Covid-19 will make the 'ghost kitchen' trend stronger than ever

Ghost kitchens became the hot new restaurant industry trend in 2019. Even big-name tech talent got in on the action, with former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick backing start-up CloudKitchens. In essence, ghost kitchens provide the “kitchen” piece of a restaurant operation without the on-premises dining or direct customer interaction—no host or wait staff, no cashier. The contactless customer model focuses on take-out service only, delivered mainly via apps such as GrubHub and UberEats. For entrepreneurs just starting, the ghost kitchen model provides a lower cost, faster time to market option than opening a full-service restaurant. For existing brands, ghost kitchens provide a lower risk method to expand into new areas or test out an entirely new concept. What no one saw coming in early 2020, however, was that the ghost kitchen trend would become a necessity for nearly every restaurant around the globe within a matter of months. With the emergence of COVID-19 and stay-at-home guidelines, many of the world’s restaurants had to close to foot traffic, leaving them with a choice: either temporarily close, or pivot to a delivery or take-out model.