Ghost kitchens, which are delivery-only restaurants with no storefront, continue to grow more popular, as consumers grow increasingly comfortable using restaurants’ mobile apps and meal aggregators to provide safe, convenient meals to eat at home. Now, household-name celebrities are getting into the delivery-only game, with both star chefs and non-culinary celebrities launching their own takes on the concept. As these stars attach familiar faces to novel new menus, they have an opportunity to bring new consumers into the ghost kitchen fold, creating both interest and trust.
Guy Fieri, for example, recently opened 100 ghost kitchens in 23 states, Restaurant Business reported, bringing new attention to the restaurant model. Celebrity chef David Chang also expanded his ghost kitchen presence, bringing his Fuku fried chicken concept to Baltimore, according to The Baltimore Sun. He promoted this opening by offering free Uber Eats delivery for weeks after the launch, incentivizing consumers to try out this potentially unfamiliar concept.
A wide range of non-restaurant celebrities have also been establishing their own ghost kitchens through solutions provider Virtual Dining Concepts, which supplies the infrastructure and marketing for these kitchens, reports Benzinga. Celebrities who have partnered with the company include Mariah Carey, who launched a delivery-only bakery, and Jersey Shore’s Pauly D, who created an Italian subs menu. Rapper Wiz Khalifa, meanwhile, created a marijuana munchies-inspired ghost kitchen with solutions provider Ordermark.
QSR giants with established brick-and-mortar presences are also expanding their ghost kitchen offerings, further familiarizing consumers with the concept. White Castle is opening a new ghost kitchen in Orlando, Florida next week, reports Bungalower, and Nathan’s Famous recently opened its 100th ghost kitchen. In November, Chipotle and Red Lobster both unveiled ghost kitchens, while chains such as McDonald’s and Starbucks have been piloting digital-only kitchens since pre-pandemic. These well-known QSRs do not face the same mistrust that newer, smaller restaurants may encounter when they enter the delivery space without an on-premises presence to build connections with consumers.
As ghost kitchens grow increasingly popular with consumers, more tech solutions emerge to facilitate these kitchens’ operations. NYC ghost kitchen Zuul, for example, launched ZuulOS to help kitchens manage multiple concepts from one location, reports Food on Demand. Zuul also partnered with Aurify Brands, the parent company of Five Guys and Melt Shop, among others, enabling Aurify to run several of its restaurants’ delivery-only offshoots from the same space.
As Zuul Chief Operating Officer Kristen Barnett told Food on Demand, “We would like to see the industry weaned off of third-party apps, [and] our goal is that any operator that uses ZuulOS can eventually shut them off. We hope that ZuulOS is that option for ghost kitchen operators as they navigate this landscape with, I think, pretty challenging financial structures offered by the dominant players.”
New entrants into the ghost kitchen space are not limited to big-name celebrities and QSR giants. As companies like Ordermark and ZuulOS lower the logistical barriers of entry, small restaurants are also getting into the game. For instance, as Boston.com reports, many Boston-local restaurateurs are launching delivery-only kitchens to get their food out to more consumers during the pandemic.
However, these ghost kitchens pose additional challenges for smaller businesses. As Boston restaurateur Ronald Liu, the founder of multiple successful ghost kitchens dating back to the pre-pandemic era, told Boston.com, “You have to work two to three times harder to achieve the same amount of sales as a brick and mortar. Obviously, there’s a trade-off with lower overhead and such, but it’s hard to scale. I think with ghost kitchens, they’re going to be more like a pop-up, like a chef having a passion project they want to do. But it’s going to be really tough from a long-term sustainability standpoint.”
Others have expressed similar sentiments, likening ghost kitchens’ success to a “house of cards” likely to topple soon. However, there is cause for optimism — online food delivery sales are expected to grow 7.5 percent annually through 2024, according to PYMNTS’ August Mobile Order-Ahead Tracker. Recent research revealed that 23 percent of all smartphone users will tap food delivery apps by 2023, and recent polling shows that roughly half of all consumers see themselves dining on-premises less often in a post-pandemic world. It is unclear what ghost kitchens will look like, say, five years from now, but many of them may very well be here to stay.
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