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The pandemic has hit restaurants hard, but experts say the ‘ghost food hall’ concept might save them - The Washington Post

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The pandemic has hit restaurants hard, but experts say the ‘ghost food hall’ concept might save them - The Washington Post

The pandemic has hit restaurants hard, but experts say the ‘ghost food hall’ concept might save them - The Washington Post

Posted: 20 Jul 2020 02:09 PM PDT

"I realized that my restaurants — and any restaurants, in fact — were sort of doomed in the way they do business," Gordon said.

Then he saw that takeout and delivery at Little Beast, his family-friendly pizzeria in the Chevy Chase neighborhood, was earning 110 percent of the restaurant's pre-pandemic sales. Dine-in service at any of his restaurants was unlikely to provide adequate revenue for months, even years, Gordon mused, but a takeout and delivery-oriented establishment might thrive.

Enter Ghostline, an establishment that will gather several chefs cooking in different styles to offer takeout, delivery and limited patio seating in the Glover Park neighborhood starting Sept. 1, without serving customers inside. This "ghost food hall" is among a few food establishments whose owners are betting on an unusual business model to carry them through a crisis shaking the foundations of the restaurant industry.

Ghost food halls combine "ghost kitchens" — which serve meals exclusively by delivery — and food halls, both of which have become popular in recent years, said Alex Susskind, associate dean for academic affairs at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. With the pandemic making indoor dining less safe than before, he said many people who were skeptical of takeout and delivery are suddenly using those services frequently and finding themselves hungry for new food options.

"And let's be real," Susskind said. "People get tired of pizza delivery."

In addition to Ghostline, Pasadena, Calif.-based Kitchen United and Click Virtual Food Hall in Houston appear to be among the only other ghost food halls in the country.

Kitchen United opened its first location in May 2018 and has since expanded to Chicago, Austin and Scottsdale, Ariz., CEO Jim Collins wrote in an email. Each of the company's "kitchen centers" houses several restaurant brands with their own space, equipment and cooking staff, while Kitchen United employees maintain the space and handle the logistics of pickup and delivery.

"Our Kitchen Centers thrive when our restaurants thrive and the restaurants thrive when they're busy," Collins wrote. "That means making sure they're the right size (about 10 kitchens), in the right areas (high population), and that the restaurant brands and cuisines offered in our locations are already popular with nearby consumers."

Click Virtual Food Hall did not respond to a request for comment.

Making a kitchen or food hall "ghost" is about reducing operating expenses by forgoing service staff and an attractive interior, Susskind said. He said owners have to factor in delivery costs and, like Gordon, may choose to employ their own drivers to get more polished service and save the 20 percent or higher fees charged by third-party companies such as Uber Eats. Workers for ghost food halls in cities can also deliver by bicycle.

Because most ghost food establishments offer only delivery, Susskind said owners usually choose an affordable location that may or may not be in a population-dense area. Gordon said his food hall will be on one of the city's main arteries, Wisconsin Avenue NW, to be convenient for people who want to get takeout or sit on the patio, which has room for about 50 people to remain at a social distance. Driving in person to pick up food, he said, might be someone's only entertainment for the evening amid the pandemic.

Gordon expects about 80 percent of his business to come from takeout, as well as delivery within a two-to-three-mile radius including downtown offices where workers may order food when they return to the buildings. He removed half of the existing seating in the ghost food hall's building — formerly a different restaurant — to create more kitchen space and has reserved three nearby parking spots for delivery drivers and takeout customers.

Customers who eat outside will order at their tables, but with less contact than they would get at a restaurant before the pandemic. The idea, Gordon said, is to maintain some element of the typical restaurant experience within this atypical model.

Gathering several chefs at a ghost food hall makes the project cheaper and decreases the financial risk, said Rick Camac, dean of restaurant and hospitality management at the Institute of Culinary Education. Ghost food halls can rely on limited menus, lean staffing and commissary kitchens where cooks share bulk items like oil and salt.

