Ghost Kitchens

April 26, 2020

‘Make Technology Your Friend’ and Other Advice on Reopening a Restaurant

One of the big discussion topics this week at The Spoon has been around the reopening of restaurant dining rooms. When will it happen? How will it happen? Will anyone even want to go out to eat?

Answers will be ongoing and, like everything else in the last six weeks, will probably change regularly. And here’s one more to add to the mix: What do restaurants need to do to prepare for as smooth a reopening as they can possibly accomplish?

I’ll answer that with a line from The National Restaurant Association’s newly released “Reopening Guidance” report: “Make technology your friend.”

Fear not. This isn’t the part where I tell you to hedge all your bets on a piece of software (or hardware) and pile on a bunch of extra solutions your already trimmed-down staff will have to learn. Instead, consider which tools will help your business communicate as directly and efficiently as possible with guests about what to expect at a reopening.

As The Association says:

“Contactless payment systems, automated ordering systems, mobile ordering apps, website updates and simple texts can help you to communicate and conduct business with reduced need for close contact. As you begin to reopen, keep communicating with customers (your hours, menu items, reservations, etc.), and help promote your social distancing and safety efforts.”

Some of these will be easier to implement than others. I was just talking to a family member of mine who is as we speak trying to set up contactless payments for her hospitality company, and she is definitely losing sleep over it. In a separate conversation, someone on the task force in charge of Georgia’s restaurant reopenings admitted that contactless payments will be one of the more difficult things to put in place for restaurants.

But this task force person also said restaurants should be “embracing technology wherever [they] can.” Looking again at The Association’s guidelines, there are simpler tech tools restaurants can use to communicate reopen dates and any accompanying changes. Consider email updates or social media posts to tell folks about adjusted hours, new policies (e.g., “make a reservation”), and safety protocols. Use the humble text message to notify guests when their table is ready. And talk to your existing restaurant tech providers, like your POS vendor, to see if they can help you set up some of the more complicated tools like contactless payments and mobile ordering.

At the end of the day, tech should be the means to the end, not the end itself. Bear that in mind as you explore ways to integrate it into your reopen strategy, whenever that happens to be.

Maybe We Should All Look to Fat Brands to Figure Out a Ghost Kitchen Strategy

Ghost kitchens are not top of the priority list for restaurants right now, but as demand for off-premises orders goes up, they will be. As we’ve discussed before, restaurants need a certain (and rather high) level of demand to justify using a full-on ghost kitchen facility. Otherwise the economics don’t make sense.

That said, a good ghost kitchen strategy can actually start right in your own kitchen before growing into the kind that needs a dedicated facility to function.

Look at Fat Brands. This week, the company, which owns Fatburger, Hurricane Grill & Wings, Elevation Burger, and other chains, announced its first-ever ghost kitchen facility in Chicago. The location, done in partnership with Epic Kitchens, will be for delivery-only orders, and will house a number of virtual restaurants.

Fat Brands was doing ghost kitchens before they inked a deal with Epic, though. Last year, the company started using Fat Burger locations to double as mini-ghost kitchens for the company’s sister brands. Customers on one side of the country could suddenly order from the menu of Fat Brand restaurants historically only available on the other side. Doing so let the company test the waters, so to speak, with virtual restaurants and ghost kitchens before signing a more official deal with a dedicated space.

Starting small and in the confines of your own restaurants’ kitchens is definitely a lower-risk way of trying out a ghost kitchen. Restaurants can test and learn about some of the operational differences between off-premises and in-dining-room models, and they’re not locked into a long-term contract if the plan proves unfruitful. Speaking of which, in-house ghost kitchens are also a way to gauge just how much off-premises demand you really have from your customers and project whether that will grow enough to warrant a bigger operation, as Fat Brands has done.

The pandemic’s effect on the restaurant industry will almost certainly ensure demand for off-premises orders keeps rising, even after dining rooms reopen. Even as you’re trying to keep the lights on, consider whether you’re on the path towards using a ghost kitchen, and if taking the first small steps in your own kitchen makes sense as a starting point.

