DoorDash Dine-in Food Hall and the Evolution of Cloud Kitchens
DoorDash Kitchens has opened a DoorDash Dine-in food hall in New York City where customers can actually sit and have food that they ordered via the app! DoorDash is expanding its presence in the on-premise restaurant sales market by opening a food hall in New York City. This is the company’s latest move in this direction. The company made the announcement on Monday of this week that the Downtown Brooklyn location of DoorDash Kitchens will offer food from five different restaurant brands, both local and national. DoorDash Dine-in Food Hall is an initiative of the restaurant aggregator DoorDash.
The Collaboration with Nimbus in Brooklyn
In a statement, the Senior Director of DoorDash Kitchens Ruth Isenstadt said, “New York is one of the many hubs for noteworthy eateries, and we’re proud to bring DoorDash Kitchens to Brooklyn in collaboration with Nimbus, adding even more choices for food-lovers to choose from in their neighbourhood.” Nimbus is the company that is bringing DoorDash Kitchens to Brooklyn. Nimbus Kitchen is a shared-use commercial kitchen that provides culinary entrepreneurs with memberships similar to those offered by WeWork.
The following table outlines the key partners and brands associated with the new location:
| Brand Name | Type of Partner |
|---|---|
| Moonbowls | First national chain to share the space |
| Little Caesar’s Pizza | National chain partner |
| Birch Coffee | Dine-in and takeout service provider |
| Kado Patisri | Dine-in and takeout service provider |
| Milk Bar | Dine-in and takeout service provider |
A Delivery-Forward Dining Experience
The new location of DoorDash Kitchens, which is being marketed as a “delivery-forward food hall,” comes complete with kiosk seating, a fine dining area, and a countertop with barstools that overlooks an open kitchen. Although it provides a physical space, the new DoorDash Dine-in Food Hall concept is not very similar to traditional food halls in many other respects. “DoorDash Kitchens Brooklyn is optimised for delivery, whereas many food halls tend to focus on their on-premises offerings,” says senior director Ruth Isenstadt. Specifically, this virtual food hall does provide some seating as it can accommodate up to 20 diners at once. DoorDash Dine-in Food Hall has indicated that it is working to determine the possibility of adding outdoor seating.
In terms of operations, the DoorDash Kitchens spot in Brooklyn is open from 7 a.m. to 11 pm, with the final hour of operation being dedicated solely to the processing of orders for delivery. Isenstadt goes on to say that the restaurants operating out of DoorDash Kitchens Brooklyn feed into a centralised dispatch area, which means that they share a pool of drivers to a significant extent. Dashers pick up from their own window, which is located outside the building, in order to further optimise the process of delivering packages.
Broader Trends in the Cloud Kitchen Industry
In the same way that the cloud kitchen concept gave aspiring restaurateurs the chance to serve a large clientele without the overhead costs of operating a physical restaurant, DoorDash’s most recent innovation gives vendors the chance to test out an expansion into a growing market. This mirrors efforts by other industry leaders. The startup Kitchen United calls itself the future of takeout and delivery, with stripped-down locations in Chicago; Austin; Pasadena, California; and Scottsdale, Arizona. Kitchen United is a virtual kitchen, playing host to 10 or so already-established restaurants in each facility. Some virtual kitchen companies, like Reef Technology or Travis Kalanick’s CloudKitchens, sometimes build their facilities in industrial areas or abandoned parking lots, where rent is cheaper and room is abundant.
During a pandemic, takeout is hot and so are ghost kitchens. Research completed last year by the consultancy Foodservice IP counted 119 ghost kitchens around the country, run by companies like Kitchen United, Reef, Zuul Kitchens, Katopi, or CloudKitchens. However, as restaurants move to the cloud, some observers worry about a loss of culture and community. A new generation of diners is just going straight to app-based delivery, instead of enjoying that palpable thing at a restaurant. For restaurateurs, delivery feels different, and many miss conversations with regulars and knowing what they’d eat before they ordered.
