Local Kitchens, a new ghost kitchen concept that allows customers to order from multiple local restaurant brands, has opened in the San Francisco area with locations in Lafayette, San Jose and Cupertino, California.
Local Kitchens operates outposts of Curry Up Now, Glaze, Humphry Slocombe, The Little Chihuahua, MIXT, Proposition Chicken, Saucy Asian, Señor Sisig and Wise Sons, offering both delivery and takeout in its 10,000 square foot spaces. Unlike many shadow kitchen models, Local Kitchen operates all of its locations with its own staff, who have been trained by the individual restaurants to produce all menus, Local Kitchen CEO and co-founder Jon Goldsmith said in a statement. interview with Restaurant News of the Nation.
Goldsmith and his partner, Andrew Munday, who is the chief operating officer, worked together at DoorDash – Goldsmith in engineering and Munday in operations – before launching Local Kitchens. Jordan Bramble, chief technology officer, is also a co-founder.
“There was a massive move away from bricks and mortar, and we felt well positioned to help restaurants navigate that,” Goldsmith said.
Customers can order from multiple restaurant concepts on a single ticket.
With its locations in suburban communities, Local Kitchens also provides a platform for its restaurant partners to reach customers in new markets and to reconnect with customers who may have moved to suburban home offices during the pandemic.
“We’ve heard from long-time restaurant patrons who said they were thrilled to have this food a little closer to home,” Goldsmith said.
The company’s multi-restaurant ordering platform – available through its website and through its on-site kiosks, but not through third-party delivery apps – helps increase the concept’s appeal to families or others. groups who might prefer to mix and match menu items from multiple notions.
Local Kitchens promotes its service in local markets, and many of the restaurant brands it works with also promote the increased availability of their concepts through social media or other means.
Jon Goldsmith, co-founder and CEO; Jordan Bramble; co-founder and chief technology officer; Matthew Rudofker, Culinary Manager; and Andrew Munday, co-founder and COO.
The company has entered into “franchise” type agreements with each of the concept restaurants it works with to produce the dishes using the same ingredients, recipes and cooking processes as the traditional venues, Goldmsith said. The kitchens have several quality control points to ensure that food is produced according to standards.
“Our staff is highly engaged with the Local Kitchens team to ensure the perfect execution of our offerings,” Ari Feingold, owner of Proposition Chicken, said in a statement. “Quality and consistency are top priorities for us, and Local Kitchens delivers on both counts.”
Local Kitchens worked with the concepts to develop reduced menus of the most popular items, as well as packaging optimized for delivery and takeout, the latter accounting for the “majority” of volume at the sites, Goldsmith said.
The concept offers both delivery and take-out.
The Local Kitchens model is similar to that of Ghost Kitchen Brands, which expands into Walmart stores in the United States and Canada and also uses its own staff to produce menus for its partner restaurants for take-out and delivery.
Staffing levels vary by volume, but Local Kitchen typically has around eight workers at each location, each working at assigned production stations that can support multiple brands.
Goldsmith said he plans to expand Local Kitchens with additional locations in the San Francisco Bay Area in the near term, then expand into new markets later this year, working with existing restaurant partners. and new.
“It depends on each restaurant and their growth plans for their brands,” he said. “We have people looking to expand regionally or even nationally.”