More Notable Restaurant News

Low-tech drive-thru innovation: Today, Taco Bell’s Southern California HQ is doubling as a giant drive-thru for large trucks carrying essential items across the supply chain. The chain is giving away free meals to truckers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and others driving vehicles that wouldn’t fit through a normal drive-thru lane.

QSR, meet the sewing machine: Employees of quick-service chain Raising Cane are now sewing masks to donate to hospitals while dining rooms remain closed. While the chain’s drive-thrus remain open, at sit-down locations, it is paying its staff to learn how to sew these masks instead of just furloughing people. Raising Cane donated 600 masks after the first week of production and said it expects to crank out even more “as Crewmembers get more proficient.”

Big chains aren’t necessarily reopening. States like Georgia and South Carolina are set to reopen their economies next week, but not everyone is on board. Among restaurant brands, TGI Fridays and Starbucks are not necessarily ready to fling back their doors immediately. Instead, their reopening plans will factor in not just state/local laws but also infection rates and their own market analysis. So while all this talk of reopening is exciting, it realistically will be a long while yet before many food businesses turn the lights back on in the dining room.

April 22, 2020

Indian Delivery Service Swiggy Will Cut Jobs and Scale Back Its Ghost Kitchen Division

Swiggy, one of India’s largest food delivery services, says it plans to cut about 1,000 jobs as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreck havoc on the global economy, according to Indian news outlet Entrackr. The layoffs are set to happen next month and will mostly impact the company’s ghost kitchen division.

The announcement comes just weeks after Swiggy announced a $43 million fundraise as part of an ongoing Series I round. The company is currently valued at $1.42 billion.

But unicorn status is no match for a pandemic, which has put India’s population of 1.3 billion on lockdown and gravely impacted businesses. Swiggy as well as its chief rival Zomato have both seen a drop in the number of daily orders they fulfill. Some cities in India — namely Telangana — have outright banned food delivery for the time in order to prevent further spread of the coronavirus. Entracker also noted that the Indian government is advising ghost kitchens to operate with half their workforce.

A Swiggy spokesperson said measures to deal with all these factors include renegotiating contracts with landlords, relocating some kitchens, and shutting down others. “As the lockdown gets further extended, we are evaluating various means to stay nimble and focused on growth and profitability across our kitchens.”

Delivery services, restaurant tech companies, and restaurants themselves are all feeling the economic strain imposed by country-wide lockdowns, and layoffs are becoming more commonplace each week. In the last week alone, Yelp laid off 1,000 staff and furloughed others, Sweetgreen cut 10 percent of its HQ staff, and restaurants left and right have laid off or furloughed employees as dining rooms remain closed all over the world.

You would think ghost kitchens, which cater specifically to off-premises orders, would be a booming business right now. But Swiggy’s layoffs also underscore an important point: that ghost kitchens are superfluous to operations unless you have the customer demand to justify them. At last check, Swiggy had ghost kitchens in 14 cities across India.

The company is currently in the process of shutting down around half its ghost kitchens. Meanwhile, the company expects more layoffs — possibly up to 40 percent of staff — in this division to follow in the future.

April 10, 2020

Rebel Foods Raises $50M for Its India-based Cloud Kitchen Network

India-based ghost kitchen operator Rebel Foods announced this week it has raised $50 million in fresh funding from NY-based hedge fund Coatue Management. The new investment is part of an ongoing Series E round, according to AgFunder News.

As cloud kitchen networks go, Rebel Foods is Old Guard compared to newer entrants like Kitchen United and Travis Kalanick’s CloudKitchens. Rebel was founded in 2010 and launched as quick-service chain kebab chain Faasos in 2011, and as of last check was targeting a $1 billion valuation.

