaping up to be the year companies improve these products, both in terms of taste and variety.

DAIZ Raised $6M to Become ‘The Fourth Meat’

Japanese plant-based meat startup DAIZ raised a $6 million Series A round in the second half of May. According to a DAIZ press release, the round included participation from the Fisheries Growth Industrialization Support Organization fund and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital. The $6 million figure marks DAIZ’s total funding to date.

While the actual funding was announced a couple weeks ago, it’s worth noting because of DAIZ’s ambitions and how the company plans to take on big-name players in the plant-based space with its so-called “miracle chips,” which are raw plant-based meat components created using DAIZ’s patented Ochiai High Pressure Method technology.

According to the press release, this germination method brings out the umami flavor of soybeans and lessens the unpleasant aftertaste that are found in a lot of vegan meat offerings right now. The soybeans are then put in an extruder, where molding technologies recreate the texture of actual meat.

With the new funds, DAIZ says it will build out one of the largest factories for plant-based meat in Japan in 2021. They also plan to raise Series B funds at some point in 2020. Initially, the company will focus on selling to major food manufacturers as well as distribution companies, and eventually wants to expand globally. 

Notably, DAIZ is aiming to become what it calls “the fourth meat” alongside chicken, beef, and pork. In other words, they have no plans to replace the real thing. Rather it aims to have plant-based meat co-exist on the table with animal-based meat. Many plant-based meat companies have similar goals that target the “flexitarian,” which means when DAIZ finally does expand internationally, it will be competing with the likes of Impossible, Beyond, Néstle, and a growing number of others in the space. 

What’s Next for Vertical Farming? Proprietary Strawberries and Other Non-Leafy Produce

Agtech investment firm AgFunder announced this week that it has added agtech company SinGrow to its investment portfolio for an undisclosed sum. AgFunder founding partner Michael Dean wrote in a post that SinGrow “isn’t just looking to be another vertical farmer selling leafy greens.” Instead, the company uses a combination of plant biology, hydroponic vertical farming, and other technologies to grow what it hopes will be a range of produce types, starting with its own novel varieties of strawberries. 

As Dean lays out in his post, SinGrow has developed a vertical farming solution that addresses every stage of a plant’s agricultural journey, from breeding to harvesting. (Most vertical farm solutions do not address plant breeding.) It breeds strawberry varieties adapted to humid weather, and has two proprietary strawberry cultivators specifically developed for Singapore’s tropical climate. Both of those things mean SinGrow’s system uses less energy because it needs less air conditioning pumped in to cool the facility and reach the ideal growing temperature for the strawberries.

The company also grows the plants on a strawberry-specific rack it has developed, where the plants grow outward instead of upward. That in turn allows a harvesting robot to to drive alongside the rack and simply snip the strawberries off rather than pick them. 

Why strawberries? Well, first, they’ve been a hobby of SinGrow cofounder Bao Shengjie, who has been cross-breeding strawberry seeds since 2016. That particular fruit was of interest to the founders because it’s difficult to actually get in Singapore, at least at an affordable price point. SinGrow lists expense, poor taste, and an unstable supply chain as reasons strawberries are difficult for the average consumer to buy in that region.

The company has this neat explainer video that delves more into the specifics on how it grows its strawberries.

Singapore also relies on imports for about 90 percent of its foods, hence the Singaporean government’s 30x30 initiative launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: Singapore should have 30 percent of its foods produced domestically by 2030. 

On that note, SinGrow hopes to soon move beyond strawberries to grow grapes, saffron, and other crops, according to Dean’s post.

A (very small) handful of companies are also exploring what else they can grow beyond the leafy green. UK-based Phytoponics is trialing a system for plants like cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. And a while back, San Francisco startup Plenty said it wanted to grow “exotic” produce on its farm Tigris. To date, though, the company’s website still offers only leafy green varieties.

If a company like SinGrow can show others how to use biology, technology, and farming to grow a greater assortment of produce items, it could change vertical farming’s role in our system from an add-on method to a primary source for getting certain fruits and vegetables. It’s early days yet, but the technology looks to be moving in that direction. 