Although the coronavirus hastened the rise of food-industry trends already in the making, Camac said the concept of ghost food halls will probably remain successful after the pandemic wanes. Fine dining has already been declining for years, he said, and months of self-quarantine have changed people's perception of what makes a good meal.

"We now think it's more reasonable to spend $100 on delivery and eat in front of a great movie," Camac said. "By no means does it mean that this is the end of restaurants as we know it, but we have turned this corner that I don't think we ever thought we were going to turn."

As Camac sees it, the only potential sticking point in opening a ghost food hall is coordination. This kind of establishment involves running not just one restaurant, he said, but multiple restaurants within a restaurant. Neglecting to choose the right management team creates the potential for failure, he said.

Still, Camac, Susskind and Gordon all said they expect many restaurateurs to follow in Gordon's footsteps.

The business model, Gordon said, "meets a lot of the requirements of the time." Multiple chefs contribute to the costs of rent, packaging and delivery, making the enterprise much less expensive than it would be for any chef striking out on their own. Already, Gordon said having the leverage of multiple chefs allowed them to drive down their credit-card processing fee from 3 percent to 2.5 percent.

Gordon thinks the idea is certainly worth a try. "I think restaurants and chefs are going to get desperate soon."

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the city where Click Virtual Food Hall is located. It is in Houston.

Carbon Labels Are Finally Coming To The Food And Beverage Industry - Forbes

Posted: 20 Jul 2020 07:02 AM PDT

It's been over 25 years since food packaging started displaying its nutritional contents. It's since become second nature to check the calorie, sugar, salt, and fat content of food or drinks before buying them.

But this isn't enough for consumers anymore. There's rising demand for another type of food label as people become increasingly concerned about climate change, and conscious of how they're contributing to it.

Just Salad recently announced it will display the carbon footprint of every item on its online menu by Climate Week on September 21 this year, making it the first restaurant chain in the U.S. to do so. It also has plans to publish the carbon labels on in-store menu boards.

Each product will list the total estimated greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of the ingredients of each menu item, drawing on databases and research that calculates the carbon emissions associated with hundreds of foods.

The carbon lifecycle of a food includes agriculture, such as fertilizers, manures that emit gases, land conversion that releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and livestock digestion; transportation, packaging and food processing.

According to the research, vegan foods tend to have a lower carbon footprint than animal products. Enter Quorn, a leading meat substitute company that announced in January it would start carbon labelling on its products available in stores beginning June this year. The U.K. brand has been working with The Carbon Trust since 2012 to measure the carbon emissions of its operations, so it already had the necessary data.

"People get nutritional data on food packaging to help them manage their health, so we think it's essential to give people carbon emissions data so they can manage the environmental impact of the food they choose to buy," says Sam Blunt, commercial operations director at Quorn Foods.

Plant-based milk brand Oatly first analyzed the life cycle of its products in 2013 and decided to put their climate footprint on packaging five years later, after making improvements to its production in Sweden, including switching to using renewable energy. Now, it has carbon labels online and on some product packaging on European products, and is in the early stages of doing this in the U.S.

"We want to raise awareness around the massive effect our food choices have on the climate," says an Oatly spokesperson. "Many people don't know the impact of what they eat because that information isn't readily available. We think consumers have a right to information about the climate impact of what they consume, just as they have the right to information about nutritional values."

There's hope that having carbon labels on food will help encourage change on an individual level, and that it will help educate consumers to eat a more environmentally friendly diet. One study found that the labels showing environmental information improved the carbon footprint of a person's diet by around 5%, compared to standard food labels.

"As people become more and more aware of the environmental impact of what they buy, we absolutely expect carbon labelling to become common-place and for it to influence purchase decisions," says Blunt. 

Currently, food production contributes to 26% of global carbon emissions, and there's no doubt that emissions on this scale are fundamentally changing natural ecosystems, and reducing biodiversity and ecological resilience.