Rebel currently operates over 300 cloud kitchens across 35 Indian Cities and says it processes over 2 million orders per month. Faasos still operates as a restaurant brand within those kitchens, alongside other Rebel-owned virtual restaurants. Customers can order and pay for food through Rebel’s own app, and all meals are prepared in Rebel kitchens and delivered straight to customers.

In the Indian food delivery market, Rebel competes with both Swiggy and Zomato, the latter of which also operates its own ghost kitchens. Until recently, Uber Eats was also a competitor, and its exit from the Indian market has left the landscape even more consolidated and competitive.

India’s entire population of 1.3 billion people is currently on lockdown in an effort to stem the spread of COVID-19, and demand for food delivery has skyrocketed in response. Rebel’s network of virtual restaurants is well suited to meet that demand. Since Rebel doesn’t operate any brick-and-mortar with actual sit-down space, the company isn’t taking a hit from forced business closures happening across the country, either.

In August, the company raised $125 million in funding from Coatue Management, Goldman Sachs, Indonesian delivery service Gojek and other investors. With Gojek, it plans to open cloud kitchens in Indonesia over the next 18 months. The company is also expanding to the United Arab Emirates.

April 2, 2020

Wow Bao Launches an Off-Premises Platform for Other Restaurants

Chicago-based Wow Bao is expanding its presence across the U.S. by opening ghost kitchens inside other restaurant brands’ stores. The fast-casual chain just launched an off-premises platform that allows other restaurants to make and serve Wow Bao’s products via third-party delivery channels and keep the revenue from those sales, according to a press release sent to The Spoon. In exchange, restaurants pay a product fee to Wow Bao to use the platform.

While it might at first sound odd to add a sales channel to your business by selling another restaurant’s menu, but Wow Bao President Geoff Alexander thinks this strategy could work for just about anyone. “We believe any restaurant can be a ghost kitchen serving Wow Bao,” he told me this week over the phone.

Once a restaurant is onboarded to Wow Bao’s off-premises platform, they are sent their first food shipment and can start selling the chain’s menu items online via third-party delivery channels like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Postmates. Items are sold via an entirely separate menu Wow Bao provides and manages; the Wow Bao name appears in those delivery apps, and restaurants only have to prep the food in their kitchens and hand it over to a delivery courier.

Using a hypothetical Italian restaurant as an example, Alexander explained that kitchen staff might be cooking their usual pasta fare when a Wow Bao order comes through the ticket system. Without really interrupting the flow of the regular work, a chef or staff person could quickly put the item on the stove to cook or steam and continue going about their usual tasks.

Nor is it a lengthy, complex process for a restaurant to get set up on the platform. Businesses pay a startup fee of $2,000 to get set up with reference books, a supply chain, digital marketing, and any necessary equipment. Wow Bao will also help restaurants get set up on third-party delivery platforms if they aren’t already, and the flat fee also includes the first order of to-go packaging supplies.

Versions of this concept exist in the restaurant industry. In 2019, Fatburger turned some of its stores into ghost kitchens selling food from the chain’s sister brands. However, that operation remains within the Fat Brands family. Wow Bao, on the other hand, wants to make its off-premises concept available to anyone — chain restaurants and independents alike — in the hopes that it might be able to increase sales.

Restaurants need all the help they can get in terms of improving their bottom lines. Right now, 3 percent of restaurants have already shuttered permanently, according to the National Restaurant Association, and another 11 percent anticipate doing the same within the next 30 days. Those hanging on are struggling to quickly pivot to a delivery/takeout model in the hopes that those off-premises sales will be enough to keep business going during dining room closures and social distancing.

Alexander told me this concept isn’t actually a response to pandemic or subsequent restaurant industry fallout that’s currently happening, it just happens to line up timing-wise with current events. “We think we found a way to grow our brand and more importantly help restaurants at this time,” he said.

There aren’t yet numbers to show if this concept will indeed be profitable for other restaurants, though Alexander told me restaurants could make as much as a 40 percent bottom line profit with little extra labor and almost no disruption to daily operations. “We believe we have created something restaurants can survive with,” he said.