Third-Party Delivery Suspends Services to Comply With Curfews

Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Nashville, Philly, Atlanta . . . the list of cities under curfew goes on, and if you live in one of those places and were counting on some food delivery for your supper, you’ll have to look elsewhere. DoorDash recently told The Verge it is “pausing” operations to comply with those local curfew orders. 

From The Verge:

DoorDash, which has seen an increase in orders as restaurants have been forced to suspend eat-in dining during the pandemic, told The Verge it is pausing operations to abide by curfews. Its spokesperson did not provide details about which cities were affected as of Monday.

Uber has also suspended service in some cities, which extends to its Eats food delivery business. An Uber spokesperson told Business Insider that customers should use the app to learn more about these suspensions, and that they should use Uber/Uber Eats “for emergency purposes only during this time.”

Postmates, which is the biggest service in Los Angeles, is also abiding by local curfews. Grubhub said it is “pausing operations when needed.”

Delivery companies aren’t being specific about which cities have suspended which services. Even in places where an order goes through, they are then cancelling orders. For ones that actually go through, some drivers are having trouble actually getting the food to customers:

How long these suspensions and changes to service last will, most likely depend on when the unrest subsides. To find out if food delivery is a realistic prospect in your city, best to check for updates directly in these services’ apps.

Revention Rebrands as HungerRush, Launches Off-Premises Enhancements

Restaurant tech company Revention has rebranded as HungerRush and announced a new set of features aimed at helping restaurants fulfill off-premises orders. According to a tip sent to The Spoon, new products include contactless delivery capabilities, driver tracking, and integration with third-party delivery services.

HungerRush’s focus on digital ordering and off-premises orders isn’t completely new. As Revention, the restaurant management platform already included integration with some delivery companies, mobile and online ordering, and the ability to manage customer loyalty programs. 

The new features are mostly enhancements to existing products. HungerRush Drive lets restaurant operators track drivers as they deliver orders, which is becoming a more common practice nowadays. There is also messaging system for curbside pickup orders, where customers can notify the restaurant when they arrive, as well as the addition of more integrations with third-party delivery services, including Postmates, Grubhub, and “hundreds more,” according to today’s press release.

HungerRush is rebranding and releasing these features at at time when most restaurants continue to focus on improving their digital ordering as well as the process for takeout and delivery. The pandemic forced many restaurants into the off-premises world, and though dining rooms have reopened in a lot of states, they’ve done so with reduced capacity, not to mention customer base rather wary of going out to eat. It’s pretty much assumed at this point that restaurants must continue building to-go strategies to make up for lost revenue and keep the lights on.

Many a tech company promises to help in that area. Toast, Presto, CardFree, Sevenrooms, and a boatload of others have all announced new features or product enhancements that emphasize digital ordering and contactless delivery/pickup.

How well they deliver on these promises is what will determine who has value and who’s expendable when it comes to choosing a restaurant tech platform. For example, having a system for customers to message the restaurant when they arrive for their curbside order is smart. But geofencing tech, which automatically alerts the restaurant when a customer arrives, is even more efficient. 

HungerRush is old guard when it comes to restaurant tech companies, having been founded in 2003. (It’s also very popular with pizza chains, for some reason.) Time will tell if these new enhancements to its platform will be enough to compete with the dozens of other offerings vying for dominance as the restaurant industry reinvents itself. 

Court Rules That Nestlé’s ‘Incredible’ Burger Name Infringes on Impossible

A European court ruled that Néstle must change the name of its Incredible burger because it infringes on Impossible’s trademarks, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

For now, the ruling only applies to European countries. Swiss CPG giant Néstle will change the name of its patty to Sensational Burger, which unfortunately doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as easily but also won’t potentially confuse customers — something the court cited in its ruling. 

According to the WSJ, Impossible claimed Nestlé was “trying to impede” its entry into the European market by using a similar name for its product.

A spokesperson for Néstle said that they believe “anyone should be able to use descriptive terms such as ‘incredible’ to explain the qualities of a product.” The company is planning to appeal the decision.

Néstle launched its Incredible meatless patty last year under its Garden Gourmet brand. The burger is made of soy and wheat protein and meat to compete with the new wave of plant-based meat companies, namely Beyond and Impossible. As of right now, Nestlé’s patty sells in 15 European countries as well as Australia, and in 2019 also landed in McDonald’s stores in Israel.

