{"id":25482,"date":"2020-10-07T15:10:52","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T19:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-gordon-food-service-canada.pantheonsite.io\/ideas\/the-ghost-kitchen-phenomenon-is-it-right-for-you\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T11:00:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T15:00:51","slug":"the-ghost-kitchen-phenomenon-is-it-right-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/the-ghost-kitchen-phenomenon-is-it-right-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ghost Kitchen Phenomenon \u2026 is it Right for You?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>An innovator takes some of the mystery out of what it takes to succeed.<\/h2>\n<p>Ghost kitchens. Dark kitchens. Cloud kitchens. Virtual restaurants. No matter what you call them, they\u2019re a hot topic for off-premise dining, and recently, they\u2019ve gained more attention. Ghost kitchens, <a href=\"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/ghost-kitchens-its-not-spooky-you-think\">operations configured as delivery or pickup only<\/a>, have seen growth in recent years as a way to eliminate front-of-house expenses.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This has spurred some operators to explore continuing as a ghost kitchen or partnering with a third-party company. Participants in a recent Technomic Inc. webinar asked former Kitchen United CEO Jim Collins how ghost kitchens work. Here is a summary of his conversation:<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s the model for a ghost kitchen?<\/strong><br \/>\nIn the beginning, cheap real estate in an industrial park was popular. Experience has shown that a 7,000 to 10,000-square-foot place close to where people are walking around, visiting and working makes sense. A typical design contains eight to 12 individual kitchens, so each restaurant has its own space.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>What services does a ghost kitchen provide?<\/strong><br \/>\nThe people who do the cooking are restaurant employees. The ghost kitchen manager opens the building, makes sure deliveries go to the right kitchen, runs the \u201cpickup center\u201d where payments are processed and a delivery driver or customer collects the order. They also can work with various distributors on orders to help our restaurants get their food costs down.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What does it cost?<\/strong><br \/>\nSome restaurants pay a fixed fee and some pay a percentage of revenue. The cost is similar to renting a very small restaurant in the neighbourhood. Most restaurants operate between 40-60% of their general revenue in a ghost kitchen, but they do it using only 25% of their typical staff.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What kind of brands benefit most from a ghost kitchen?<\/strong><br \/>\nMost ghost kitchens are quick-serve or fast-casual. The secret sauce for success is to have a vibrant digital connection with your customers. Restaurants that do really well are active on social media and have really powerful marketing messaging on their website. It takes a micro approach\u2014what really matters is the delivery radius right around the ghost kitchen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Will full-service restaurants expand into ghost kitchens?<\/strong><br \/>\nBefore 2020, fine dining wasn\u2019t embracing off-premise, but many had to pivot during the pandemic to stay open. Part of their appeal is the dining-room experience, and that should return over time. They still can succeed in off-premise if they have a customer connection and <a href=\"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/ensure-staying-power-your-takeout-and-delivery\">a menu that makes sense<\/a> for delivery and pickup.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What types of menus have been most successful?<\/strong><br \/>\nCuisine popular in the surrounding area is most likely to succeed. But the operator\u2019s commitment matters. If Mexican food, Asian food or chicken wings are in high demand, that doesn\u2019t guarantee success. You can\u2019t forget: This is food, and it has to taste good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An innovator takes some of the mystery out of what it takes to succeed. Ghost kitchens. Dark kitchens. Cloud kitchens. Virtual restaurants. No matter what you call them, they\u2019re a hot topic for off-premise dining, and recently, they\u2019ve gained more attention. Ghost kitchens, operations configured as delivery or pickup only, have seen growth in recent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":26786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,68,123,112,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-catering-small-business","category-culinary-ideas","category-hotels-hospitality","category-restaurant-bars","category-running-your-business"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.9 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Ghost Kitchen Phenomenon \u2026 is it Right for You? | Gordon Food Service<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/the-ghost-kitchen-phenomenon-is-it-right-for-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Ghost Kitchen Phenomenon \u2026 is it Right for You?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An innovator takes some of the mystery out of what it takes to succeed. Ghost kitchens. Dark kitchens. Cloud kitchens. Virtual restaurants. No matter what you call them, they\u2019re a hot topic for off-premise dining, and recently, they\u2019ve gained more attention. Ghost kitchens, operations configured as delivery or pickup only, have seen growth in recent [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/the-ghost-kitchen-phenomenon-is-it-right-for-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gordon Food Service\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GordonFoodService\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-07T19:10:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-01T15:00:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Ghost-Kitchen-Idea-Center-Article-Image-760x400_0.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"760\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cody Rivers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cody.rivers@gfs.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@GFSDelivers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cody Rivers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Ghost Kitchen Phenomenon \u2026 is it Right for You? | Gordon Food Service","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/the-ghost-kitchen-phenomenon-is-it-right-for-you\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Ghost Kitchen Phenomenon \u2026 is it Right for You?","og_description":"An innovator takes some of the mystery out of what it takes to succeed. Ghost kitchens. Dark kitchens. Cloud kitchens. Virtual restaurants. No matter what you call them, they\u2019re a hot topic for off-premise dining, and recently, they\u2019ve gained more attention. Ghost kitchens, operations configured as delivery or pickup only, have seen growth in recent [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/the-ghost-kitchen-phenomenon-is-it-right-for-you\/","og_site_name":"Gordon Food Service","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GordonFoodService\/","article_published_time":"2020-10-07T19:10:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-01T15:00:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":760,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Ghost-Kitchen-Idea-Center-Article-Image-760x400_0.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cody Rivers","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cody.rivers@gfs.com","twitter_site":"@GFSDelivers","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cody Rivers","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/the-ghost-kitchen-phenomenon-is-it-right-for-you\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/the-ghost-kitchen-phenomenon-is-it-right-for-you\/"},"author":{"name":"Cody Rivers","@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/#\/schema\/person\/ac2dd585b10d08ce15daca230d897374"},"headline":"The Ghost Kitchen Phenomenon \u2026 is it Right for You?","datePublished":"2020-10-07T19:10:52+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-01T15:00:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/the-ghost-kitchen-phenomenon-is-it-right-for-you\/"},"wordCount":477,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/the-ghost-kitchen-phenomenon-is-it-right-for-you\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Ghost-Kitchen-Idea-Center-Article-Image-760x400_0.jpg","articleSection":["Catering &amp; Small Business","Culinary Ideas","Hotels &amp; Hospitality","Restaurant &amp; Bars","Running Your Business"],"inLanguage":"en-CA"},{"@type":["WebPage","CollectionPage"],"@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/the-ghost-kitchen-phenomenon-is-it-right-for-you\/","url":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/the-ghost-kitchen-phenomenon-is-it-right-for-you\/","name":"The Ghost Kitchen Phenomenon \u2026 is it Right for You? 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