When you follow the food news every day, it’s pretty easy to notice some major trends:
- Third-party delivery services are not going away, despite the problems they’ve created.
- Real estate in the Bay Area is ridiculously expensive.
- Restaurants are now resorting to “ghost kitchens”: kitchens without seating areas attached (this is also connected to the price of real estate).
- People love going to food halls (which makes sense, I guess, since the food court was always the best part of the mall).
- People really love fried chicken sandwiches.
And so DoorDash has decided to combine all these things—well, the first four anyway—into one! Yesterday the delivery service announced that it will build a commissary kitchen in Redwood City, California, just south of San Francisco. QSR reports that DoorDash Kitchens will house a combination of national and local businesses, including Nation’s Giant Hamburgers, Rooster & Rice, and Humphry Slocombe, and deliver to seven Bay Area suburbs.
The great advantage to customers is that they’ll be able to combine orders from multiple restaurants, like, say, khao mun gai from Rooster & Rice with a pint of ice cream from Humphry Slocombe. Presumably fried chicken sandwiches will also be available.
The great advantage to restaurants is that they’ll be able to expand into new markets without the expense and risk of opening an actual restaurant. “DoorDash will cover the infrastructure, maintenance, marketing, and last-mile logistics,” QSR reports. DoorDash will also waive delivery fees through the end of the year.
DoorDash promises that DoorDash Kitchens will create jobs for 50 full- and part-time employees. This does not include delivery drivers.
There is, of course, the ever-present concern that the restaurants will be royally screwed over by this arrangements, that the gig model will become the standard, and that eventually the world will be taken over by a few enormous companies based on the West Coast. But at least you’ll be able to order delivery from multiple places all at once. Convenience is key!