But its intentional execution and unorthodox origin story make it exceedingly rare among the glut of ghost kitchens launched to prominence on UberEats. Sunset Squares embodies everything that a brand consultant likely looks for: It serves a purpose, has a focused vision, and tells a compelling story. “At the fundamental level that’s the same thing as a virtual restaurant brand.” “Consumers are trusting based on their digital presence alone and then ordering something that comes straight to their door,” she says. Nikki Freihofer, a senior strategist for the Culinary Edge, a restaurant consulting firm that regularly advises clients on virtual brand creation, compares the current wave of virtual restaurants to direct-to-consumer brands like Casper mattresses or Quip toothbrushes.
QUINCY RESTAURANTS COVID SOFTWARE
Ordermark, a software company that helps restaurants manage online orders and host virtual brands from their existing kitchens, recently received a $120 million investment. One such company, CloudKitchens, started by former Uber founder and CEO Travis Kalanick, has received hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, and according to a recent Wall Street Journal report, it’s spent more than $130 million in the last two years on real estate for its kitchens. Many of these concepts partner with large delivery companies like DoorDash and Uber Eats for online ordering, pickup, and delivery others look to companies that build and operate kitchen facilities that host multiple concepts under one roof. To mitigate losses, some restaurants are throwing everything they have at virtual expansion, creating entirely new brands that live online. Stores in cities that once did a brisk lunch business saw sales fall off a cliff. That’s happening concurrently with near-impossible working conditions for many brick-and-mortar restaurants. Euromonitor, a market research firm, recently estimated that they could be a $1 trillion business by 2030. Virtual brands, ghost kitchens, delivery-only concepts - whatever you call them - have thrived during COVID-19.
But it’s poised for a public debut soon the chef has hired two additional chefs to help develop the concept further, and plans to launch it on third-party delivery platforms like DoorDash in a couple months. The chef and his family and friends handle the deliveries for a flat rate of $5 in the neighborhood, $10 elsewhere in SF, and $20 for neighborhoods outside the city. Several months in, Sunset Squares is still a bit of a secret.
“At the end of the day, especially with certain cuisines, if you don’t come from a lauded Michelin pedigree, food journalists and the general community - because San Francisco has shifted and morphed into this elitist consumer market - just want to follow brand recognition versus thinking on their own what they think is good food or not.”Ī market research firm recently estimated that delivery-only restaurants could be a $1 trillion business by 2030. In many ways it’s hurt the development of restaurants and new food ideas,” says the chef. That has certain advantages but also has disadvantages. “San Francisco is a really small food community. He remains purposefully anonymous for now. The difference between Sunset Squares and, say, your neighbor slinging pizzas from his garage and selling them on Instagram is that this business was started by a notable San Francisco chef with several restaurants of his own. What started as a pandemic-era baking project between a father and his teen daughters this spring has now turned into a viable business operation: Three or four pizzas a week to friends grew as word of mouth spread the Instagram posts and tags followed. The dough is made from sourdough and a wild yeast starter, and the pies are, of course, square. There’s a handful of pizzas and nondairy focaccia options on the menu, a couple salads, and a dessert. Delivery in its neighborhood - San Francisco’s Sunset district - costs $5, while those farther afield in the city pay $10.
Sunset Squares Pizza has fewer than 1,000 followers on Instagram.
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