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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Hungry House

Ghost Kitchen Startup Hungry House Partners With JOKR, Omsom and Others For Season Two

Hungry House, a ghost kitchen startup based in New York City, announced today it has formed a partnership with 10-minute delivery startup JOKR to distribute chef-created meals around New York City.

The company, founded by Zuul alum Kristen Barnett, announced the news today as part of the launch of its “season two,” which also includes news of new featured chefs and other partnerships. The deal is interesting in that JOKR and other ultra-fast grocery apps are where customers generally order shelf-stable packaged goods and maybe a little fresh produce. Under this new partnership, JOKR users will now be able to order fresh meals designed by chefs and cooked up in Hungry House’s facilities.

Speaking of facilities, Hungry House also announced an expansion beyond its first location in Brooklyn. Working with “nightlife experts” the No Thing Group, the company will open up a new multi-purpose location in Manhattan’s West Village. After Hungry House serves takeout and delivery out of the ghost kitchen during the day, No Thing Group will transform the new location “into a destination for craft cocktails” in the evening.

Hungry House also announced new chef partners, including salad-making Instagram star Pierce Abernathy and NYC chef Tony Ortiz. Hungry House is also partnering with Omsom, the red-hot DTC brand that sells starter kits for authentic Asian food. Hungry House chef Woldy Reyes will cook up a Tofu Sisig Bowl in the kitchen using Omsom’s sauces. According to Barnett, Omsom is just the first of what promises to be more CPG brand partnerships.

Reading Hungry House’s announcement was like reading down a checklist of restaurant tech trends in recent years and checking almost every box. Ghost kitchen that taps into the viral success of online culinary influencers and emerging CPG brands? Check. Partnering with ultra-fast grocery delivery unicorn? Check. Rethinking how to use kitchen and restaurant spaces to monetize in new ways? Check. All Hungry House needed to do was add a kitchen robot to cook up meals and they could have covered nearly every square on the restaurant tech bingo card.

It looks like we’ll have to wait for that in season 3.

Podcast: Creating the Anti-Ghost Kitchen Ghost With Kristen Barnett

While the fast growth of the ghost kitchen industry is exciting, it has some downsides. The industry’s rapid expansion has often meant low-quality food, a lack of transparency, and, even health code violations.

Kristen Barnett wants to change all that with her newest venture, Hungry House. Barnett, who was formerly with Zuul, wants to be transparent about where the food is made and who is making it and to have tight control over the quality. That means growth will be purposeful in the beginning as the company builds its business one kitchen – and chef – at a time.

Last month I caught up with Kristen Barnett to talk with her about her goal of building an anti-ghost kitchen ghost kitchen. You can hear our full conversation in today’s podcast. Just click play below or listen to it on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Kristen Barnett Launches Hungry House, an ‘Anti-Ghost Kitchen’ Ghost Kitchen

It seems a day doesn’t go by nowadays without a new ghost kitchen concept popping up.

While all that growth can be exciting, the ghost kitchen land grab has its downsides, at least according to Kristen Barnett. The former COO of ghost kitchen startup Zuul told me today in a video call that the industry’s rapid expansion has often meant low-quality food, a lack of transparency, and, well, just way too many chicken wing restaurants.

To counter this, Barnett has launched a new company called Hungry House, which she describes as an ‘anti-ghost kitchen ghost kitchen.’

What does that mean?

“We are actively being intentional about some of the more negative sides of the ghost kitchen industry that the public has come to know,” said Barnett. “Hungry House really was created as a reaction to that, seeing a way to flip those maybe less than ideal characteristics of the industry on its head and say ‘No, what happens if we infuse transparency, we tell customers it’s Hungry House making the food, we have a physical storefront that people can actually order at and see the kitchen and see the team?'”

To do all that, Barnett’s plan is to be transparent about where the food is made and who is making it and to have tight control over the quality. That means growth will be purposeful in the beginning as the company builds its business one kitchen – and chef – at a time.

“I wanted to create Hungry House as the partner of choice for what I believe to be the next generation of culinary leaders who have different career paths than in the past.” According to Barnett, that next-generation leader might be a food truck operator or someone who has proven themselves a culinary innovator on social media but may not want to run a full restaurant.

One such creator is Woldy Reyes.

“Woldy is this incredible Filipino chef who has really well attended pop ups throughout Brooklyn,” said Barnett. “He’s known for his signature menu items, yet he’s been running a catering business, not necessarily operating restaurants, and he’s been able to do all of that. So it made a lot of sense for him as someone who has really well developed recipes, but didn’t necessarily know exactly what it would take to run a restaurant and figuring all of that out wasn’t necessarily in his career plan.”

Barnett’s approach to creating high-touch kitchens and working closely with emerging voices with strong culinary visions is a marked contrast to the high-profile celebrity virtual restaurant concepts being spun out these days.

“These celebrities are definitely capitalizing on great content,” said Barnett. “But is it necessarily going to be executed in a way that creates true long term value in a food brand? I don’t think so. I don’t think many of these are going to be around.”

Barnett’s plan is slowly expand Hungry House over the next year into Manhattan and see where it goes from there. She said the company would be raising a seed round to grow the team, build out their tech stack and expand into new cities.

At the top of her list? LA, New York and Miami.

“With those cities locked down, really anything as possible when it comes to using our model to launch high quality brands that come from either chefs, celebrities, CPG brands,” said Barnett. “That’s the type of world I want to create – where there is true innovation, there are new things being launched, and new stories being told.”

You can watch my full interview with Barnett below:

The Spoon Talks with Hungry House Founder Kristen Barnett