At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants exercised creativity and ingenuity to keep the doors open. From new delivery and take-out methods, to expanding across third-party apps, to ghost kitchens, the emergency circumstances allowed for new ideas to be tested and flourish. Not only did some restaurants find ways of staying open during a tumultuous period, but some also even found new ways of doing business.
And as the dust has settled and restaurants have navigated through new restrictions, or regulations that might be here to stay, a critical eye has been turned upon these more inventive ways of serving food to customers—in particular, ghost kitchens. Ghost kitchens—known also as delivery-only restaurants, virtual kitchens, shadow kitchens, commissary kitchens, cloud kitchens, or dark kitchens—are setup for delivery-only meals. They weren’t an entirely new concept at the onset of COVID-19, but certainly grew in popularity at that time, often kitchen-sharing with other brick-and-mortar restaurants, perhaps with opposite hours.
But as Nation’s Restaurant News reported earlier this year, because of their growing popularity, the challenges of this concept are coming to light. “While traditional brick and mortar operators need to acquire proper licensing to run their restaurants, and health departments inspect with a critical eye of foodservice establishment kitchens, do the same rules apply to ghost kitchens? Can just anyone decide to run and operate a virtual restaurant out of their home?” writes Joanna Fantozzi for NRN.
In particular, Fantozzi explored the recent licensing and health violations designated to Reef Technology’s fleet of more than 5,000 ghost kitchens and mobile pods, which the company calls “vessels”. According to NRN, the company populated quickly by parking “ghost kitchens in garages and vacant lots, rapidly expanding the delivery zone of restaurant brands without expanding their real estate”—a inventive solution, in theory; but as these thousands of vessels were sent out to the masses, quickly stacked up issues for the brand.
Right now, there is not a large amount of oversight for ghost kitchens, which, when utilizing brick-and-mortar kitchen space, would need to adhere to the health and safety guidelines instituted for such kitchens. But when the ghost kitchen becomes mobile, one can assume that the licenses and standards would mirror those of a food truck. But what if it’s both? “At Reef, most of the food prep takes place in commissary kitchens before the food is finished in execution kitchens like the small mobile vessels. The vessels themselves have safety precautions that you might not find in a traditional kitchen, like probes that can sense unsafe levels of gas, while the company is constantly tweaking operations to fix problems like water hookups freezing in the winter,” reports Fantozzi.
While there are growing pains to expand into new and exciting ideas, as those ideas take root, guidelines must also be established. Now, the industry has turned its attention to this need, and restaurant owner-operators considering expansion into ghost kitchen operations should be aware of this scrutiny.
Richard Weil, principal and owner of National Restaurant Consultants, further emphasizes these points. “No matter the type of operation, all food service operations must prioritize food safety, health, and cleanliness. Cutting corners on these basics are truly recipes for bad outcomes. Make sure your staffs are well-trained and understand their roles, along with the importance of quality and cleanliness.”