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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Nimbus

DoorDash Opens Ghost Kitchen in Brooklyn, Serving Up Little Caesars, MilkBar & More

When DoorDash opened the first DoorDash Kitchen in California back in 2019, we speculated when they’d be expanding their ghost kitchen business beyond their home state.

As it turns out, that answer is almost three years later as the company opens its first location on the east coast. The latest location will be in Brooklyn, where the delivery company will partner up with five restaurants to offer menus for the delivery and take-out location. The restaurant partners for what DoorDash is calling a “delivery-forward food hall” are DOMODOMO, Kings Co Imperial, Pies ‘n’ Thighs, moonbowls, and Little Caesars. DoorDash Kitchens will also offer Birch Coffee and Milk Bar items, two popular NYC-founded chains.

DoorDash’s facilities partner for its NYC food hall ghost kitchen is commercial kitchen-as-a-service startup Nimbus. Nimbus, founded by Camilla Opperman and Samantha Slager, has two (soon to be three) locations in NYC, including Brooklyn, where DoorDash will set up shop. Like many newer commercial kitchen concepts, the idea behind Nimbus was to create space to power virtual brands for delivery and curbside pickup. The new location also has event space, where DoorDash and their restaurant partners can hold community meetings, dinners, and panel conversations.

“DoorDash Kitchens in Downtown Brooklyn will not only bring new restaurants to the neighborhood but offer an exciting new gathering place and create good local jobs for the community,” said Regina Myer, President of Downtown Brooklyn Partnership in the release. “We hope the neighborhood will join us in welcoming this innovative new space to Downtown Brooklyn.”

Brooklyn continues to gain stream as NYC’s center for innovative shared kitchen concepts. Last week Hungry House announced the opening of its Season 2, which included partnerships with ultra-fast grocery provider JOKR and popular Asian sauces and starters CPG brand Omsom.

Female-Founded Commerical Kitchen Nimbus to Open in NYC

Nimbus, a commercial kitchen space for food businesses of all types, is set to officially open on January 11 in New York City. With it, the company’s founders, entrepreneurs Camilla Opperman and Samantha Slager, aim to provide a space for restaurants struggling from both the pandemic and high cost of rent in NYC.

To learn more about Nimbus and its upcoming launch, I spoke with Opperman and Slager this week. The two said they were inspired to provide an “on-demand” kitchen space to support restaurants and start-ups in their city, but also wanted to go above and beyond the standard ghost kitchen concept.

Nimbus offers a variety of flexible lease and rental options that allow food businesses to control how much they are spending on rent per month. A restaurant or food entrepreneur can rent space at Nimbus for a range of different time periods, from a few months to just a few hours. They can also choose a longer-term lease if desired. Space in the facility costs $20/hour for the prep-only kitchen and $35/hour for the shift-kitchens with a 20-hour minimum per month for both. The Nimbus model also allows businesses to use a convenient online dashboard to book kitchen time, rent storage space, pay invoices, and store permit and insurance information. The kitchen spaces are fully stocked with appliances, saving the food businesses money in start-up costs.

Since ghost kitchens are very much a “back-of-house” operation, what goes on inside them is never really witnessed by customers. To deviate from this and provide more transparency into its operations, the Nimbus facility will also include a front-of-house community space and show-kitchen. These spaces can be used for cooking demonstrations, community events, and workshops, Nimbus said.

The first Nimbus location will host a variety of both existing restaurants and food startups. Roberta’s Pizza (wood-fired pizza), Quinn (a meal delivery service), Alchemista (offers catering and food locker services), Brooklyn Batched Cocktails (pre-made batch cocktails), and Munch Hours Inc (a catering company) are just a few of the businesses that will start using the commercial kitchen space on January 11. Businesses using the space will partner will existing food delivery companies such as DoorDash and Caviar.

As ghost kitchens become more popular — Euromonitor predicted last year the market could be worth $1 trillion by 2030 — different types are emerging that deviate from the traditional commissary a la Kitchen United or Zuul. Nimbus’ concept provides not just an opportunity for restaurants looking for shorter-term leases, but also a way for non-restaurant food businesses to take advantage of the growing ghost kitchen concept.

Nimbus’ cofounders said they are currently looking into opening two new locations in different areas of New York City. The company also has plans to expand nationwide in the next five years, starting in major cities such as Los Angeles and Miami.