[ad_1]
Guy Fieri is the latest chef to rely on ghost kitchens to expand his brand in the midst of a pandemic. Fieri, perhaps best known as the host of cross-country gastronomy Dinners, drive-in and dives, launched Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Kitchen in 23 states and Washington, DC, a delivery-only restaurant operating out of existing restaurants or industrial kitchens and serving the kind of tasty Americana cuisine that Fieri has become known for – stuffed burgers, Fried pickles and meat wrapped snacks. Of course, there is a lot of donkey sauce.
Flavortowns (Flavorstown?) Mainly work 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 known as virtual brands or delivery-only concepts. For example, Bravo Italian Kitchen in Des Peres, Missouri, is home to both Flavortown Kitchen and MrBeast Burger, the YouTube sensation’s ghost kitchen project of the same name. Fieri already owns a small chain, Chicken Guy, with Robert Earl, the owner of Bertucci’s, Bravo, Brio and Buca di Beppo. Additionally, Earl – who built his empire on themed restaurants such as Planet Hollywood – is the founder of Virtual Dining Concepts, which oversees MrBeast Burger and Tyga Bites.
The expansion of ghost kitchens was well underway before the pandemic. Some of these brands, like MrBeast or Tyga Bites, rely on a celebrity name, while others, like Pizza & Wings from Pasqually (which operates out of Chuck E. Cheese) and Wing Squad from Buca di Beppo. , allow established chains to serve a wider variety of food from their existing kitchens. (All of these, with the exception of Chuck E. Cheese, are part of Earl’s portfolio.) On top of that, independent chefs have used the format to launch pop-ups from their own restaurants. Hundreds of concepts across the country have been able to launch more easily as “ghost kitchens” than if they were to function 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 a relief fund with the National Restaurant Association, from which restaurant workers could apply for grants of $ 500. While places like Buca di Beppo are hardly independent restaurants, it can be assumed that Fieri’s restaurant concept allows some members of the service industry to remain employed at a time when restaurant work is precarious.
However, all of this comes up against the fundamental tension around the restaurant industry throughout the pandemic: the importance of keeping restaurants afloat and workers paid at a time when government assistance has been repeatedly denied. , and the reality that restaurant workers contract and die from COVID-19. This leaves many workers feeling extremely unsafe, but forced to return to work because it is their only option. And those $ 500 grants that Fieri helped raise are paltry, especially since the National Restaurant Association has repeatedly advocated against minimum wage increases and paid sick leave for restaurant workers.
Many ghost kitchens operate in exclusive partnership with apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash, with fees that have proven to be 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 cash-strapped chefs a way to getting their food out with lower overhead costs than a traditional restaurant, many are created by people like Earl, who already have financial or start-up support rarely available to independent businesses. By partnering with Fieri through Flavortown Kitchen, Virtual Dining Concepts can empower multiple businesses at once, i.e. keep a Buco di Beppo running while launching Tyga Bites and Jalapeño Pig Poppers from Flavortown.
[ad_2]
Source link