Financing

A look at the future of virtual restaurant brands

A Deeper Dive: Robbie Earl, co-founder of MrBeast Burger operator Virtual Dining Concepts, joins the podcast to discuss the digital-only brands.

What is the future of virtual restaurants?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Robbie Earl, the co-founder of Virtual Dining Concepts.

The company is now the largest operator of digital-only brands, which operate inside other restaurants, ghost kitchens and other facilities. They typically do not have a traditional storefront.

Virtual brands were all the rage during the pandemic but for various reasons they have slowed coming out of it. Some of them have been quite successful and others not so much.

We talk about how virtual brands can ensure the restaurants they work with produce quality food. We discuss whether they should open more brick-and-mortar locations. We ask about Virtual Dining Concepts’ relationship with MrBeast Burger, currently embroiled in litigation.

And we talk about what makes a good virtual brand partnership and whether anything has changed more recently.

This is a fascinating discussion about a fascinating topic so please check it out.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on Spotify.

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Financing

Here' why Dutch Bros outperformed Starbucks last year

The Bottom Line: Data from Technomic shows that the drive-thru chain is outperforming its much larger rival on numerous metrics, which may help explain the brands' diverging performances.

Financing

Here's what we're looking for this upcoming earnings season

The Bottom Line: Here are a few key topics we’re watching as restaurant chains start reporting their end-of-year earnings next week, including Starbucks, McDonald’s, the Trump effect, optimism and weather.

Financing

As Trump 2.0 starts, another round of inflation may loom for restaurants

Threatened tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China could have a widespread impact on the industry, as could immigration restrictions, just as the environment normalizes.

Trending

More from our partners