Ghost in the Machine

Ghost kitchens—or restaurants that prepare food exclusively for delivery and have no physical footprint outside of a commercial kitchen—are the hottest start-ups in the restaurant world. They live almost exclusively in the virtual landscape of third-party delivery apps and their numbers are growing by the day. Chowly, a POS integration company, estimated there were 100,000 virtual restaurants on third-party apps back in August, a number that likely looks archaic by the time you’re reading this.

Many think of these ghost kitchens as new, faceless entities haunting warehouse districts (which they can be, especially in bigger cities) or as the soulless culmination of our obsession with convenience and delivery. But ghost kitchens aren’t new, they’re here to stay, and, depending on who you ask, they could actually be good for independent restaurants—both aspiring and existing. “I think independent restaurants can effectively set up a ghost kitchen and do well,” says longtime Colorado restaurant consultant John Imbergamo. “Especially since the delivery apps have become a regular part of our daily lives, they are a strong option.”

ChefReady, a Platt Park kitchen space for 10 ghost concepts, opened in November. Its tenants get year-round access to 200 to 250 square feet of cooking space, a brand awareness boost via ChefReady’s marketing channels, and the ability to deliver via any service they choose. Heck, they can even switch concepts nightly or operate as multiple restaurants simultaneously. With lower rent, build-out, and back of house costs—not to mention no dine-in area to staff and design—it’s a lot cheaper and easier to start up a restaurant this way than the Herculean task of financing a conventional brick and mortar. “Ghost kitchens are good for independents in that they allow them to do what they do best,” says Nili Malach Poynter, ChefReady’s co-founder. “We viewed this as the chance to give a lot of chefs and entrepreneurs the chance to succeed. The model gives them the chance to not just work for the landlord, but to work for themselves. Chefs are artists, and this really gives them the ability to not worry about all the other bullshit, to just be in the kitchen creating.”