"Food is the strongest lever we have as individuals for fighting climate change," says Sandra Noonan, Just Salad's chief sustainability officer.

"If, as a society, we start paying attention to our dietary carbon footprints, much as we pay attention to our daily caloric intake, we could alter the course of planetary history."

But the impetus to do this already exists and is growing – and the hope is that carbon labelling will help consumers to carry out their desire to lower their carbon footprint. Research indicates that over half of consumers are willing to change their eating habits to help reduce negative environmental impact, while a survey of 10,000 consumers in Europe showed that two thirds supported carbon labelling of products.

The brands starting the nascent carbon labelling movement are hopeful the introduction of carbon labels will also help drive improvement across the food industry.

"We hope there will be healthy competition to 'race to the bottom,' in terms of emissions," says an Oatly spokesperson.

Behind the food chains and brands introducing carbon labels to their food, there is the important work of analyzing individual food items' carbon footprint. Carbon Calories is one of the companies producing carbon footprint reports aimed at consumers, showing grams of carbon dioxide emissions per day.

This allows consumers to compare products, including food and other products, such as clothes and vehicles, using the same metric. Its database also shows these products' carbon footprint against a daily carbon quota, so consumers can weigh up their consumption decisions against a daily goal.  

Alexander Frantzen, founder and chief executive of Carbon Calories, believes that consumers, when they become aware that companies can provide carbon footprint information on products, will influence companies not just across food, but all industries.

"Once a few brands begin to put carbon footprint labels on their products, we believe that consumers will use that information to inform their decisions; and will begin to demand it from other companies," he says.

Frantzen believes that when customers can make such informed decisions by a handful of companies, it will compel other companies to do the same.

"If [these companies] can determine and deliver product carbon footprint assessments for their products, then other companies can and should likewise step up to the plate," he says. "This is not about shaming. This is about assessing where we currently stand and then transforming business activities to reduce emissions."

According to research, the introduction of nutritional labelling reduced consumers' intake of calories by almost 7% and total fat by over 10%.

Robert Shirkey, Executive Director of Our Horizon, a national not-for-profit organization that works with governments to require climate change disclosures on gas pumps, views these developments as a positive step, but argues we need to work to make the messaging more explicit, since carbon emission units aren't meaningful to most consumers. "It's like if we had labels on cigarette packages that read, 'Each cigarette contains 10 mg of tar.' What do these values even mean? How does it affect me? These sorts of designs connect 'a' dot but not 'the' dots. Instead, we have tobacco labels that say, 'Smoking causes cancer.'"

Noonan agrees that context and education is critical, and sees opportunity to bring greater meaning to the emissions data. "We're developing materials that will explain how to read a carbon label, make sense of the actual number, and incorporate that information into one's daily food choices. We have lots of ideas on sharing this information visually and making it engaging. For example, in the nutrition facts section of our menu, we plan to show how a salad's carbon footprint compares to a 'reference food.'"

If carbon labelling can become as ubiquitous as nutritional labels, then it might not be too long before it has a meaningful impact on individual dietary change, and by extension, the food industry as a whole.

"Consider all of the things we track in our lives on a daily basis: our bank account to see where we are spending our money, and tools like My Fitness Pal to see how many calories we're ingesting according to the recommended 2,000 calorie amount per day," says Noonan. "Showing the carbon footprint of a food item should be no different, and should serve to inform people to make educated decisions for personal and planetary health."

Brooklyn eatery serves soul food — and food for the soul - WTOP

Posted: 20 Jul 2020 05:40 AM PDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Growing up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Kiana Muschett-Owes treasured one spot above all: the family's round dining table. There, family members would gather to recount their days, debate issues, celebrate any occasion they could think of — and of course, to eat.

Along with basic nourishment, the table provided sustenance for the soul, says Muschett-Owes. She's tried to replicate that feeling at her own restaurant, Katie O's, which she launched six years ago in nearby Prospect Lefferts Gardens, specializing in soul food.

