Melbourne’s dark kitchens a shining light for struggling hospitality sector

Dark kitchens across town are making thousands of meals — and hefty profits — without serving a single customer in person.

The space doesn’t look like much from the front.

You could easily dismiss this as another roller door awash with bright graffiti found in any of Windsor’s unassuming back streets until you spot the bright purple sign sprawled with the name Deliveroo — one of the world’s largest food delivery platforms.

In 2017, long before Covid put restaurants on the back burner and left us scrolling for our supper, Deliveroo launched Editions — a dark or ghost kitchen where hospitality businesses make food purely for delivery app orders.

For some, this concept works by saving the business money on overheads and staff, but it’s not the same for others.

These are the Melbourne businesses using dark kitchens to their advantage — and where you’ll find them.

Fishbowl has used dark kitchens to its advantage.

FISHBOWL

Popular Sydney-born salad bowl chain Fishbowl has used ghost kitchens to determine whether their brand would work in a Melbourne market.

Co-founder Nic Pestalozzi first launched the brand on Deliveroo back in 2019, after opening a ghost kitchen at the app’s Editions kitchens in Windsor and Collingwood.

“This was a good segue into a new city, as by the time we were ready to open a store, people knew who we were and had an appetite for our product and had the ability to produce our own food,” he said.

Fishbowl already prepares its food in a central kitchen before distributing to its stores, which is why Pestalozzi thinks ghost kitchens have been beneficial for the business.

Although Fishbowl still finds value in having bricks-and-mortar stores.

Fishbowl has become increasingly popular in Melbourne.

“You have higher risk and higher reward with having an actual site,” he said.

“An actual store will get hit harder during a pandemic, but I think it’s crucial to have both a physical store and a ghost kitchen to support.”

After a few years operating from the ghost kitchen, Fishbowl went on to open three physical Melbourne stores — at Docklands, Richmond and Flinders Lane.
Another CBD store and a Prahran location are also on the cards.

“A physical store can service a ghost kitchen and build more brand awareness. It puts a face to the name and when people see it on the delivery app they’ll know the brand,” Pestalozzi said.

“If you have just a delivery concept, how do you deliver trust? I usually only order from brands I know, as opposed to something that’s just popped up on the app.”

Mr Miyagi is famous for its sushi tacos.

MR MIYAGI

Outside of lockdown, trendy mod-Japanese restaurant Mr Miyagi is where Melbourne’s movers and shakers go to be seen.

When the pandemic hit last March, co-owner Kristian Klein looked at new ways to get his food to hungry Melburnians.

Takeaway was hot in the first few weeks, but quickly plateaued. Then came the idea to prepare food in its Prahran ghost kitchen, which Mr Miyagi had owned for some time.

“We opened five years ago when Uber was really fresh. We ran it for a while and did a few different things out of it, but it was really difficult relying on someone else’s platform to sell your food,” Klein said.

Mr Miyagi owners Kristian Klein and Andy Restein. Picture: Janine Eastgate

“Things have changed a bit now. But back then it was in the hands of the delivery company whether you’d make money that night. If it rained or they had no drivers, we made no money.”

Klein said while using third-party delivery apps and ghost kitchens was great in theory, in practice it was much harder to justify the cost, as the delivery platforms at once stage were taking a portion of every sale and preventing restaurants from offsetting that fee.

Mr Miyagi has farewelled its ghost kitchen, relying on its offsite kitchen in Ripponlea to cater for events.

My Miyagi’s new One Night Stand concept has helped it survive during lockdown.

Under the concept, the restaurant pops up at suburban cafes at night to sell its product to new customers.

“We’ve been partnering with local cafes, four nights a week, to cook our food out of their kitchens at night when they’re not using them,” Klein said.

“We’ve met so many amazing operators and it’s just done in a respectful way. We’re all helping each other.”

Will Shu, one of the two founders of Deliveroo, at the group’s first Australian delivery-only restaurant in Windsor.

Deliveroo

Meal delivery giant Deliveroo was quick to jump on the ghost kitchen trend.

In 2017, Deliveroo opened its first Editions, or ghost kitchen, in Windsor.

One year later it opened another in Collingwood.

In the beginning Windsor only had two kitchens on-site — now due to overwhelming demand there are five, with nine in Collingwood.

Editions works by allowing restaurants to rent a kitchen space in a non-customer facing environment to make food purely for delivery.

Deliveroo’s point of difference is that it encourages participating restaurants to create a virtual brand, which will only be available for customers via its app.

There also 30 virtual brands operating out of Collingwood and 15 from Windsor.

Deliveroo Editions Windsor.

Deliveroo said Editions was favourable for the customer as it allowed them to mix and match food orders from different brands and only pay one delivery fee, as the food was being delivered from the one location.

For restaurants, ghost kitchens are seen to be low risk with low initial outlay and provide a space to test new menu items to reach wider audiences than a physical store.

The popularity of Deliveroo’s ghost kitchens have seemingly exploded during lockdown, with more brands jumping on board to diversify revenue streams and keep staff employed.

Box Hill’s Mr and Mrs Gan joined Editions just before the pandemic in 2019.

The owners have since closed their physical store, as it was more financially viable to operate out of a ghost kitchen to save on overheads and rent.

Mr and Mrs Gan now has four new virtual brands to its name, and operates out of two Editions kitchens to grow its customer base.