Kitchen United doesn't like to be called a ghost kitchen company, and its newest location certainly does away with most of the "ghost" part of that terminology.
Built inside the former Wells Street Market food hall in Chicago's downtown Loop, the new outlet is nearly identical in appearance to a traditional food hall. That's a change from other KU locations, which have a limited front-of-house and multiple kitchens in back preparing food for pickup and delivery only.
Most of the 10 kitchens in this "virtual food hall" are easily visible, complete with signage and clear sightlines into the back-of-house. There are also nods to the on-premise experience, such as indoor and outdoor seating and even a large circular bar that will be operated by Kitchen United.
The main difference between it and a regular food hall is that walk-in customers have to order from a kiosk or their mobile device through Kitchen United's Mix platform, which allows them to combine items from multiple concepts on a single ticket. The location also accepts off-premise orders via Mix and the major third-party delivery providers.
Customers can order from multiple restaurants from Kitchen United kiosks. / Photograph by Joe Guszkowski
That means the restaurants don't need a staffer working the cash register. And the more open atmosphere is intended to give the restaurant brands, which include Smokey Bones, Dog Haus and Hawaiian Bros, greater visibility in a market where they're relatively new, said Dustin Mares, KU's director of enterprise partnerships.
All three moved to the food hall from Kitchen United's other Chicago location, which is not as centrally located and has a minimal customer-facing presence. That location houses mainly larger, well-known chains such as Panera Bread and White Castle that don't necessarily need the marketing boost of a physical storefront.
The new spot in Chicago's central business district is Smokey Bones' only Chicago outpost, and it will help the Jacksonville, Fla.-based chain more easily connect with its customers, said Cole Robillard, Smokey Bones' VP of marketing. The barbecue chain is also running its two virtual brands—Wing Experience and Burger Experience—out of the new kitchen.
The other tenants are Siri Express, a local Indian concept, and Los Angeles-based Greenleaf, which is also running the Trejo's Tacos and Camile Thai concepts out of its stall. On Wednesday night, Greenleaf's kitchen was bustling with eight employees filling orders for the three brands.
Peet's Coffee will be moving in soon, and will be the largest brand in the facility. There will also be a KU-run stall selling appetizers for bar patrons as well as take-and-bake items.
Kitchen United is located in Chicago's Loop, a business district and transit hub. / Photograph courtesy of Kitchen United
Like at other Kitchen United outlets, the restaurants are only responsible for cooking and packaging the food. KU employees grab and sort the orders and hand them to customers or delivery workers at a central pickup counter.
So far, the order mix at the new location has been 50/50 between delivery and pickup, Mares said, but that could shift more toward pickup as workers return to their downtown offices. It has been open for about a month and is typically busier during lunch, while KU's other Chicago facility does more dinner business, he said.
Kitchen United is not the only ghost kitchen company to begin using a less "ghostly" model. Ghost Kitchen Brands is growing quickly inside Walmart stores, and C3 will soon launch its own digital-forward food halls in high-traffic areas. Many CloudKitchens locations are also centrally located with visible storefronts.
This approach should help these businesses capture both online and in-person guests, offering more volume as well as a potential hedge against the still-uncertain future of delivery.
Ironically, many restaurants are doing the exact opposite these days: shrinking their footprints in favor of more kitchen space for filling digital orders.
The industry seems headed for a prevailing format that is somewhere between the two. And when the dust settles, maybe we can agree to just call all of these places "restaurants."