At the moment, Wow Bao is operating one of these ghost kitchens in the San Francisco Bay Area. Miami is next, followed by several other cities over the next few weeks.

March 26, 2020

Do You Have Enough Demand? Kitchen United CEO Discusses Pivoting To Ghost Kitchens Too Soon

Pre-pandemic, ghost kitchens looked to be the “it” trend of 2020. So you would think a global health crisis that’s forced dining room closures around the world and seemingly increased demand for delivery would have many restaurants rushing to embrace the concept. Ghost kitchens, after all, are restaurant facilities that operate solely to fulfill off-premises orders and require no front of house. If you wanna get technical about it, most restaurants are running ghost kitchens right out of their own stores right now.

But after an email exchange with Jim Collins, co-founder and CEO of ghost kitchen network Kitchen United, I’m led to believe that restaurants shouldn’t necessarily go all in on a ghost kitchen strategy right now just because delivery happens to be one of the few order channels they can work with. “I think right now the industry is honestly in a state of shock,” Collins says. “As many restaurants work hard at this moment in time to remain operational, it’s nearly impossible to consider different models.”

Instead, businesses should focus on strengthening their delivery strategies in-house, thereby laying foundations for off-premises orders that might one day warrant using large-scale ghost kitchen facilities.

Restaurants first need to understand if they even have that level of customer following and demand for off-premises orders. “Prior to the current situation we are in, we have always told operators that we are a good fit for them if they have an existing fan base, smart marketing in place and are looking to expand their market reach. The virtual kitchen model works best when there’s existing brand demand,” explains Collins.

The widespread shutdown of dining rooms may mean restaurants are pivoting to off-premises models faster, but we don’t yet have the numbers to tell us if demand for delivery is equally as widespread. A Technomic report from earlier this month found that only 13 percent of people think they will order more restaurant delivery because of coronavirus. Granted, that number was released before dining rooms closed down. Still, it suggests that until we see more numbers, we can’t really determine if restaurants will see the kinds of spikes in demand for delivery that warrant the use of a ghost kitchen facility like those of Kitchen United, DoorDash Kitchens, Kitopi, and others. Collins told me that even in a pre-pandemic world, Kitchen United won’t consider opening a facility “in a market with current delivery revenue less than $60 million.” He added that the company’s current locations are working towards significantly larger numbers than that. “You just need a lot of demand to make a delivery/take out only model work.”

Smaller chains without the deep pockets of, say, Chick-fil-A or Sweetgreen, should instead focus on making their in-house delivery strategy as efficient as possible. If you haven’t already (and I’m sure you have), take Collins’ advice and “get moving now.” He suggests opening as many channels as you can with third-party delivery providers like DoorDash, Postmates, and Uber Eats. However, instead of striking independent deals with each, go through yet-another third-party platform like ChowNow, which streamlines the setup and management of delivery orders. (Olo, Ordermark and Chowly are similar options.)

For those who’ve already used reservation and guest-management platforms like OpenTable and Resy, Collins suggests downloading the customer email lists and reaching out to those who’ve opted into marketing. “Make sure they know you’re open and available to serve them,” he says.

Another common piece of advice: optimize your menu for “people stuck at home.” Pare down your menu to only include food that travels well, and consider family-style options that can feed large groups of people. This is something Southern California-based chain Wahoo’s Fish Tacos has been utilizing over the last several days to generate more off-premises orders.

Since no one can foresee the future, especially when it comes to COVID-19, it’s impossible to say how long we’ll have to operate in this off-premises-only world. It could be that restaurants who survive this time will come out with a stronger delivery brand, so much so that when the dining rooms open up again and people are willing to sit in crowds, they’ll have the delivery demand Collins mentions to warrant looking into a ghost kitchen. Until then, getting the strongest delivery strategy possible remains the top priority for restaurants.

