Ghost Kitchens In The Post COVID-19 World

Across the US and the world, small businesses and restaurants are working to come through the other end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the most hard hit businesses have been restaurants due to the social distancing and lockdown measures put in place to help flatten the curve. The majority of restaurants came into 2020 successful largely in part to in-person dining, and now that they are limited to how many people they can seat, if they can even open their doors at all, there is a need to adapt to the new restaurant landscape that is rising. One shift in restaurant business models that is rapidly growing in popularity is the Ghost Kitchen.

To start - what is a Ghost Kitchen? Ghost Kitchens, otherwise known as virtual kitchens or cloud kitchens, are commercial kitchen spaces rented out by restaurants with the idea of offering their dishes strictly through online ordering and delivery. With the COVID-19 lockdowns in full swing and no end in sight, restaurants are turning to Ghost Kitchens to push out existing and new menu items to as many customers as possible using 3rd party delivery apps such as GrubHub, UberEats, and Postmates. Restaurants and brands can rent Ghost Kitchen space, even from local restaurants that are currently closed to the public, and save themselves the costs of running a brick & mortar restaurant location while still being able to provide their dishes to the masses.

Let’s dive into the benefits of Ghost Kitchens. Number one without a doubt is reduced rent and lower overhead costs. By renting the kitchen space, the ‘virtual restaurant’ loses the responsibility of paying rent in high foot traffic areas, the cost to furnish and upkeep a dining area, and the cost of maintaining an entire kitchen of equipment. Another incredible benefit to the Ghost Kitchen is the increase in workflow and efficiency. When a brick & mortar restaurant is set up, they are built out in a way that maximizes the efficiency for dine-in customers, and adding online deliveries to that kitchen puts a bottleneck on the output and quality of the food. With a dedicated Ghost Kitchen space, you are focusing strictly on the online orders that are coming in, giving room for restaurants and chefs to try out new dishes, and even build out a whole new menu with a different ‘brand’ restaurant. A single restaurant owner can now offer several different menus across different styles of food, and can do it under different brands without the need to open new physical locations each time.

Ghost Kitchens are the perfect restaurant evolution during these uncertain times. With people being unable to visit physical restaurant locations they are turning to online delivery services at insane rates - recent surveys show that 31% of consumers are using a 3rd party delivery service at least once a week, 34% are spending $50 or more on their orders, and online ordering as a whole has grown 300%+ faster than their dine-in counterpart revenues year over year over the last 5 years. Restaurants that are already in operation can even offer up kitchen space to rent as a Ghost Kitchen to help supplement business income lost due to COVID-19. There is a whole new horizon coming for the restaurant space and online delivery through Ghost Kitchens will surely be here to stay long after the pandemic is over.

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.