Impossible doesn’t actually sell its products in Europe yet. It filed with the EU in 2019 for regulatory approval. A spokesperson for the company last year told The Spoon that Impossible plans to “sell plant-based meat in every single region of the world.” That said, one of the hangups with Impossible getting its products in Europe is the company’s use of soy hemoglobin in its products, which is the molecule that gives the patties their “bleeding” flavor and appearance. As Catherine Lamb noted last year:

While technically heme isn’t genetically modified — it’s the output of genetically modified yeast — it could still throw up some red flags for the European Food Safety Authority.

Plant-based meat’s other major player, Beyond Meat, announced a new manufacturing facility in The Netherlands last year, and more recently said it would increase availability and speed for getting its products around Europe and the Middle East.

All of which is to say, the fight over Nestlés naming underscores how competitive the plant-based meat market has gotten recently. Even if Nestlé successfully appeals the court’s decision, the company has its work cut out in terms of carving out a dominant spot in the European alt-protein market.

 

GrowSquares Will Personalize Your Garden With Data Science, Microbiology, Feathers

“High-tech gardening” usually brings to mind the automated indoor vertical farming devices everyone from startups to major appliance makers are pushing these days. Those are great for time-strapped folks or those who tend to just kill plants. But for people who want to keep their hands in the soil, technology in the smart garden will need to play a different role — that of assisting the human rather than automating their entire process.

NYC-based GrowSquares has found a way to leave the human element in the gardening process while still taking advantage of tech to improve the grow process. 

“We’re the opposite of automated gardening,” GrowSquares CEO Zachary Witman said over the phone last week.

The company uses data science (advanced LIDAR and location data) as well as microbiology to determine the best plants for a specific user’s space as well as the most optimal elements to include in the soil. An accompanying app then helps the user monitor the plants, though watering and feeding them are still manual tasks.

“We look at sun, wind, taxonomy of the soil. We capture those things and then using a lot of data science we create a microenvironmental profile and say, ‘Based upon this, the attributes of your space, (time of year, etc.) these are the plants that will grow best,'” Witman explained.

Users see a scoring system where plants are rated Optimal, Good, Fair, and Poor based on location data. For example, in Nashville, TN, Basil grown at my address gets a score of 93 for this time of year, which means it’s an optimal plant for growing right now. Spinach, on the other hand, just scores 51, making it a bad fit for my backyard at the moment.

The system can actually get even more granular in terms of a users’s location than just their city. Using a customer’s geo-coordinates, the company then uses data science and machine learning models to determine which plants are best for that particular user’s garden. The recommendations may or may not be the same as the person two doors down.

“We break down each individual client’s soil. Fidelity of our data showcases the difference between you and your neighbor.”

Once a user has purchased the right plants, GrowSquares sends the necessary seeds along with optimal spacing and depth and a soil formulation for your individual garden. That might include green sand, coconut husks, feather, alfalfa, or other elements the company uses to formulate soil. Meanwhile, the app also sends notifications for when it’s time to water the plants and time to harvest them.

The actual squares in which the plants grow are made of palm leaf that naturally decomposes over time. Since it’s a modular system, users can add more squares over time, and the squares can be configured to fit different environments, balconies, backyards, and rooftops among them. Since the squares decompose, they actually replenish the soil. 

Like other consumer-grade smart garden companies, GrowSquares has seen an uptick in sales thanks to the pandemic. Witman told me the company started out servicing just three cities, Boston, New York City, and Los Angeles. Because of COVID-19, demand spiked and GrowSquares went national — a decision that’s temporary stressed the supply chain. Right now, new users must reserve their GrowSquares and wait, though Witman told me it would not be too long before things return to normal. 

He was also cautious to attribute too much of the product’s popularity to the pandemic. “I think everybody has their own reason for why they want to garden,” he said. The pandemic is one, but so is a desire to eat locally or the wish to avoid industrial-scale farming companies. And for some, going out to the balcony or backyard to grab some herbs is just easier than ordering them via Whole Foods or going to the store.

In Through the Outdoors? Restaurants Hit the Pavement as They Reopen

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Not so long ago, outdoor space at a restaurant was just a nice-to-have feature some restaurants could afford to offer. Surprise surprise (not), the pandemic is changing that. With new guidelines and requirements around safety and social distancing, more restaurant experiences are moving outdoors. And it’s not just for dine-in customers, either.