March 2, 2020

Applebee’s Is Planning Ghost Kitchens for Delivery and Takeout Orders

Applebee’s just became the latest restaurant chain to hop the ghost kitchen bandwagon. In an interview with Nation’s Restaurant News, Steve Joyce, CEO of Applebee’s parent Dine Brands, said the company was “experimenting” with the concept.

To be honest, the development isn’t terribly surprising. At the end of 2019, we predicted that ghost kitchens would become “the norm” for larger restaurant chains, since they not only to help them fulfill more delivery orders but also to let them reach areas of the country where they might not have a brick-and-mortar presence. Chick-fil-A is a good example. The company has expanded its presence in Northern California — where it has few brick-and-mortar stores — by renting space in DoorDash’s Redwood City ghost kitchen facility. Doing so lets the chain reach a potentially wider audience without having to invest the time and money into building out full Chick-fil-A locations.

Dine Brands’ Joyce suggested his company is looking into a similar strategy for Applebee’s, telling NRN that he’s hoping to use ghost kitchens to increase Applebee’s presence in “underserved cities,” particularly those in the Midwest. He also said the company was looking into different kinds of ghost kitchens: operating its own as well as partnering with third-party kitchen providers.

My crystal ball tells me Applebee’s probably will team up with DoorDash to realize at least some of its ghost kitchen ambitions. The chain already has a national delivery partnership with the service. Renting out space in DoorDash’s ghost kitchen facility could greatly expand Applebee’s presence in the California Peninsula area, where currently it only has a few locations.

As for the rest of the country, Applebee’s would have to partner with another provider. Kitchen United has open locations in Chicago, Southern California, and Phoenix, and has more facilities in the works. Zuul Kitchens is currently focused on the NYC area, as is Kitopi.

Whether restaurants should be betting their entire off-premises strategies on VC-backed ghost kitchen facilities is a debate for another day (stay tuned). For its part, Applebee’s has said it is looking into a combination of ghost kitchen types, which means it isn’t going to rely solely on third-party providers. Glancing a moment into the longer-term future, that’s probably the smartest bet right now for big restaurant chains.

February 19, 2020

Jimmy John’s Parent Company May Be Opening Its Own Ghost Kitchens

Inspire Brands, which owns Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Jimmy John’s, and other restaurant chains, has filed for trademarks meant for ghost kitchens, according to Restaurant Business Online.

The company filed “Inspire Kitchen” and “Alliance Kitchen” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in January, and both filings mention “food delivery” and “delivery of food by restaurants.” The filings also name-drop ghost kitchens themselves, stating that the concepts will provide “restaurant services, namely providing ghost kitchens and commercial kitchens for use in the preparation of meals and beverages for consumption off premises.”

That Inspire is filing trademarks suggests the company is exploring not just ghost kitchens, but its own ghost kitchens. A growing number of restaurants now utilize the concept, which allows businesses to manage and fulfill delivery and takeout orders without overburdening in-house restaurant staff. To date, however, the vast majority of restaurants have teamed up with third-party providers like Zuul Kitchens, Kitchen United, and DoorDash Kitchens, who provide space, equipment, and other infrastructure to restaurants.

A smaller number of chains have launched their own ghost kitchens. Fat Brands, for example, is outfitting its own in-house kitchens to double as ghost kitchens. Starbucks teamed up with Alibaba’s Heme Supermarkets to operate ghost kitchens in China.

Since Inspire Brands owns multiple brands, it’s not hard to imagine a setup where one single facility can house kitchens for Jimmy John’s, Arby’s, Sonic, and Inspire’s other restaurant chains. Throw in one of Middleby’s recently launched out-of-the-box ghost kitchen concepts, which helps companies build out and equip their facilities, and you’d basically have a self-sustaining ghost kitchen that doesn’t need a major third-party provider like Kitchen United or DoorDash to operate.

