How to Start a Ghost Kitchen: Requirements & Equipment
As more restaurants embrace delivery and invent new dine-out concepts across the country, they encounter some notable challenges.
Factors like spacing, zoning and additional operational costs can make it difficult to seamlessly incorporate delivery into a sit down restaurant. Fortunately, the growth of delivery also has ushered the growth of ghost kitchens. These facilities not only let restaurants cut down on operating costs, but they also help reduce the stress of reconfiguring existing space or building an entire kitchen from scratch. Below is a quick guide for how to start a ghost kitchen.
What is a Ghost Kitchen?
A ghost kitchen is a dedicated commercial kitchen where two or more restaurants have delivery or takeout orders prepared and cooked. The facility doesn’t have a dine-in area and is typically equipped with ordering software to process each restaurant’s order to ensure it’s received, prepped, cooked, packaged and out the door in a timely manner.
Many of these off-site kitchens are located on the outskirts of large urban areas.They often operate in facilities with affordable rent and ample parking for both staff and delivery drivers. By investing in a commissary kitchen, a restaurant can avoid additional costs associated with utilities, equipment operations, reformatting space and hiring extra staff.
“Commissary kitchen” is another popular term used for ghost kitchen. Other alternative names include:
- Cloud kitchen
- Dark kitchen
- Delivery kitchen
- Off-premise kitchen
- Shadow kitchen
- Virtual kitchen
Requirements for Ghost Kitchen Startups
There are several requirements needed to operate a ghost kitchen smoothly. Of course, items like takeout boxes, bags, delivery cases and other packaging are essential for delivery. They ensure that your food retains high quality from the minute it leaves the kitchen to when it arrives at the customer’s location.
But what about processing the order? Where do storage, prep and cooking come into play?
These are very crucial elements to look at when starting a ghost kitchen. The considerations below help make the day-to-day operations in these establishments as smooth as possible while also improving the customer’s experience.
POS & Delivery Platforms
Solid software and technology needs to be in place at both the commissary kitchen and partnering restaurants. This helps keep orders and other details from slipping through the cracks.
“Where the kitchen is located and how you’re servicing the customers isn’t going to be incredibly different,” said Crystal Rinker, director of marketing and sales for Burkett Restaurant Equipment & Supplies. “What is going to be different is your delivery mechanism. Do you have the technology to support it?”
Rinker included that many ghost kitchens require strong POS and delivery platforms that can process not only orders from a restaurant’s app or website but also orders coming through a third-party delivery service, such as Uber Eats, DoorDash, or GrubHub.
There are many options on the market to support new ghost kitchens, but you should look for a POS system that is multifaceted. For instance, an off-site facility and its partnering restaurants should consider a solution that includes a delivery dispatching system, a customer retention tool and an online ordering platform. It also needs to integrate seamlessly with third-party delivery services to ensure that orders make it to the kitchen quickly.
Concept & Equipment
Perhaps the biggest factor in a ghost kitchen is the concept. It’s very important that the restaurants using the off-premise facility have related concepts or at least similar ways of making food. This helps drive what equipment the kitchen will use.
“It really comes down to identifying what the concept is and marrying the equipment to it,” Rinker said. “Every kitchen is going to have a range and fryer. Everybody needs multiple refrigeration and freezing options. But identifying the concept is always important. [In a ghost kitchen], you’re going to always look at things like speed and dual function in order to meet the demands.”
Since a ghost kitchen is responsible for making different types of food for more than one restaurant, it should support different methods for storage, prep and cooking. But some facilities might lack the space to adequately hold multiple pieces of commercial equipment.
Fortunately, multipurpose equipment can tackle this issue. According to Rinker, there are a lot of versatile options currently on the market. For example, some of the latest commercial ovens can handle convection, steam and combi cooking. There also are cooking stations that house an oven, burner and fryer bank all in one unit. These types of equipment give a ghost kitchen the versatility to whip up different dishes in the same unit.
“A combi oven is great because you can do multiple things with them and they’re fast,” Rinker said. “That speed has a certain attractiveness to as well in ghost kitchens.”
However, some multiuse cooking equipment can only handle one cooking method at a time. So if a commissary kitchen has multiple orders come in at the same time this could delay the cooking process and delivery time.
Rinker said that choosing multipurpose equipment with multiple chambers is key. Known as vector cooking, this option lets you operate at different cooking temperatures and methods in the same unit at the same time.
“Consider something that has a double deck in it,” she said. “There is some equipment where you have an ability to control those unique temperatures and settings in each separate compartment. Now you can truly prepare two things simultaneously.”
Safety Measures
Even if your customers are not coming in and sitting down it’s still crucial that commissary kitchens incorporate safety measures in their facility. From cleaning to protective gear, below are ways these facilities can incorporate safety measures to protect staff and delivery drivers.
- Wear protective equipment – Ensure that everyone from cooks to prep-line staff are wearing masks and gloves at all times. Always adhere to local ordinances or guidelines for proper PPE.
- Create space in the kitchen – Zone the ghost kitchen in a way that prevents cross contamination in order to accommodate certain dietary requirements such as gluten free. For instance, having separate areas designated for prep, cooking and packaging can help.
- Set up sanitizing stations – Have hand sanitizing stations throughout the kitchen and in the pick-up area by the entrance and exit.
- Clean the kitchen and front area daily – Clean and sanitize everything from the countertop surfaces and floors to the equipment to the kitchen equipment and break areas every day. For equipment, follow the daily cleaning instructions in the operator’s manual.
Client-Facing Technology
You also want to keep your clients happy by offering them an optimized experience with your ghost kitchen. There are several technologies to incorporate into your ghost kitchen to provide this.
- A Website - Websites are essential for any business in the digital era. A website is a great way to establish your presence as a ghost kitchen with potential restaurant owners. You can offer things like digital tours to showcase the facility and what equipment is available. That way a restaurant can determine if your facility is a right match for them and the food they serve. Or you can add a contact form so restaurant owners can reach out about working with your ghost kitchen and get new clients.
- A Mobile App - Most people always have a smartphone of some kind on their person. So you can give them access to manage the space they are occupying in your ghost kitchen from the palm of their hand with a mobile app. Maybe you’re a ghost kitchen that rents out in time slots like 8 hours instead of long contracts. You can let restaurants quickly reserve times.
A Welcoming Lobby
When delivery drivers or customers come in to pick up their orders you want them to feel safe and welcomed in the lobby area. This designated space for people to wait for their orders is really vital to give the customer a good experience. No one wants to be in a poorly lit and dirty lobby. Here are some ways to create a welcoming lobby.
- Lighting - Something as simple as proper lighting and remembering to change out the dead light bulbs can really go a long way. Being in a well lit facility just makes you feel a little bit safer. So make sure you provide proper lighting in the lobby
- Cleaning - You also want to make sure the lobby gets cleaned when you do your daily clean up. Walking into a dirty lobby can make a customer or delivery driver uncomfortable and probably concerned about the condition of the kitchen. Make sure it is tidy and presentable so customers feel safe about where their food is coming from.
- Seating - While you are a ghost kitchen and not actually offering sit down dining you can still have a few nice chairs in your lobby. This way while delivery drivers or customers wait to pick up an order they can have a seat and wait comfortably.