This week, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced the Shared Spaces Program, which in part allows restaurants to use public space like sidewalks, whole or partial streets, and parks to fulfill restaurant pickup orders. Restaurants can apply for a permit for free, and once the city approves dine-in service for outdoor space, those areas can be used to seat customers as well.

San Francisco isn’t alone. San Jose this month approved its “al fresco plan” that will allow restaurants to use some public spaces to fulfill takeout orders and eventually hold more seating. In Rotterdam, The Netherlands, restaurants will be allowed to convert parking spaces in front of their buildings to do the same.

While these measures could help restaurants eventually boost dine-in traffic once they reopen, at present, they may actually help restaurants run smoother to-go operations. Trying to run an ad hoc takeout business is challenging for many restaurants that have previously only operated under a dine-in model. In some cases, selling to-go orders has caused outright mayhem as crowds of people gather to wait for their to-go orders and staff dart around trying to determine which meal belongs to which angry customer.

Make no mistake: there will be operational challenges using public spaces, too. In fact if it’s not managed correctly, the whole thing could become its own social-distancing disaster. Viewed through a more optimistic lens, it could provide more space for customers and delivery drivers waiting to retrieve their orders. 

And you know what would really enhance the public spaces restaurant experience? Some technology. Earlier this week, I spoke with two companies, hardware manufacturer Elo and software startup Clicksys, about a new self-service kiosk they’re trialing at a restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden. 

In summary, the idea is to have a kiosk installed into the front wall or window of a restaurant, much like a bank ATM, so that folks passing on the street can simply stroll up, order, pay, and wait for their food without having to actually enter the restaurant.

There are a lot of good use cases for this idea, and these newfound public spaces are one of them. If we’re talking about relieving operational mayhem, an automated system would cut down on the amount of people milling around in said public space. Staff would not need to man an order station, since the kiosk processes ordering and payments. And since the system texts users when their meal is ready, those customers would be able to better time their entrance and exit and not have to stand around playing the waiting game.  

The Elo-Clicksys machine is currently only available in Europe, but there are plenty of restaurant tech companies in the U.S. that should take note of this concept. Right now, front-of-house technology is having to truly prove its worth in a world without dining rooms. Self-service kiosks (with hand sanitizer next to them, please) built for the outdoor world could prove lucrative in the coming months. 

Off-Premises Sales Are Back Up

Another reason the forthcoming Shared Spaces could get a lot of use this summer: sentiment around off-premises orders is back up. Nation’s Restaurant News reports that after taking a big dip at the beginning of May, when many restaurants began to reopen dining rooms, sales of takeout orders are back up.

Restaurant analytics firm Black Box Intelligence, which provided the source material for NRN’s post, said that early in May, customers complained of long wait times for curbside pickup orders but that “guest sentiment trends have started to recover as of week-ended May 24, with off-premise sentiment returning to similar levels as were seen in April.”

Presumably, people got excited about going back to restaurants instead of ordering takeout, then realized what a pain in the a$$ dine-in service is going to be for a long time to come. Guidelines vary from state to state in the U.S., but almost all of them include reduced capacity, reduced party sizes, no buffets, and in some cases a mask requirement. Add to that the trepidation most of us wear with our masks these days anytime we set foot in public, and it’s not exactly a recipe for a packed house.

While Black Box didn’t cite the specific reason for the uptick in off-premises orders this month, my guess is that folks are still more comfortable waiting for a to-go box than eating at a sparsely populated dining room fraught with anxiety. 

DoorDash Launches an E-commerce Platform for Indie Restaurants

Ever looking to capitalize on this boost in off-premises orders, DoorDash this week announced a new e-commerce platform for independent restaurants. It’s called the DoorDash Storefront, and it’s supposed to offer restaurants a way to build out their own digital storefronts through which they can process orders and payments. Restaurant sign up with the platform and get their own website/app for takeout and delivery orders — powered, of course, by DoorDash’s system. The digital storefront also plugs into DoorDash’s fulfillment network of drivers, so the food can actually get delivered.