That’s rather speculative on my part, since Inspire told Restaurant Business Online that it was “not ready to comment” on the trademarks. However, more restaurants exploring ghost kitchens means we’ll see more approaches to the concept as it moves forward. The most scalable, economically feasible solution — whether that’s teaming up with a third-party kitchen provider, operating one’s own facility, or something else — is yet to be determined.

February 17, 2020

Middleby Launches Out-of-the-Box Ghost Kitchen Solutions

In what’s a first for the manufacturing side of foodservice, Middleby is bringing its restaurant equipment expertise to the world of ghost kitchens. Through L2F, which is owned by Middleby, the company has launched a line of out-of-the-box ghost kitchen solutions that provides restaurants everything they need to fulfill consumer demand for off-premises food orders, from concept to equipment.

Demand for those orders is growing. The National Restaurant Association predicts that off-premises ordering — delivery, drive-thru, and takeout — will drive the bulk of restaurant sales over the next decade. In response, restaurants are turning to ghost kitchens.

But since no two restaurants are exactly the same, it follows that different businesses have different needs and approaches when it comes to ghost kitchens. Some are working with the likes of Kitchen United and other commissary kitchens for offsite space. Others need less infrastructure and are simply revamping their own kitchens to accommodate the new business. Still others want a more mobile solution that can move from place to place to fulfill customer demand.

Middleby’s new offerings are meant to address all different types of ghost kitchen needs. To be clear: Middleby doesn’t actually operate the ghost kitchens, nor is it simply a consulting-like service. Instead, the company helps restaurants pick the right kind of ghost kitchen (mobile, standalone, commissary, etc.), customize it, and stock it with all equipment they will need. L2F can then fit the kitchen solution into a ghost kitchen provider’s specific specs and even architectural designs.

“We’re trying to make this simple for people who are going into ghost kitchens,” L2F President Shawn Lange told me over the phone last week. “We will build up kitchens for people, box it up, send it out, we can carry you all the way through to store openings.”

For example, the Commissary Ghost Kitchen solution can house multiple concepts under a single roof. Lange says these are the types of ghost kitchens that would act as a hub (hence the name) in a hub-and-spoke business model. Food is made in this main kitchen, then either delivered to the consumer or transferred to another point (mobile kitchen, kiosk, etc.), where it is cooked or re-thermalized and prepared for pickup or delivery.

While Lange didn’t mention specific clients on the phone, in theory, Middleby/L2F could work with, say, Zuul Kitchens to build out one of these Commissary Hubs without Zuul having to conceptualize its own design or find all the appropriate equipment for different restaurant types. Everything in the Hub, from the refrigerators to ranges to vegetable peelers, is manufactured by Middleby and Middleby-owned brands. Zuul would simply plug a few restaurants into the space and be up and running.

Still, not every restaurant needs four-plus kitchens and endless specialized equipment. Many actually require smaller, more mobile concepts, which is the other focus of Enhanced Ghost Kitchens.

“There is a lot of discussion going down with having more mobile-type restaurants,” says Lange. To that end, Middleby teamed up with third-party manufacturers of food trucks and mobile kitchens to help execute on its smaller ghost kitchen concepts, including food truck manufacturer One Fat Frog and Kitchen Podular, who helps companies build semi-permanent kitchens from scratch.

That L2F and Middleby are now designing ghost kitchens isn’t actually a huge left turn. The company is one of the largest foodservice equipment manufacturers in the world, and its portfolio already services many of food tech’s current movers and shakers, including McDonald’s, Domino’s, and Panera. L2F, in particular, has experience in the world of mobile food initiatives, having already done work with both CafeX and Zume Pizza.

Zume has since shuttered its pizza business, and mobile kitchens still make up a relatively small part of the current ghost kitchen landscape. Solutions that make it easier to implement and run a mobile kitchen could grow this category, so in that sense, L2F and Middleby are ahead of the competition here.

