Ghost Kitchen/ Cloud Kitchen/ Shadow Kitchen/ Commissary Kitchen

Well seeing the thumbnail of GHOST KITCHEN. One may have an image of of a ghost, haunted house or haunted kitchen but the reality is a bit more mundane. Ghost Kitchen is the latest trend circling around the restaurant business. As the name suggest, its about the kitchen only with no storefront, no waiters, no dining room or sitting space and no parking lot. Well you won’t notice any public presence whatsoever. It all about the food preparation unit. 

Now must be thinking about - No public or customers around the Ghost Kitchen then how they survive. Means literally from where they earn money or generate profit. 

Well answer is simple - The dishes prepared in Ghost Kitchens are only available for delivery especially through third party apps like Swiggy, Zomato, UberEats, Grubhub etc. and some have their own websites and apps to deliver the food right at customers’ location. Some ghost kitchens also provide the facility of take away or drive through facility. Now we cap put it this way - Ghost kitchen is a professional food preparation or cooking facility setup for delivery only or carry out meal.  

The start of ‘Ghost Kitchen’

Well its not possible to tell when this concept was started or who was the first one to launch a ghost kitchen. This term was first used in 2015 in a NBC article By Chris Glorioso and Ann Givens and Evan Stulberger , Published November 10, 2015 (https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/seamless-restaurant-grubhub-fake-eatery-unregulated-kitchen-investigation-i-team-new-york-city/2013699/ )

They checked for 100 of New York top rated restaurants on Seamless and GrubHub (Online delivery platforms like Zomato and Swiggy in India). They found than more than 10 percent of the kitchens were Ghost. Mean the couldn’t find the addresses and even the brand names printed on the bills. There was no matching on any of the city’s database of restaurant inspection grades too. For the whole story you can check the link given in the description. 

With the time, now a days this term is also used for any food production facility used for delivery only purpose. Even the popular hotel, restaurants and hotel also started using this concept to make extra money. Which brings us to our next part which is different terms used interchangeably with ghost kitchen.

Synonyms of Ghost Kitchen

As the ghost kitchen mostly take their order from internet sources such as third party apps or even with their own website or app, thus these are also referred as Virtual or Cloud kitchen or delivery only kitchen. Also these kitchen don’t have storefront, sitting space and many a time its hard to find the actual food production facility that’s why its also called Dark Kitchen/Shadow Kitchen or Ghost Kitchen. 

Now there are some other terms also very much popular such as Commissary Kitchen. In this a person/owner creates a commercial kitchen (with all basic equipments) to rent out and that also adheres to local health and safety regulations and pays for required permits. Now anyone can use this kitchen, its equipment and space but needs to pay for using this kitchen. This might be based on hourly basis, daily basis or monthly basis. So without investing your own money use a commissary kitchen to sell food through digital platforms Which actually many of the ghost kitchen/food truck/caterers owners do. But in commissary kitchen you need to share the space and equipments with other people, making this an affordable option. As you are sharing the space and equipments That’s why its also called Shared kitchen. 

Well now a days many of the restaurants also started using their kitchen as commissary kitchen to earn some extra profits. 

Well moral of the story is that whether you call it cloud kitchen, virtual kitchen, shadow kitchen, commissary kitchen, dark kitchen, or ghost kitchen, at its core, it’s a kitchen/restaurant that primarily handles digital orders. Despite having several names, they have similar features and characteristics and exist to serve customers delivery-only meals.

Now the question is Why gosht restaurants or kitchens are becoming popular: 

One of the greatest USP of the ghost/cloud kitchen lies in its lower startup cost and low operating cost too. You doesn’t need dining space, waitstaff, furniture etc. 

Although this concept was becoming popular even before COVID-19 but it worked as a catalyst accelerating their growth. The lockdown forced the dining space to close down and people are still hesitating to go outside and dine in the restaurants. Now more than ever, running a brick and mortar restaurant is very high with skyrocketing overhead expenses in an uncertain demand period.  So many of the restaurants switched to digital platform and associated themselves to third party delivery apps to meet the expenses. And sincerely if you are planning to open a restaurant just try it with cloud kitchen, if it succeed you can expend it later on.

Well, also with the cloud kitchen, one can capture a wider audience. In restaurant you have limited seats but in cloud/ghost kitchen you can take as many order as you can complete.