Are Ghost kitchens to food as remote learning was to schools?
Are Ghost kitchens to food as remote learning was to schools?
Fake brands pumped out in industrial kitchens for delivery are now all over the country following the pandemic
Did your mom or dad ever watch you eating something questionable and tell you "there's no food in your food?"
Well, now you have a matching eatery situation. Welcome to there's no restaurant in your restaurant.
Ghost kitchens popped up all over the country during the pandemic when brick-and-mortar restaurants were forced to close. Food from different ghost kitchens often seems to vary in quality depending on the individual item ordered, but like remote learning for K-12 kids during the pandemic, it seems like customers, like parents, are slowly becoming aware of what is and what isn’t really going on.
A ghost kitchen serves food through delivery apps like Door Dash. Postmate, Uber Eats, and Grubhub but does so under the facade of up to dozens of separate restaurant names.
In other words, that taco you ordered from a taco restaurant that popped up on your app likely came from a single kitchen.
To be honest, my first thought when I encountered a ghost kitchen situation was this scene from the movie Demolition Man where all restaurants are now Taco Bell’s because the chain “survived the franchise wars.”
While Ghost kitchens may be fake, are a real nightmare for local family-owned restaurants. Here's why.
Profits for ghost kitchens could become a $1 trillion global market by 2030, according to some estimates. Other estimates predict $71.4 billion by 2027.
By 2030, ghost kitchens are predicted to take over a 50 percent share of both the drive-thru and takeaway food service markets.
The delivery apps making ghost kitchens possible are also seeing a huge jump in activity. An example is Uber Eats which had $4.8 billion in global revenue in 2020 but shot up to $8.3 billion in 2021 alongside the explosion of ghost kitchens operating both in the U.S. and other countries.
These kitchens are referred to in media reports as being "virtual," in that there are no physical locations to go sit down and eat at. The physical kitchen is often a warehouse or similar location. Ghost kitchens have no host, waitstaff, managers, or other employees. In other words, generic food is being cranked out with very low overhead costs.
The flip side is no overhead or front-of-the-house costs let potential restaurant owners try out their products before investing in a physical location.
But the larger ghost kitchens aren't propping up would-be restauranteurs, they are hosting big and recognizable national chain brands like Wendy's, Cracker Barrel, and Applebees.
Other examples include It's Just Wings operated by Chili’s, Pasta Americana operated by Ruby Tuesday's, Pasqually's is really the kid party venue Chuck E. Cheese, and if you order from Hibachi Ko, you are really ordering from Benihana.
If we're being honest here, these kitchens aren't virtual, they are fake restaurants and some of them are selling subpar products or misrepresenting their food.
One ghost kitchen identified by social media users is called "Local Culinary." Apparently, Local Culinary has been tied to upwards of 50 fake restaurants using generic names that will pop in a search app like Pizza Mania, El Taco Loco, or Burger Chef.
Folks ordering food from some of these fake restaurants have found they have the same address as ghost kitchens or that the fake restaurant turns out to be food from a chain restaurant.
Here's an example, Denny's owns and operates multiple "virtual brands." In 2021, Denny's announced its virtual brands would include The Burger Den and The Melt Down.
Folks ordering from generic-looking websites like The Melt Down and The Burger Den should browse the "about" pages before ordering as they often list where the food is really coming from.
Many of these ghost kitchen ventures present sumptuous-looking food, but what's delivered is often not as advertised.
More To The Story
Are there ghost kitchens in North Carolina? You betcha.
Flavor District opened up last fall in an old Golden Corral location on Capital Blvd. in Raleigh.
The Wilmington area also has a variety of ghost kitchens popping up, per Star News online.
If you ordered from Bistro 501 or The BBQ Co. of Chapel Hill, you have really ordered from a ghost kitchen literally called Ghost Kitchen Eats which was launched in 2020 by The Catering Company of Chapel Hill.
There are upwards of 40 ghost kitchens in Charlotte, most of which are run by major chains like Chili's or Maggiano's, according to the Charlotte Observer.
Last August, Youtube sensation and one of North Carolina's favorite sons, Mr. Beast, opened a ghost kitchen restaurant chain "MrBeast Burger." The venture reportedly earned annual revenue of $100 million.
There's even one at the Raleigh-Durham Airport called "getReef Virtual Food Hall." This ghost kitchen has a food pick-up location in Terminal 2, which means it likely has some type of actual kitchen on-site due to airport security measures.
The food boasted by getReef is allegedly that of name brands like The Cheesecake Factory, Daily Harvest, and Pei Wei to name a few, but also from some outfits you've probably never heard of, including items from at least one food truck.
getReef is owned by Reef Technology; the largest ghost kitchen operator in the country. The RDU ghost kitchen is run by Reef through a partnership with a ghost kitchen outfit in the Raleigh area called Hubb Kitchens.
"HUBB Kitchens provides an opportunity to those starting or expanding their culinary business by removing the upfront cost of having a brick-and-mortar location," according to the company's website.
Hubb Kitchens also has ghost kitchens in other airports like Dulles in D.C. and will open one in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in 2024.
Want to know if a ghost kitchen is operating near you? A website called Ghost Kitchen Network has a way for food service businesses to see where they can obtain ghost kitchen opportunities.