That could be said of any ghost kitchen type, actually. Middleby doesn’t have any direct competition from another foodservice manufacturer right now, and since the product line just launched, it’s too soon to tell if restaurants and ghost kitchen operators will respond to it. However, this is an era in foodservice where speed, efficiency, and convenience rule. Being able to plug an end-to-end ghost kitchen into a restaurant operation certainly ticks all three of those boxes, and more. That type of solution could well become popular as more restaurants scramble to leverage not just any ghost kitchen but the right ghost kitchen for their business.

February 7, 2020

Week in Restaurants: Ghost Kitchens Might Be Hurting Small Businesses

Food delivery has a dark side. That we knew, but it does seem to be getting more airtime lately, with legislators and restaurants alike pushing back against some (okay, most) of the practices companies like DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber Eats employ. We saw more of that this week when a San Francisco restaurant owner took Grubhub to task and urged others to join her. Judging from Grubhub’s latest earnings call, though, the service isn’t budging on certain practices.

Read on for more on those as well as other noteworthy restaurant news from around the web this week.

Ghost Kitchens Get an Oversight Hearing in NYC

Ghost kitchens are all the rage, but not everyone is thrilled with them. On Thursday, New York City council members held an oversight hearing to discuss whether ghost kitchens are a friend or hindrance to local business, and if they need to be regulated. “Are you a threat to our mom-and-pop restaurants, or should you be embraced as a partner that’s going to help them continue to flourish and grow?” councilmember Mark Gjonaj asked ghost kitchen operators at the hearing. (Gjonaj has also been vocal when it comes to third-party delivery in NYC.)

Kitchen United CEO Jim Collins was present, as was Zuul Kitchens cofounder Corey Mancione. While regulatory measures were not discussed, the event definitely puts a spotlight on the more controversial aspects of ghost kitchens. The main debate at last night’s hearing was whether ghost kitchens hurt small, independent restaurants by lessening overhead costs for bigger chains, who have the deep pockets to more easily embrace off-premises ordering.

TripAdvisor Unveils a Review Aggregator for Restaurant Operators

TripAdvisor launched a new tool on Wednesday that aggregates restaurant reviews from multiple websites so that owners and operators can view all of them from a single dashboard. Dubbed Review Hub, the subscription-based feature gathers reviews from Facebook, Google, Yelp, and “other major review sites” into one place. The aggregated view promises restaurant owners an easier, faster way to spot trends in feedback, see what’s working and what isn’t, and respond to customers more consistently. Subscriptions are available on both a monthly and annual basis.

Planet Hollywood Founder Launches a Virtual Restaurant Network

Robert Earl, known as the founder of Planet Hollywood, has launched a virtual restaurant concept called Wing Squad, which is available exclusively through third-party delivery platforms Grubhub, Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Postmates. The online menu is fairly streamlined, offering up just wings, sides, and a few desert options, all of which is cooked in ghost kitchens. The restaurant is currently available in 16 cities, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Detroit, and Las Vegas. Earl, whose Earl Enterprises owns chains like Buca di Beppo and Earl of Sandwich, said in a statement that Wing Squad is part of his Virtual Dining Concepts network. Other online-only restaurants are coming soon.

Grubhub Added 150,000 Non-Partnered Restaurants

Grubhub beat Wall Street estimates for Q4 2019 in what was a drastic change from the company’s dismal third-quarter results. Part of the third-party delivery service’s efforts in Q4 included doubling its restaurant inventory by adding 150,000 non-partnered restaurants — that is, restaurants that do not have contracts with the service and have not given permission to Grubhub to use their menus online. The controversial tactic is also used by Postmates and DoorDash. While Grubhub defends the strategy, saying it is meant to reverse the slowdown in daily orders, more and more restaurant owners are speaking out against the practice, turning the issue into the latest battle between restaurants and delivery services. Mark Gjonaj, over to you.

January 27, 2020

Zuul Kitchens Acquires Ontray’s Online Ordering Technology

Ghost Kitchen network Zuul Kitchens has acquired online food-ordering platform Ontray, according to a Zuul press release. In addition to acquiring key technology assets from Ontray, Zuul has also made the company’s CEO and cofounder, Tyler Wiest, its Chief Technology Officer.

