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The restaurants were fake, but we purchased a lot of chicken from them.
One of our most talked-about business stories of the week was in the Journal and not in Outlook. We examined the prevalence of ghost kitchens in and around Albuquerque, and I'll recap the story here.
I had no idea what a ghost kitchen was when reporter Allison Carpenter pitched the story. I don't ever use DoorDash because I don't have the money to pay $15 for a grilled cheese sandwich — more on that later.
Here's the concept: A restaurant sells food for dine in and carry out. People can get on a delivery service like DoorDash and order carry out.
That restaurant is on DoorDash. The restaurant also sells its same food by essentially pretending to be a separate fake restaurant that is also on the delivery service app.
We put the concept to the test at the Journal.
We ordered meals from four restaurants: Two classic grilled cheeses from American Grilled Cheese Company, a Nashville hot chicken pizza from Local Pizza and Wings, a Nashville hot grilled cheese from Nashville Hot Chicken Shack and the Nashville mac Philly from the Philly Cheese Company.
All the orders were prepared at Craft Republic, 4301 The Lane at 25 NE. The mac and cheese and hot chicken were the same in all the dishes. Some of the meals were even labeled with a Craft Republic sticker.
To get a sense of how the community felt about the concept, we posted a question on the Albuquerque Foodies Facebook page. The post sent off a torrent of comments. Some users hadn't heard of the kitchens, while others said they felt duped when they thought they were supporting a local restaurant only to find they bought food was from a national chain. Some people don't care as long as the food is good.
Is this crafty marketing or food fraud?
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I don't order food from ghost kitchens because I can't afford them. We'll see what my bosses say when they get the bill for $15 grilled cheese sandwiches and $25 chicken sandwiches I ordered on a company credit card.
