Ghost (Restaurant) Stories
June 2017
Today, people feel comfortable ordering nearly everything online. According to Restaurant Business, 82% of consumers order meals for at-home delivery, and 19% agree that they’re choosing delivery over carryout more often. Apps such as DoorDash, UberEats and GrubHub are making it simpler than ever for consumers to enjoy their favorite foods in the comforts of their own homes. Still, some restaurants are taking their delivery options one step further.
Think of your favorite restaurant. It’s likely that you can imagine the environment—the seats, the tables, the smells and the sights. But what if you didn’t know these things about your favorite eating establishment? What if it didn’t have a brick-and-mortar location at all?
Meet the ghost restaurant. The ghost restaurant is a business with no physical location for patrons to visit. Instead, it thrives on delivery orders.
Green Summit Group operates various delivery-only restaurants in the New York and Chicago metropolitan areas. The company has eight concepts in New York, with 50 chefs and two kitchens producing more than 7,500 meals each week.
Besides meeting a growing consumer demand for delivery options, ghost restaurants have a number of other benefits. Operational costs are significantly lower than those of brick-and-mortar establishments. Ghost restaurants also lend themselves to more flexible food options, since there’s no need to print (and reprint) menus or redecorate based on a certain cuisine theme.
While it’s unlikely that ghost restaurants will ever fully replace traditional eateries, it’s important to understand what’s happening in the world of foodservice and how it can affect your business. Browse our Resource Center to learn more.
SOURCES
Wirth, Sarah Rush. The Consumer Carryout Craze, Restaurant Business, January 2017.
Lien, Tracey. How food delivery apps have changed the game for restaurants, Los Angeles Times, March 2017.
Ungerleider, Neal. Hold The Storefront: How Delivery-Only “Ghost” Restaurants Are Changing Takeout, Fast Company, January 2017.
Prange, Jackie. Could Ghost Restaurants Be the Way of the Future?, TouchBistro, February 2017.