Zuul opened its first ghost kitchen facility in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood in 2019. The location serves as a place where restaurant chains like Sweetgreen and Junzi can rent kitchen space to fulfill delivery orders and grow their off-premises strategies.

Philadelphia-based Ontray, meanwhile, has an online ordering platform aimed at smaller restaurants who might not have the cash or inclination to pay the massive commission fees associated with bigger delivery services like Grubhub and DoorDash.

Ontray’s software lets restaurants create a custom website integrated with an online ordering platform or add online ordering capabilities to existing sites. The idea is to let restaurants retain control over their own branding and, most important, customer data, two things they must give away when working with third-party delivery services like Grubhub. Restaurants can view sales and customer data, monitor SEO, manage multiple restaurants, and import menus with Ontrays system. Ontray also charges lower commission fees than a restaurant would typically have to pay with a bigger service.

Making delivery more affordable for all restaurants is a major concern right now, particularly with demand for off-premises orders rising steadily and ghost kitchens becoming the new norm in foodservice. By acquiring Ontray, Zuul will be able to offer its restaurant clients more options when it comes to fulfilling those orders.

That in turn could make Zuul a more attractive choice for a wider range of restaurants considering ghost kitchens — especially those with thinner margins who need more visibility into their customer data to stay competitive. “Joining Ontray and Zuul Kitchens is a natural move,” Wiest said in a statement. “Both companies share a similar goal: returning the power and purse back to individual restaurants.”

Zuul has said it will continue to open ghost kitchen locations throughout NYC.

January 24, 2020

Week in Restaurants: NYC Bans Cashless Stores, Saladworks Launches Ghost Kitchens

Amid all the constant talk about the promise of restaurant technology and the so-called seamless customer experience, it’s important to remember that the era of the digital restaurant has to be inclusive to everyone — even those who may not have a bank account or smartphone. That conversation was reignited this week when the Big Apple announced plans to ban cashless business models. Read more on the issue below, as well as new ghost kitchen operations and the latest tech initiative from one of the QSR scene’s biggest tech advocates.

NYC to Ban the Cashless Business Model

The New York City council voted on Thursday to ban cashless businesses — that is, those only accepting card or digital payments. Councilman Ritchie Torres, who surfaced the issue back in 2018, drafted the bill, which takes effect 90 days after it was signed and makes it illegal for stores, restaurants, and other businesses to refuse cash-paying customers. Some businesses have pushed back on the bill, saying the cashless model allows them to keep better track of finances and also present a more seamless experience for customers. Of course the other side of that argument is that cashless stores discriminate against the unbanked and underbanked population, which numbers in the millions in the U.S.

The NYC ban follows similar moves by Philadelphia, New Jersey, and San Francisco.

Saladworks Launches Its First Ghost Kitchen

Fast casual chain Saladworks announced this week it has signed on with Kitchen United to operate a ghost kitchen out of the latter’s facility in order to speed up and streamline off-premises orders. The move follows another announcement by Saladworks from December that the chain plans to have multiple ghost kitchens and potentially even launch new food concepts like “Sandwichworks” and “Pizzaworks.” The ghost kitchens are slated to open in Chicago, IL, Austin, TX, and Scottsdale, AZ.

McDonald’s Launches Career App for Employees

McDonald’s launched a career-focused mobile app this week that helps employees “maximize education benefits and take the next step in their professional journey,” according to a press release. The app was created in partnership with the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning and Inside Track. Through it, restaurant workers can connect with advisors and coaches as well as take an assessment on their career interests and opportunities, both at McDonald’s and elsewhere. The app builds on McDonald’s Archways to Opportunity program, which helps employees earn diplomas, get help with tuition, and improve English-language skills, among other things. It may also help McDonald’s improve retention among its staff by helping them “move up the ladder,” so to speak, through more in-depth career opportunities.

Ghost Kitchens

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