Mapping the rise of ghost kitchens

Are ghost kitchens on their way to becoming a mainstream channel? What risks come with the opportunity they promise? Restaurant Dive aims to answer these questions and more in a six-part series.

Dark. Ghost. Host.

These are just a few of the names for the budding restaurant segment rising from the economic upheaval of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

But are ghost kitchens really on their way to becoming a mainstream, if not dominant, restaurant channel? And what risks come with the opportunity they promise restaurants? Restaurant Dive aims to answer these questions and more in a six-part article series that explores how much these concepts cost and what it takes to make them profitable, the major brands and independent operators that have launched ghost kitchens during the pandemic and what a more advanced ghost kitchen market would look like in the U.S. The series also includes a ghost kitchen calculator to help operators assess the financial profile and determine profitability of a ghost kitchen before developing their own concept.