Operations

DoorDash opens commissary kitchen

Adding fuel to the ghost restaurant movement, third-party deliverer DoorDash this month opened a commissary kitchen in Silicon Valley, enabling concepts to deliver food in that area with a lesser financial burden than adding a brick-and-mortar location.

A pizza restaurant operator from the Bay Area was the first to sign on for one of the commissary’s four kitchens, which total 2,000 square feet, according to Business Insider.

DoorDash will be the sole deliverer of the pizza concept’s food produced in the commissary, where rent for kitchen space is determined using a portion of gross sales, Business Insider says.

Despite much industry buzz, problems have beset a number of so-called ghost restaurants, with prominent players such as Maple and Sprig shutting their virtual doors earlier this year. Another, David Chang’s headless concept, Ando, recently transformed into a fast casual, with its CEO calling delivery-only concepts “not profitable” at this time.

Grubhub has no plans to follow its competitor into the commissary kitchen arena in the near future, Grubhub COO Stan Chia told Business Insider.

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