Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

MrBeast

MrBeast: I Want To Move On From Beast Burger, Enjoy Feastables ‘100x More’

As the virtual restaurant and ghost kitchen business has struggled for much of the past year, proponents pointed to the success of MrBeast Burger, a virtual restaurant chain started by the YouTube star that expanded to over 300 contracted restaurants and included some physical restaurants.

But now it looks like the creator behind the virtual brand wants out, tired of a business in which he claims he has little control over the quality of the end product. In a series of now-deleted tweets late last week, MrBeast – whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson – explained he was ready to move on from the brand and wanted to focus more on his snack brand, Feastables. In one of the tweets, Donaldson lamented that the company he partnered with to launch the brand (Virtual Dining Concepts) won’t let him stop “even though it’s terrible for my brand.”

In the following tweet, which has yet to be deleted, Mr. Beast explained his reasoning for wanting to move on:

MrBeast’s problems with varying food quality are a symptom of the virtual restaurant industry’s decentralized and distributed operating model and lack of a uniform set of enforceable quality standards. Still, much of his loyal fan base has been willing to cut him some slack, and up to last fall, Donaldson was still discussing plans to expand the brand to more physical restaurants.

Despite his wishes, VDC still looks to have an enforceable contract that they plan to run with. Donaldson lamented their insistence on continuing the brand, saying, “the company I partnered with won’t let me stop even though it’s terrible for my brand.”

Donaldson’s disclosure about his feelings leaves VDC in an awkward spot, even if they have the right to continue opening the brand. MrBeast’s fans tend to be pretty loyal to him, and if word gets out that he’s soured on the project, my guess is any remaining loyalty they have to the virtual brand will evaporate.

Unlike the virtual restaurant brand, Donaldson’s snack brand Feastables is one over which he appears to have much more control. The brand was internally incubated through his own management company, and he partnered with industry pioneer Jim Murray (founder of RX Bar) as a co-founder and CEO of the company.

Chris Young on MrBeast: “Everything Just Changed About Restaurants” (Podcast)

If you want to be a chef, the first thing Chris Young thinks you should do before parting ways with a king’s ransom in the form of time and money at culinary school is to just jump directly into the fire.

“If you think you might want to be a professional chef, the best thing you should do is go intern at a restaurant for maybe six weeks,” said Young. “And if you still think that’s a good idea, after six weeks of getting your ass kicked, then by all means be a professional chef.”

This response from Young came during a live podcast interview on Clubhouse where Young and I started talking about the future of restaurants.

One of the biggest changes the onetime Fat Duck employee and coauthor of Modernist Cuisine sees on the horizon is how new models powered by technology, like ghost kitchens and virtual restaurants, will reshape the restaurant. While Young still thinks there will always be demand for places where people can go, sit down, and have great food made by a chef a few yards away in the kitchen, that world – in other words what we’ve known for centuries as a restaurant – will be increasingly upended by the arrival of new models created by the likes of virtual restaurant concepts like that MrBeast Burgers.

“I saw that and went ‘everything just changed about restaurants,'” said Young.

Young pointed to Apple and the consumer electronics industry to explain his thinking.

In the world of electronics, “the people that design the product are very rarely the people that also manufacture it,” said Young. “That’s something we figured out in a lot of things. Apple designs. Apple engineers. Apple does not assemble [products], they have somebody else who specializes in assembly do that.”

But restaurants – unlike most other industry nowadays – remains for the most part vertically integrated.

“Restaurants are kind of weird because you’ve coupled the creative with the manufacturing,” said Young. “You might not think of a restaurant as a factory, but it’s a small micro scale, horribly inefficient factory.”

And according to Young, what MrBeast and others like him has showed is the restaurant can be unbundled.

“What MrBeast showed is we’re going to be able to take apart the creative, the marketing, and everything about the concept and we’re gonna be able to completely divorce that from the manufacturing. If you have a great idea and if you have an audience that gives a shit, then you’re going to be able to do a deal with people who specialize in the manufacturing of recipes and you’ll be able to roll out a national chain of your bagel joints. Within a couple of weeks and everybody who wants one of your bagels can get one of your bagels.”

So what exactly should a young would-be culinary empire builder do if they are excited about this crazy unbundled restaurant future according to Young?

“Learn to cook,” said Young. “But maybe you should [also] build a YouTube channel, rather than trying to invest in a restaurant.”

In other words, you should know your way around a kitchen, but also understand that might not mean a career cooking in a dine-in restaurant.

“My advice is you really want to be thinking about what the restaurant is going to be in the future,” said Young, “and a little less about, ‘do I go get a culinary education and start cooking in a restaurant?’ I think that world is largely over.”

You can listen to my full conversation with Young on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen by just clicking play below.