4 ms·

Right, the ghost kitchens make (generally) terrible food, but are able to get orders by spamming the DoorDash/UberEats search pages. And if a particular brand g

by necubi 2y ago

Right, the ghost kitchens make (generally) terrible food, but are able to get orders by spamming the DoorDash/UberEats search pages. And if a particular brand gets too many bad reviews, no problem. Shut down and start a new one with another punny name. Traditionally restaurants (like many software companies, incidentally) live and die by their "brand" and by their ability to get repeat customers. This more-or-less aligns incentives between the restauranteur and their patrons. But under the ghost kitchen model, there's no reputation, no real brand, so the restaurant is incentivized only to make food as quickly and cheaply as possible.

cyberax 2y ago
That hasn't been my experience with ghost/dark kitchens. They work great for niche ethnic foods that might not attract enough foot traffic.
rockemsockem 2y ago
The cloud kitchens I've ordered from were great and often had food that you wouldn't be able to get whatever, like just basic roasted chicken. I think it's a fantastic model where a talented chef can just focus on cooking.
- necubi 2y ago
  There's nothing inherently wrong with the disaggregation of kitchen and dining rooms, so certainly you can get good food out of a commissary kitchen. In my area there's an amazing korean katsu place that's run out of one. But restaurants like that are fighting against the incentive structure, and the incentives always win.
quirino 2y ago
That's also my issue with dark kitchens. Apps list actual, physical restaurants, next to what is just people making food in their own homes. And I've found instances of the name changes you mentioned. There's this "premium" burger place I like has alternative "delivery first" menu with lower cost offerings and a whole different name and branding. You can also order from this menu in person but you need to ask for it. I find this to be an interesting strategy.
apantel 2y ago
It’s the same with news and media. The traditional media companies (news, television, newspapers), etc all had to be massive brick-and-mortar businesses with huge capex (printing presses, broadcast equipment, etc). Very high barrier to entry, high cost to play, and you had to organize all of it under a real brand tied to real plants and offices… which meant you had to care about your reputation… which meant you had to make sure your editorial department was doing a good job. Now the web is full of bootstrapped digital media outlets that have no skin in the game in terms of real-world presence. They don’t have printing presses to run. They don’t have delivery trucks. They don’t have inventory to manage. It’s just air. There’s nothing there. Maybe a single open-plan office, or just a group of digital nomads working out of a corner of a coworking space. You can build and tear down an outfit like that in a week. Whereas to spec out, order, install, house, operate, and amortize/depreciate a single printing press would be a multi-year to multi-decade undertaking by a real business. It’s all fluffy clouds now.
hot_gril 2y ago
Seems easy to avoid by just not ordering delivery from a restaurant that you've never tried, seen IRL, heard of, or even read good reviews for.

by necubi 2y ago

cyberax 2y ago

That hasn't been my experience with ghost/dark kitchens. They work great for niche ethnic foods that might not attract enough foot traffic.

rockemsockem 2y ago

The cloud kitchens I've ordered from were great and often had food that you wouldn't be able to get whatever, like just basic roasted chicken. I think it's a fantastic model where a talented chef can just focus on cooking.

necubi 2y ago
There's nothing inherently wrong with the disaggregation of kitchen and dining rooms, so certainly you can get good food out of a commissary kitchen. In my area there's an amazing korean katsu place that's run out of one. But restaurants like that are fighting against the incentive structure, and the incentives always win.

quirino 2y ago

That's also my issue with dark kitchens. Apps list actual, physical restaurants, next to what is just people making food in their own homes. And I've found instances of the name changes you mentioned. There's this "premium" burger place I like has alternative "delivery first" menu with lower cost offerings and a whole different name and branding. You can also order from this menu in person but you need to ask for it. I find this to be an interesting strategy.

apantel 2y ago

It’s the same with news and media. The traditional media companies (news, television, newspapers), etc all had to be massive brick-and-mortar businesses with huge capex (printing presses, broadcast equipment, etc). Very high barrier to entry, high cost to play, and you had to organize all of it under a real brand tied to real plants and offices… which meant you had to care about your reputation… which meant you had to make sure your editorial department was doing a good job. Now the web is full of bootstrapped digital media outlets that have no skin in the game in terms of real-world presence. They don’t have printing presses to run. They don’t have delivery trucks. They don’t have inventory to manage. It’s just air. There’s nothing there. Maybe a single open-plan office, or just a group of digital nomads working out of a corner of a coworking space. You can build and tear down an outfit like that in a week. Whereas to spec out, order, install, house, operate, and amortize/depreciate a single printing press would be a multi-year to multi-decade undertaking by a real business. It’s all fluffy clouds now.

hot_gril 2y ago

Seems easy to avoid by just not ordering delivery from a restaurant that you've never tried, seen IRL, heard of, or even read good reviews for.