Back at the start of 2020, interest in ghost kitchens started to rise. In 2021, it exploded. Now 2022 is looking to be another stellar year for this segment.
Ghost kitchens are, essentially, commercial kitchens with no attached front-of-house or drive-through service. These properties have been turning heads and profits lately, thanks in part to our nation’s increasingly insatiable desire for food delivery.
Who uses ghost kitchens?
Both internet-only and brick-and-mortar restaurants use ghost kitchens, but for different reasons. For internet-based eateries, it’s where everything happens. For traditional restaurants, they may rent space to allow for faster response times for delivery orders.
Ghost kitchens benefit from not needing central locations in expensive neighborhoods to work. They can go wherever the rent is cheap, so long as delivery personnel can come and go with ease.
Investors are interested
Some estimates predict ghost kitchens will account for more than 20% of the restaurant industry by 2025. With numbers like that, they appear to be more of an industry pivot than a trend.
That’s what operations like Kitchen United are banking on. They recently opened their third location in New York City. They also acquired a different ghost kitchen operator and software developer, Zuul. With expansion plans for multiple metro markets across the country, they’re running with full confidence that ghost kitchens are only going to increase in popularity over the coming years.
So far, that prediction seems to be right.