Where have all the Ghost Kitchens Gone?
"As a restaurant owner, you need to be aware of what’s going on in your restaurant at all times while keeping up with back office duties.
From staffing and guest experience to inventory and order flow to payroll, marketing and bookkeeping, it’s enough to make anyone crazy without the right support systems in place." Benjamin Simmons , CEO at Table Needs .
"High Bluff Capital Partners, the parent of?Quiznos ,?Church's Texas Chicken 's , and?Taco Del Mar , is in the running to purchase bankrupt?Hardees 's restaurants.
Earlier this month, large Hardee's franchisee?Summit Restaurant Group ?Holdings?declared bankruptcy.
The operator once had more than 145 restaurants across 14 states, but recently shut down 39 stores.
Prior to filing, the company hired Brookwood Associates to help with a sales process.
Court documents state that a company called ARC Burger is the stalking horse bidder and is looking to spend $11.7 million to purchase between 53–73 stores, with the potential to add up to 15 more.
According to Bankruptcy Company News, ARC Burger is an acquisition vehicle formed by High Bluff.?"
"High Bluff Capital’s restaurant platform,?REGO Restaurant Group ?uses targeted capital, scale, management expertise, and a focus on innovation to revitalize iconic restaurant brands.
The platform’s growing portfolio consists of differentiated restaurant brands that are beloved by guests and have a loyal following."
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Daddy's Chicken Shack was founded in 2018 by married couple Pace Webb and Chris Georgalas. The restaurant evolved from fried chicken sliders Webb served from her catering business, Taste of Pace.?
The company's franchise growth plan kicked off in 2021 when Area 15 Ventures, LLC —owned by RE/MAX co-founder and chairman Dave Liniger —made a significant investment. Now, the brand has 160 locations in development across?Florida, Texas, Colorado, California, Georgia, and Arizona.
Daddy's Chicken Shack currently has one open unit in Houston.?
Liniger, who also serves as the chain's regional developer for Scottsdale and Denver, will transition to board chairman. The first location in Scottsdale will open later in May.?
Good observations by Leticia Miranda , who writes:?
"Ghost kitchens, which are restaurant kitchens that only offer delivery, became a popular and affordable way for fledgling restaurants to launch on a shoestring budget and for existing companies to bring in additional revenue during the pandemic.
As traffic and sales at major restaurants cratered, they hopped on to the trend. In 2021,?Wendy’s Co. announced plans?to open 700 ghost kitchens across the US, Canada and the United Kingdom.
REGO Restaurant Group ?said its Quiznos and Taco Del Mar brands were set to open 100 ghost kitchens?the following year.?Even as investing cooled last year, the trend sparked a startup funding surge with dozens of companies snapping up millions of dollars to run ghost kitchens for some of the biggest names in food.
Commercial real estate company 世邦魏理仕 predicted that by?2025, ghost kitchens would account for 21% of the US?restaurant industry.?Many of those plans have fizzled in a normalizing world.?
The Wendy's Company announced last?week that?it will permanently close the?entire US?ghost kitchen business it launched with Reef Technology. The closures are expected to delay Wendy’s goal of reaching net unit growth of 2% to 3% until the second half of this year, Chief Executive Officer Todd Penegor told investors last week.
Butler Hospitality , which ran ghost kitchens for?hotels, quietly?shut down last year, leaving clients without food services and vendors without payment.
CloudKitchens , which counts Uber Technologies Inc.’s co-founder Travis Kalanick as an early investor,?lost a string of restaurant partners last year.?Reef Technology itself is?pivoting to focus on providing its technology to?stadiums and airports including Raleigh-Durham International Airport, where it runs a food hall operating system?that lets travelers?order ahead from any of its nine restaurants using kiosks or their phones.
"The Infinite Kitchen name is not new; Spyce first used the name when it launched its second-generation robotic kitchen platform in November 2020 and, like the new sweetgreen Infinite Kitchen, the system was visually reminiscent of the Creator burger makeline.
The system’s conveyor belt runs under ingredient dispensers that drop customized mixes of fresh ingredients into bowls."
Who is cleaning these machines, we wonder?
Joe Caruso, is possible to go-fast and get 160 units open, as per Daddy's Chicken Shack? Franchising, LLC?
Dee Karawadra, what is your take on the restaurant POS question? Thanks.