The New Recipe for Restaurant Survival? Become the Next Domino’s.

So-called “ghost kitchens,” which have no storefront and exist only online and in delivery apps, were until recently a novelty, but are now becoming more popular. One of Your Fare’s clients managed to cram 10 different restaurant concepts into a single ghost kitchen, and each served customers on four different delivery platforms.

Before the pandemic, delivery apps made sense to drive incremental sales for restaurants that primarily made money on dine-in customers, says Chris Monk, founder and chief executive of Your Fare, an Austin, Texas-based startup that sells a system to restaurants for consolidating orders from delivery services. For most restaurants, though, the math ... See more

Many restaurants, especially the small ones that represent the majority of all eating establishments in the U.S., dislike delivery apps. They charge up to a 30% commission, which owners say is unsustainable. They also control data that would otherwise enable direct relationships with customers.

In February, 12.3 million people worked in bars and restaurants, and by April, the number of people employed by food service and drinking establishments in the U.S. had declined by 6.1 million, making it the hardest hit category of employment tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In May, 1.4 million of those workers were back at work, represen... See more