Running multiple restaurants from a single, delivery-only, ghost kitchen

[eugenep]

This idea seems kinda interesting. It doesn't seem like 4 restaurants but 1 restaurant serving different foods but consumers can be fooled into thinking it's 4 since its a ghost/delivery-only kitchen. I think that former Uber-guy, Travis K., was investing heavily into this idea and building them out? Restaurants can take in the revenues of 4-5 restaurants if they can do it successfully. 

 

Article in the Wall Street Journal quote: 

"

For his latest culinary venture, veteran New York City chef Franklin Becker has decided to tackle what might seem like a mission impossible. He is opening four restaurants at once, each with different themes and menus, from the Israeli-inspired Shai to the Southern-styled Butterfunk Biscuit Co.

 

The challenge is mitigated by the fact that Mr. Becker won’t have any actual dining rooms to manage. The restaurants are delivery-only—or ghost kitchens, as they are called in the industry. And they will all operate out of a single location, a 490-square-foot space in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood." 

 

See https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-city-chefs-go-the-delivery-route-11613829601?mod=hp_lista_pos3 

 

[liuzhou]

So he isn't opening four restaurants at all. He is opening a kitchen which makes four different types of food and so four menus. it's all just marketing.

Edited February 20, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[Anna N]

34 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

So he isn't opening four restaurants at all. He is opening a kitchen which makes four different types of food and so four menus. it's all just marketing.

Yes, the article is very misleading. 

[Steve R.]

What's old is new again.  About 20 years ago (longer?), a local Chinese restaurant (with Chinese American owners whom I sorta knew) closed its doors and then re-opened, mostly as a take-out/delivery place, in a less populated nearby area.  We all got flyers, with the full menu, advertising this.  Soon thereafter, the neighborhood got flyers announcing the opening of a "country kitchen" take-out/delivery place with fried chicken, meatloaf, etc.  And, not long thereafter, another bunch of flyers advertising a new ribs/bbq joint for takeout/delivery.  All with different names, all with different phone #s, all with completely different menus.  All with the same address and, as I quickly found out, the same kitchen.  The Chinese food still sucked, the country kitchen was ehh/okay & I liked the ribs place's stuff.  I went there and told the owner that.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

This brings back a remembrance from the last century.  In a New Jersey strip mall north of here there were an Afghan restaurant and a Thai restaurant that shared the same kitchen.  I'm told the owners were an Afghan/Thai couple.  I only sampled the Afghan establishment but I thought the food was excellent.