And now, she's trying to give a little of both — soul food, and food for the soul — back to her community, amidst a pandemic that has exposed just how easy it is to go hungry in New York.

Each weekend, Muschett-Owes distributes between 1,000 and 1,500 meals to Brooklyn's needy, accompanied by uplifting notes tucked into the boxes, with prayers or thoughts like "We'll get through this" or "What doesn't kill you will build you." She also asks questions: how are people doing, whether they've lost their jobs. "This isn't just, 'grab your food and go,'" she says.

A former school guidance counselor, Muschett-Owes, 40, opened Katie O's with money and inspiration from her late grandparents, Eugene and Dolores Owes. She chose the name — her own pet name — when she learned "The Round Table" was already taken.

As it did for everyone, life changed for Muschett-Owes in mid-March, when the city essentially shut down overnight.

"We already knew there was food insecurity in under-served neighborhoods," she says. "And we thought, if they shut down the city, what happens to those people who depend on things like Meals on Wheels, food pantries and church pantries?"

That first weekend, she gave away 1,000 meals, she says. A few weeks later, she was watching the local news and learned about Rethink Food NYC, which directs unused food from restaurants to the hungry. She has now partnered with the organization, which provides about $4,500 a week to fund meals for her initiative, Soul Food for the People.

"She's the real deal. She just ran with it," says Matt Jozwiak, Rethink's founder, of Muschett-Owes. "The vibe, the positivity, the energy — that's really what she's sharing, and that's really important. The entire world is terrified, and a sense of community is really all we have, together, to fight COVID-19."

Ask Muschett-Owes to describe the cuisine of her counter-style restaurant, and prepare for a long answer. "Southern comfort food," she begins. "Mac and cheese, sweet yams, collard greens, string beans, cabbage, potato salad, macaroni salad, banana pudding, red velvet cake."

Also: "Fried chicken, smothered chicken, baked chicken, barbecued chicken, jerk chicken, turkey and stuffing, honey barbecue wings, garlic Parmesan wings."

At the food giveaways, she says, "you might get a platter that has Southern-style rice with curried chicken and vegetables, or chicken wraps, or turkey with white rice, with maybe some smothered gravy." The goal is food that is not just nutritious, but, well, tastes really good.

Shopping day is Wednesday; food prep happens Thursday and Friday. Early Saturday, meals are ready for distribution, with volunteer drivers, to several sites: home deliveries to seniors, a church in East New York, a housing project in Clinton Hill.

The city estimates a staggering 2 million New Yorkers are experiencing food insecurity during the pandemic — nearly double the pre-pandemic number. Muschett-Owes hopes to continue her project indefinitely, and has set up a G oFundMe page.

She knows food insecurity is a global issue.

"Let's start with Brooklyn," she says. "People are hungry. They're really hungry."

___

While nonstop news about the effects of the coronavirus has become commonplace, so, too, have tales of kindness. "One Good Thing" is a series of AP stories focusing on glimmers of joy and benevolence in a dark time. Read the series here: https://apnews.com/OneGoodThing

Copyright © 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

Only on RGJ: Food Truck Friday canceled for 2020; dozens of trucks affected - Reno Gazette Journal

Posted: 20 Jul 2020 03:31 PM PDT

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The mobile eats won't be rolling into Idlewild Park this summer. Food Truck Friday, the region's largest food truck gathering, is officially canceled.

Steve Schroeder, founder of Reno Street Food, organizer of the event, informed vendors of the cancellation this afternoon by email. Schroeder provided @RGJTaste with a copy of the notice.

Even as dozens of Northern Nevada events canceled for 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, Schroeder said he remained hopeful that Nevada might be in reopening Phase 3 by the end of July, allowing Food Truck Friday to open for August.

But with a recent spike in COVID-19 infections in the state and directives issued by Gov. Steve Sisolak, "I realized I have to be a good steward and keep the public from harm," Schroeder said in an exclusive discussion with @RGJTaste after sending the vendor notice.

