The Ghost Kitchen Revolution

Over the last several years the restaurant industry has seen disruption from Apps such as DoorDash, UberEats, GrubHub, and Postmates - bringing a revolution in food delivery that has grown 300% faster than dine-in services over the last 5 years. Restaurants have begun to see the potential with offering online orders through the Apps, with restaurants seeing an average increase of sales around 20% when partnering with these third-party delivery service apps. With the delivery revolution has come a new breed of ‘restaurants’ that such as Ghost Restaurants - a delivery-only ‘restaurant’ that does not have a brick and mortar physical location. These virtual restaurants are allowing new and existing restaurants to form delivery-only options for their customers using existing food product. For example, a Taco food truck can take their excess product and spin it into a virtual Burger spot that offers delivery only.

Where do Ghost Kitchens come into play? Ghost Kitchens are also known as Cloud Kitchens, Shared Kitchens, Dark Kitchens, Virtual Kitchens.  Ghost kitchens are commercial kitchen facilities that are set up solely for virtual delivery-only restaurant brands. These virtual kitchens set up shop in the Ghost Kitchens so that they have access to commercial kitchen equipment, and it gives them a home base of operation. The food is cooked and prepped at the Ghost Kitchen and then picked up for delivery from a third-party delivery service. The Ghost Kitchen model is allowing for chefs to set up single or multiple ‘restaurants’ that exist only for delivery - creating different brands along the way all from a single location. And with the popularity of food delivery apps increasing at such a rapid rate it is only a matter of time before the Ghost Kitchen business model begins expanding at a similar rate.

Since Ghost Kitchens are designed solely for the cooking and not for customer appeal the design is generally highly efficient. There is no need for the set up to be designed any other way than highly functional to allow speedy and efficient food prep. Limited kitchen equipment is communal - walk-in refrigerators, dishwashers, stove tops, etc. are owned and maintained by the Ghost Kitchen, and the virtual restaurants are paying rent to use them.  By not leasing the restaurant space or owning / maintaining the kitchen equipment these virtual restaurants are able to run with significantly lower overhead costs than general brick and mortar restaurants. In densely populated cities like New York or Los Angeles it can be almost too expensive to lease your own establishment to serve as your restaurant, and the Ghost Kitchen model allows restaurants to exist by renting out their space - similar to how WeWork allows companies to rent desk space instead of an entire office.

As food delivery apps continue to rise in popularity, so will the rise of the virtual restaurant. As apps like DoorDash, UberEats, GrubHub, and Postmates, continue to disrupt the restaurant industry the need for Ghost Kitchens will continue to rise, allowing a great business opportunity for entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, and the like who are looking to get in on a rising trend in the restaurant world. HoodMart provides our customers with a wide range of Ghost Kitchen exhaust hood systems - from Compensating (Short Cycle) to Perforated Supply Plenum PSP - as well as all exhaust hood accessories such as no weld Grease Duct, hood filters, canopy hood lights, and curbs. We also offer a wide range of walk-in refrigeration systems to meet your needs.   If you still have questions regarding the purchase of your hood system, please feel free to contact one of our experts today by calling us at 1.866.692.5872 or by contacting us through our live chat system.