Guy Fieri is the latest chef to bet on ghost kitchens to expand his brand in the middle of the pandemic. Fieri, perhaps best known as the host of fame for eating cross-country Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, launched Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Kitchen in 23 states and Washington, DC, a restaurant that only delivers, operating in existing restaurants or industrial kitchens, and serving the type of American cuisine with flavors that Fieri has become known for – stuffed hamburgers , fried pickles, and snacks wrapped in meat. Of course, there is a lot of donkey sauce.
Flavortowns (Flavorstown?) Operate mainly in restaurant kitchens, such as Buca di Beppo, Brio Italian Grille, Bravo Italian Kitchen and Bertucci’s. Some of these restaurants have already opened their kitchens to ghost restaurants, also called virtual brands or delivery-only concepts. For example, Bravo Italian Kitchen in Des Peres, Missouri, is home to Flavortown Kitchen and MrBeast Burger, the phantom kitchen project of YouTube sensation of the same name. Fieri already has a small chain, Chicken Guy, with Robert Earl, owner of Bertucci’s, Bravo, Brio and Buca di Beppo. In addition, Earl – who built his empire on themed restaurants like Planet Hollywood – is the founder of Virtual Dining Concepts, which oversees MrBeast Burger and Tyga Bites.
The expansion of phantom kitchens was already underway before the pandemic. Some of these brands, such as MrBeast or Tyga Bites, are named after a celebrity, while others, such as Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings (which operates from Chuck E. Cheese) and Buca di Beppo’s Wing Squad, allow established networks to serve a wider public variety of foods from their existing kitchens. (All of these, except Chuck E. Cheese, are part of Earl’s portfolio.) In addition, independent chefs used the format to launch pop-ups from their own restaurants. Hundreds of concepts across the country could be launched as “ghost kitchens” more easily than if they had to operate as traditional restaurants.
Fieri has spent a lot of time during the pandemic raising money and defending restaurant workers – and feeding firefighters in Northern California. He raised $ 21.5 million for an aid fund with the National Restaurant Association, from which restaurant workers could apply for $ 500 grants. Although places like Buca di Beppo are hardly independent restaurants, presumably the Fieri’s restaurant concept keeps some members of the service industry employed at a time when restaurant work is precarious.
However, all of this clashes with the fundamental tension surrounding the restaurant industry throughout the pandemic: the importance of keeping restaurants running and paid workers at a time when government aid has been repeatedly denied, and the reality of that restaurant workers experience a greater risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19. This makes many workers feel extremely insecure, but they are forced to return to work because it is their only option. And the $ 500 subsidies that Fieri helped raise are insignificant, especially considering that the National Restaurant Association has repeatedly argued against increases in minimum wages and paid sick leave for restaurant employees.
Many ghost kitchens operate in exclusive partnerships with apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash, with fees that have proved detrimental to independent restaurants. (Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Kitchen uses Olo, but is available for delivery on most third-party delivery apps.) And while ghost kitchens have the potential to offer non-established or cashless chefs a way to get their food out with less expense than a traditional restaurant, many are created by people like Earl, who already have money or support for a startup rarely available to independent companies. In partnership with Fieri through Flavortown Kitchen, Virtual Dining Concepts can reinforce several businesses at the same time, that is, keep a Buco di Beppo running at the same time that it shoots Tyga Bites and Jalapeño Pig Poppers from Flavortown.