"Idlewild Park is large. We have a porous entry and exit. We couldn't put up fences. And Food Truck Friday could not work as a drive-through. There's no good way to reduce the size of the event."

More than 60 food trucks and other vendors had signed up

Part of the challenge is twofold and intertwined. Vendors need sufficient customers to make it worth their while, economically, to set up at Food Truck Friday. Customers, for their part, need sufficient vendors so wait times aren't too long.

That balance, Schroeder said, can't be achieved with a drastically downsized version of Food Truck Friday that might comport with coronavirus safety guidelines. 

More food news: Rounds Bakery is closing its storefront, but continuing packaged food production

The event was originally scheduled to run May 15 through Aug. 28, with about 40 vendors variously appearing weekly from a pool of more than 60 participants that had signed up.

"I feel so bad for all the vendors that count on Food Truck Friday for their weekly revenue and advertising," Schroeder said.

Previously, in April and in May, Schroeder announced the food truck gathering would be delayed by the coronavirus. In May, it emerged the Reno Police Department would have to give its approval before Food Truck Friday could debut in 2020.

Schroeder said applications for the 2021 season would be available Jan. 15. Food Truck Friday is scheduled to open next year on May 14, 2021.

____________

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Johnathan L. Wright is the food and drink editor of RGJ Media, part of the USA Today Network. Join @RGJTaste on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

Read or Share this story: https://www.rgj.com/story/life/food/2020/07/20/food-truck-friday-canceled-2020-dozens-trucks-affected/5475388002/

What is the best food truck in Connecticut? - Greenwich Time

Posted: 20 Jul 2020 03:19 PM PDT

This poll will be conducted from to .

All across Connecticut, food trucks are zooming across the state to deliver you gastronomical delights. Which ones are your favorite?

