From the golden arches to a ghost kitchen?
That’s what’s cooking inside one Walmart store in Reno, which is replacing a former McDonald’s restaurant with a One Kitchen USA franchise.
The new ghost kitchen will be in the Walmart at 2425 E. Second St., across from the Grand Sierra resort hotel-casino, according to a permit filed by parent company Ghost Kitchen Brands with the city of Reno.
“I can confirm there is a Ghost Kitchen planned for this Walmart,” said Kelsey Bohl, Walmart director of corporate communications, via e-mail. “(The restaurant has) a scheduled opening date this winter.”
What is a ghost kitchen?
The term “ghost kitchen” typically applies to a commercial kitchen that offers food for delivery or pickup.
A typical operation has staff cooking and preparing food at the ghost kitchen, which then gets picked up by someone — usually a delivery driver — so it can be transported to the customer. Like the virtual restaurants they make food for, a traditional ghost kitchen does not have a store front, which is where the “ghost” description is derived.
Ghost kitchens rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, cooking food for virtual restaurants found on apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats that did not have physical storefronts.
One example of a virtual restaurant is MrBeast Burger, which was formed by internet influencer Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson in partnership with Virtual Dining Concepts LLC.
Even traditional brick-and-mortar restaurants jumped into the virtual restaurant business. Denny’s, for example, has two virtual restaurant brands on food apps — The Meltdown and The Burger Den. Chili’s, meanwhile, is behind the DoorDash virtual restaurant It’s Just Wings.
In Reno, one example of a ghost kitchens is Vistro, which took over the spot once occupied by Men Wielding Fire and A Taste of Chicago at 180 E. First St. Unlike traditional ghost kitchens, however, Vistro also has dine-in space.
Walmart jumped into the ghost kitchen craze in the midst of the pandemic, partnering with Toronto-based Ghost Kitchen Brands in March 2021 to put One Kitchen USA stores inside its shopping centers. The deal included placing several virtual restaurant operations inside its stores in the United States and Canada. The move occurred as McDonald’s initiated plans to close hundreds of stores inside Walmarts.
“Walmart’s been wanting to update its brand and offerings for some time,” said Dirk Lorenz, the franchise operator for the One Kitchen USA at the Reno Walmart.
“As leases for the existing restaurants, whether that be a McDonald’s or Subway or other, come up for renewal, One Kitchens are taking their place.”
Ghost Kitchen Brands include familiar names
Lorenz, who moved to Reno from Fremont, California, is a strong believer in the ghost kitchen concept.
“My wife and I have been in the restaurant industry in the Bay Area for decades,” Lorenz said.
“Since our move to Reno, we’ve been looking for franchise opportunities, and One Kitchen is the most relevant franchise available.”
Lorenz is especially excited about the automation technology from Ghost Kitchen Brands, which includes a beverage robot named “Adam.” Another Ghost Kitchen Brand partner, Caliburger, has a robot named “Flippy” that operates deep fryer baskets.
One of the things that makes Ghost Kitchen Brands unique is that it offers food from product partners with familiar names. The offerings include items from the Cheesecake Factory, Cinnabon and Ben & Jerry’s, causing the company to describe itself as a “virtual food court.”
Ghost Kitchen Brands, for example, made a deal with REGO Restaurant Group in 2021 to offer certain menu items from Quiznos and Taco Del Mar through its stores. The Ghost Kitchen Brand locations only offer a limited selection of items from these restaurants but the company says it prepares them fresh onsite.
Ghost Kitchen Brands also receives Cinnabon dough from an approved distributor and bakes and frosts the cinnamon rolls at its stores. Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory, however, is delivered ready-to-serve.
“Ghost Kitchen Brands International has partnered with famous restaurant brands, iconic consumer packaged goods and the most innovative technology companies to create the most advanced and scalable Ghost Kitchen concept,” Lorenz said.
Ghost kitchens find themselves at a turning point
While ghost kitchens were red-hot during the pandemic, the concept finds itself at a crossroads following issues with several operators.
Also known as “dark kitchens,” some ghost kitchens have been slammed for lack of transparency. It can be hard to figure out the true operation behind a virtual restaurant, for example, which can make it tough for consumers to verify their health inspection or safety record.
Several ghost kitchens have also been criticized for serving shoddy products. The previously mentioned internet celebrity Donaldson, for example, sued partner Virtual Dining Concepts LLC last year after multiple reports of quality issues with the food . Virtual Dining Concepts responded with a lawsuit of its own for $100 million.
Kroger-backed ghost kitchen company Kitchen United, meanwhile, announced last December that it was closing all of its Kitchen United MIX locations. Other companies such as Wendy’s, Applebee’s and BurgerFi also backed off from initial plans to make a strong push with ghost kitchen partnerships.
One exception is Walmart, which continues to go all-in with its ghost kitchen partnership.
Lorenz remains a believer in ghost kitchens — and the Ghost Kitchen Brands concept in particular.
“(Ghost Kitchen Brands) has locations across Canada and the US that focus on third-party delivery, as well as stand alone, interior mall and big box locations where walk-ins and pickup are fundamental,” Lorenz said.
“Ghost Kitchen Brands reaches consumers when, where, and how they want their favorite eats.”
This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: Ghost kitchen taking over McDonald’s spot inside Reno Walmart
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