The Deceptive World of Ghost Kitchens (EEEK!)

[Warpy]

Not sure where to put this one, but it's about food so C&B won.

Note that the food isn't all bad, the fakery comes in the multiple names of the same restaurant kitchen.

The operation that used lockers to deliver the food so the kitchen was never seen is kind of neat, it reminded me ot the old Automat in NYC. I guess a lot of other people noticed, because the concept is back: https://www.foodandwine.com/lifestyle/return-of-the-automat

However, there's no way I'd pay almost $17 for a fish sandwich I can do better at home. Not cooking at all costs bigtime, kids.

[TygrBright]

1. Wow. So I checked out DoorDash Santa Fe.

First off, we have never used ANY food delivery service. We get take-away sometimes but we always go pick it up from the restaurant. So the whole delivery thing is weird to us.

I went to the DoorDash Santa Fe website on my computer, since I don't do stuff like that on my phone, which is for (gasp!) making and receiving phone calls.

Door Dash Santa Fe Delivery

First thing I noticed is that they have "111 restaurants" that they deliver from on their list, which might be between a quarter and a third, conservatively, of the number of actual restaurants (NOT counting food trucks, that would double the total at least) in Santa Fe.

And the huge majority of the ones they list are fast food franchises like Burger King and Panda Express and Panera and suchlike corporate suppliers of foodlike substances.

They do provide a handy search filter where you can select what type of food you're looking for which includes Latin American, Asian, Barbecue, and French, but also some weird-ass food types like "Poke" (what is "Poke" food? Someone pray tell, this is a trend we've completely missed) and "Pickup" (why would we be ordering "Pickup" cuisine from a "delivery" website? nevermind...) and... this one totally baffled: "Pet Stores". There's a "see all" button, hang on...

WOAH! This opens up a Wider World of Cuisine, including Crab, Vegan, Smoothie, Salad, "Healthy" (it's to laugh...) and even more exotic preferences like "Unaffiliated" and "Other". In fact, there are a total of 52 icons to filter your search for vittles among the 111 providers they deliver for.

There are three (3) pages of results, unfiltered. Page one has twelve (12) actual, brick-and-mortar, LOCAL (not franchises of national or regional chains) restaurants among the fifty results. Kohnami, Annapurna World Vegetarian, Cafe Atrisco, Tribes Coffeehouse, Posa's Zafarano AND Posa's Factory, etc. Real locally owned places where we might actually call, order food and pick it up ourselves. The rest of the selections range from Pizza Hut and Chili's to... not making this up... "Albertsons". Yeah, the grocery store.

But at least almost all of them are recognizable as actual places in Santa Fe, if not very appealing ones. Then there's "It's Just Wings" which I've never seen here. Says it's on Cerrillos Road, and... turns out to be Chili's. Why not just order wings from Chili's if you like Chili's wings? Whatever. And then "Maggiano's Italian Classics" which also turns out to be Chili's.

Page two has another 14-15 actual local food businesses, two or three weird rebranding exercises by big chains, and, confusingly, Office Depot, Tractor Supply Co., Big Lots and Speedway. WTAF? Everyone's getting into the takeaway biz, I guess. Page three has a few more local restaurants, Party City, and several flower shops, which I suppose makes sense for a delivery service.

What's NOT there: Piccolino's Italian, Joe's Diner, Andiamo, Santa Fe Bar and Grill, Fire and Hops, and a whole LOT of other places we like to order take-away from and go pick it up.

So I guess we won't be using DoorDash, because... why would we?

Unless we want a replacement harrow blade for our tractor, maybe...

amusedly,
Bright

[spinbaby]

2. We've never used DoorDash

Even with me being mostly unable to cook with my broken ankle, we haven’t had food delivery. My son has picked up Chinese food a couple of times, but mostly we’ve been eating very simple food—sandwiches, eggs, that sort of thing—and frozen dinners. The only cuisine we like as freezer meals is Mexican, so lots of Mexican. We might have ordered pizza delivery , except our favorite pizza place now relies on DoorDash and has become way too expensive.

Your post has me craving poke and I do have some sushi quality tuna in the freezer.

[Warpy]

5. I looked it up a year or so ago here in the big city

and found a huge number of restaurants I'd never heard of and wondered how new restaurants were able to open in a pandemic in a state where lockdown was really lockdown. Now I know.

I didn't use them, either, although I do use grocery delivery because shopping while blind really sucks. I still like my own cooking better than anyone else's.

[we can do it]

6. Dork dash is a ripoff, drivers bring partial order and run off.

Leaving you to call business and either go pick up the rest or wait another hour and hope the rest comes that you paid for.

FYI We did not order from dork as we ordered from places that allow choice of pickup or delivery, without specifying they use dork dash.

[irisblue]

3. I have used GrubHub dot com here, doordash web browser hates my phone

There is a Vietnamese place about 2 miles from here that make exquisite Pho & Bánh mì. It is a mom & pop looking place. When I place the order, I can see the driver photo & a car image traveling to me. Since I have Amazon Prime, no delivery fee. They are always here with in 30 min.

An order of Pho & Bánh mì, is $11, plus $5 tip, & is 2 soup ,& sandwich meals for me, so $8 a meal.

Making those at home is way past my wallet, the set up costs would be higher.

Thanks for the article

[Retrograde]

4. We started using UberEats during the pandemic

since there were a few local restaurants I wanted to help make sure stayed in business. Some foods travel well and can be reheated a few times, so we learned to stick to those (and as a side benefit, I've learned how to make passable onion pancakes and kimchi pancakes, which IMHO need to be eaten as soon as they come out of the pan). On the downside, we tend to over-order when getting Chinese food, so have leftovers for several days.

But these aren't the same as "ghost kitchens": they're the same kitchens that cooked the dishes pre-pandemic.