Pick up to 5

3B Burger Bar Food Truck (Burgers and Hot Dogs) - New Haven County

Ali Baba's Kitchen (Asian-Pacific) - New Haven County

Alphonse's Italian Street Food (Italian) - New Haven County

Ay Arepa (Mexican) - New Haven County

Baked and Sauced (Alcohol) - Fairfield County

Big Green Truck Pizza (Pizza) - New Haven County

Bounty Food Truck (Burgers and Hot Dogs) - Fairfield County

Bubble Brew (Dessert) - Fairfield County

Caffé Bon (Dessert) - Fairfield County

Caribe Soul (Caribbean) - New Haven County

Carmela's Italian Kitchen (Italian) - Fairfield County

Caseus Cheese Truck (Fries and Cheesy Delights) - New Haven County

Coalhouse Pizza Truck (Pizza) - Fairfield County

Colony Grill (Pizza) - Fairfield County

Cowabunga Food Truck (Burgers and Hot Dogs) - Fairfield County

Curds Your Whey (Fries and Cheesy Delights) - Litchfield County

Dad's Cannoli Truck (Dessert) - New Haven County, Fairfield County

Daniel's Food Truck (Mexican) - Fairfield County

Dave's Mobile Planet Pizza (Pizza) - Fairfield County

Disco Ferno (Pizza) - Litchfield County

EISHUMARU (Asian-Pacific) - Fairfield County

El Charrito (Mexican) - Fairfield County

EP Local Food Truck (Health/Organic) - Fairfield County

Farmboys Smokin'BBQ (BBQ) - Fairfield County

Fiesta Taco Truck (Mexican) - Fairfield County

Fire in the Kitchen (Pizza) - Middlesex County

Flaco's Tacos (Mexican) - Fairfield County

Four Flours Baking Company (Dessert) - New Haven County

Frank Andrew's Mobile Kitchen (Pizza) - Middlesex County

Freshly Baked Cookie Truck (Dessert) - New Haven County

Fryborg (Fries and Cheesy Delights) - New Haven County

Get Stuffed Food Truck (Burgers and Hot Dogs) - Connecticut-wide

gmonkey Farm 2 Street (Health/Organic) - Middlesex County

Go Truck Yourself (Asian-Pacific) - Middlesex County

Golden Spoon Jamaican Cuisine (Jamaican) - Fairfield County

HAPA Food Truck (Asian-Pacific) - Fairfield County

Hardcore Sweet Bakery (Dessert) - New Haven County

High Tide Gourmet (Seafood) - New Haven County

Hog Wild BBQ (BBQ) - Fairfield County

Hot Z's (Burgers and Hot Dogs) - Litchfield County

Ice Cream Emergency (Dessert) - Connecticut-wide

Jonz n' BBQ (BBQ) - New Haven County, Fairfield County

Keep 'em Rollin' (Asian-Pacific) - New Haven County

Knot Norm's "On a Roll" (Seafood) - Fairfield County

Lenny and Joe's Fish Tale Express (Seafood) - New Haven County

Liberty Rock Food Truck (BBQ) - New Haven County, Fairfield County

Lifted Spirits Bar Concierge & Staffing (Alcohol) - Fairfield County

Little Red Waffle Truck (Dessert) - Fairfield County

Lobster Tails Food Trucks (Seafood) - New Haven County

LobsterCraft (Seafood) - Fairfield County

Los Garcia Mexican Fusion (Mexican) - New Haven County

Los Mariachi on Wheels (Mexican) - New Haven County, Fairfield County

Los Pablanos Mexican Grill (Mexican) - Fairfield County

Lunch Box 23 (Burgers and Hot Dogs) - New Haven County

Maine-iac Lobster Rolls (Seafood) - New Haven County

Mariano's Cannoli Truck (Dessert) - New Haven County

Me'stezo Grill (Mexican) - New Haven County

Melt Mobile (Fries and Cheesy Delights) - Fairfield County

Mil Sabores Food Truck (Mexican) - Fairfield County

Milkcraft Milktruck (Dessert) - Connecticut-wide

Naples Pizza Truck (Pizza) - Connecticut-wide

New England Apple Fritters (Dessert) - Litchfield County

NoRA Cupcake Company (Dessert) - Middlesex County

Old World Pizza Truck (Pizza) - New Haven County

Pig Rig BBQ (BBQ) - New Haven County

Pink Elephant (Mexican) - Fairfield County

Pizza Pie Wagon (Pizza) - Fairfield County

Proof Pizza Truck (Pizza) - Fairfield County

Ricky D's Rib Shack (BBQ) - New Haven County

Rolling Bar Truck (Alcohol) - Fairfield County

Roxy's Food Truck (Asian-Pacific) - Fairfield County

Ruuthai Kitchen Express (Asian-Pacific) - Fairfield County

Scatz Holy Smokez BBQ (BBQ) - Middlesex County

Seaside Sliders (Burgers and Hot Dogs) - Fairfield County

Silver Sands Pizza (Pizza) - New Haven County, Fairfield County

Sonny's Grinders (Asian-Pacific) - New Haven County

Street N' Savory (Asian-Pacific) - New Haven County

Super Duper Weenie Truck (Burgers and Hot Dogs) - Fairfield County

Szabo's Seafood (Seafood) - Fairfield County

T.H.E. Snickering Coyote (BBQ) - New Haven County

The Green Grunion (Health/Organic) - Fairfield County

The Lobster Hut (Seafood) - New Haven County, Fairfield County

The Local Meatball (Italian) - Fairfield County

The Mobile Pub (Alcohol) - Connecticut-wide

The Poutine Kind (Fries and Cheesy Delights) - Fairfield County

The Tipsea Trailer (Alcohol) - Fairfield County

The Whey Station (Fries and Cheesy Delights) - Middlesex County

Tipsy Cone (Alcohol) - Fairfield County

Twins BBQ (BBQ) - Fairfield County

Vegan Ahava (Health/Organic) - New Haven County

Weenie Lynn's (Burgers and Hot Dogs) - Fairfield County

Zawack Shack (Burgers and Hot Dogs) - Fairfield County

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