I had known that "It's just Wings" was chilis the first time I bought it, but I did not know how bad "Ghost Kitchens" were until the "The Deceptive World of Ghost Kitchens" video. It's worth a watch<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkIkymh5Ayg" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkIkymh5Ayg</a>
Some of these ghost kitchens even do branded food like Chic Fil A. I’d guess to take the delivery strain off the main store, but it is bizarre to see people walk out with fresh chic fil a from a nondescript commercial warehouse property.
This model was pioneered in Oakland by Steve Aoki's "Pizzaoki" location, also known as Lorenzo's, Thick & Tasty, Happy Slice Pizza, Gabriella’s New York City Pizza, Chubby Pie and each of other pizza joints listed at 536 Lake Park Ave. They used DBAs to surface under different keyword searches on various delivery apps and cycle out poorly rated brand names. Pizza was pretty mid too.
I only order from local biz i personally went to in the past.<p>All you can get from delivery apps are images and rating numbers, both are easy to fake.<p>IMHO the marketing effort to disconnect real people from what they make is anti human
Soon after I moved into this place in 2015, I received a flyer from a "restaurant" and all my neighbors got the same one. This flyer was a high-quality glossy print with menu from an ostensibly Chinese delivery joint. It was notable in having no physical address, no website, no delivery area delineated. When I called the number, it was some sort of mailbox-full or disconnected from a mobile carrier. It was totally hinky, so I call the cops and they're like, "we can't do anything about this if there's no victim" so I guess unless they were stealing my credit card, there was nothing to be done. I suspect that it was an early "ghost kitchen" sort of situation.<p>Later I received more flyers from a joint with a different name, but the same style of flyer and all. I look them up online and they have an address that's supposedly right across the street, but no legit business exists there, just a vacancy. They're on Facebook too with a similarly faked address. I grumble and figure there's nothing to be done.<p>Later, I found a whole passel of these ghost kitchens had coalesced in an industrial-zoned district nearby. Apparently there's a building named "Food Court" that houses them all, and they all advertise through GrubHub and DoorDash, etc. Once, I accidentally ordered from one of them, and they indeed sent me a passable Thai larb. I was kinda shocked, and they inserted a coupon for a competing food delivery service, which I informed GH about.<p>These days I just try to be careful and spot the ghost kitchens while ordering. I really only order from legit chains or local places with a real reputation for having a real location, real food, and real employees. Usually someplace I've physically traveled to, sat down and ate food there. YMMV.
I would be very peed off, if I knew.<p>That's like order burger from big bapas and getting McRib served. It's fraud in my eye, but legal.. if I go to a restaurant by name the great still the first time, I don't know if it's chili's pizza pasta chain restaurant. Upon knowing, I would not go there a second Time.<p>What they're doing is harm the experience of app usages. If I would be door dash I'd sue the Frack out the party.
Does anyone have recent intel on Travis Kalanick's CloudKitchens?<p>I recall the super shady company recruiting policy a few years ago, but haven't heard much since.
If this bothers you, and you live in the US, ask the US Congress to change federal trademark law so a business that has a registered trademark (or that licenses someone else's trademark) must use that trademark on every product they sell.<p>This would let us know who owns what.