DoorDash is actually addressing a need here. Sophisticated mobile apps that process orders, payments, and loyalty points are expensive and complicated to build. Small restaurants and restaurant chains generally can’t afford them, which is a negative in a restaurant industry that was just forced to go almost entirely off-premises. DoorDash said in a press release that about 40 percent of its restaurant customers do not have their own e-commerce platform.

What isn’t mentioned is what the storefronts will cost the restaurants. In bold-faced text, the company’s blog post stated that restaurants “control and own the customer experience.” It does not say customers own the data — a major issue with using a third-party delivery platform — nor does it go into exactly how the restaurant owns the customer experience. However, it’s worth noting that the blog post also states that restaurants “do not pay a commission to DoorDash on orders they receive through their Storefront.” 

DoorDash has actually been less awful to restaurants than its third-party competitors during the pandemic. The company waived commission fees for a time independent restaurants when the dining room shutdowns first took place. Still, commission fees are coming back, and offering restaurants their own digital storefronts means those restaurants will be firmly locked into the DoorDash ecosystem when it’s time to pay up.

All of which is to say, read the company’s seemingly altruistic blog post with a magnifying glass in one hand and a dose of healthy skepticism in the other.   

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ChefReady to Launch Ghost Kitchens With a Mom-and-Pop Mentality

Denver, CO-based ChefReady will launch its first ghost kitchen later this summer, in part to help keep restaurants alive that have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. According to a press release sent to The Spoon, the facility will open in July in Denver and provide space for 10 restaurants or restaurant concepts wanting to focus specifically on delivery.

Speaking in today’s press release, ChefReady cofounder Nili Malach Poynter said that when the company first examined the ghost kitchen concept, they found that “operate with a ‘churn and burn’ mentality, resulting in an unprofitably high tenant turnover. We decided to create a company that offers the convenience of a ghost kitchen, but with more of a ‘mom and pop’ personalized level of customer service, as well as greater efficiency, and a ‘greener’ footprint.”

Which is something a lot of restaurants are going to need soon.

That the pandemic is wrecking havoc on the restaurant industry is a point that’s starting to become old-hat. Many restaurants, especially independents, have already closed permanently. Many more will in the coming months thanks to the metaphorical train wreck of lost revenue, reduced capacity, upset business models, high rents, and many other factors converging at once on the industry.

Ghost kitchens, meanwhile, have so far been an obvious solution for larger chains that already generate the kind of demand needed to justify the expense of an off-premises-only location. But as restaurants close their doors forever, the concept might also be a way for them to save their business without the extra expense of running a brick-and-mortar location.

For ChefReady, the idea is to provide restaurants a way to keep their doors open without actually having to reopen any actual doors. 

ChefReady will provide restaurants with fully equipped kitchen space they can customize to some degree, as well as guidance on marketing, permits, and other areas of operations. Membership includes integration with third-party delivery providers. As with other ghost kitchens, there is also the benefit of lower overhead costs, since equipment is provided and rent is typically lower due to restaurants using less space. And for any restaurant trying to operate in this pandemic era, ghost kitchens provide the added benefit of not having to worry about the social distance guidelines and crowd control that comes with operating a front of house.

In all likelihood, the pandemic will accelerate the adoption of ghost kitchens, which were already getting popular beforehand. Kitchen United just announced a new facility in Austin, TX. Zuul Kitchens, which opened its first facility in 2019 in SoHo, NYC, recently teamed up with Figure 8 to start a ghost kitchen consulting firm. Equipment manufacturer Middleby is selling out-of-the-box ghost kitchen solutions, and there are plenty others in the space. 

While ChefReady didn’t say it was targeting a specific type of restaurant with its facility, one area that could benefit would be family dining. Those are your full-service restaurants like Applebee’s, Denny’s or the independent equivalents. Full-service restaurants have taken the hardest hit over the last few months in terms of sales declines, and that isn’t likely to change anytime soon. A recent survey found that 66 percent of consumers would not immediately eat in a restaurant dining room once it reopened.

As to whether fine dining restaurants could benefit from ghost kitchens remains to be seen. Food is just one part of the experience of many upscale establishments, and that experience is tough to replicate in a to-go box. For smaller fast causals, family dining joints, and other indies, though, ChefReady’s approach to ghost kitchens might be just what they need to keep the lights on another day.