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Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

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Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

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Speaker 1: learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A

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Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Welcome back to the show.

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Speaker 3: My name is Matt, my name is Noel.

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Speaker 4: They call be Ben. We're joined as always with our

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Speaker 4: super producer Paul, Mission Control decand most importantly, you are you.

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Speaker 4: You are here, and that makes this the stuff they

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Speaker 4: don't want you to know. Folks, whether you are listening

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Speaker 4: to this at the beginning of your day or the

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Speaker 4: end of your day or night, you could probably identify

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Speaker 4: with a situation common to everybody. You just got home,

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Speaker 4: you did some big stuff, and you're starving, but the

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Speaker 4: last thing you want to do is cook. It's like

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Speaker 4: a whole other job.

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Speaker 3: But Ben, what if I ordered something and had it

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Speaker 3: delivered to me waited upon hand and foot, like we

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Speaker 3: did during the pandemic? That could continue indefinitely.

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Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, So what would you do in this hypothetical situation?

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Speaker 4: And you know, if you're like millions of people every

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Speaker 4: year in the US alone, you order delivery. Until pretty recently,

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Speaker 4: our options would be fairly limited in this regard but now,

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Speaker 4: as we record, there is an entire industry built only

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Speaker 4: around bringing your favorite restaurant to your door dot dot

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Speaker 4: dot Ellipses for a price. The problem is some of

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Speaker 4: these restaurants may not be what they seem. Behold, fellow

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Speaker 4: conspiracy realists, the rise of the ghost Kitchen. Here are

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Speaker 4: the facts.

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Speaker 5: I just want to put it out there. I think

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Speaker 5: there's a third option everybody, either cooking your own food,

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Speaker 5: ordering out, or option number three cereal Cereal. I just

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Speaker 5: remember that being an option quite a bit in college.

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Speaker 3: My girlfriend likes to dine on what she calls square snacks,

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Speaker 3: which are like cheese slices in the little plastic cellophane,

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Speaker 3: and like ritz which is round, or particularly saltines which

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Speaker 3: are square. So that's also an option. But it's true,

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Speaker 3: Ben Yea.

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Speaker 4: The internet calls it girl dinner.

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Speaker 3: Girl dinner comes in all shapes and sizes. That's like

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Speaker 3: a meme that I haven't quite cracked. It's a meme, Ben,

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Speaker 3: you nailed it. This is a thing. And I mentioned

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Speaker 3: the pandemic because I think you know, one of the

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Speaker 3: pluses of the pandemic, if it can be referred to

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Speaker 3: as that, is that we all kind of felt like

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Speaker 3: we had this extended vacation, and after a little period

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Speaker 3: of time where we weren't completely terrified of touching anything

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Speaker 3: from the outside world, ordering in from Uber Eats or

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Speaker 3: door Dash or Seamless or Postmates or any number of

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Speaker 3: these services kind of became a thing that we relied on,

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Speaker 3: and dare I say some of us kind of probably

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Speaker 3: figured it more we're into our lives post pandemic than

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Speaker 3: we would have if that event had not taken place.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean even before the pandemic, Checkers was right. Checkers,

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Speaker 4: perhaps the most philosophical of fast food joints in the States,

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Speaker 4: said you gotta eat. People have always had to do it.

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Speaker 4: Access to food is still one of the guiding factors

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Speaker 4: of all human civilization. People love food, and additionally, people

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Speaker 4: love convenience even before the pandemic, so it's no surprise

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Speaker 4: these two primal drives would intersect. I actually, I was

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Speaker 4: talking a little bit with our friends at Station sixteen,

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Speaker 4: who have done some excellent social media videos with us.

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Speaker 4: They love weird facts, and quite recently we learned that

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Speaker 4: the modern roots of food delivery in the West started

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Speaker 4: back in the late eighteen hundreds. A pair of Italian

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Speaker 4: royals in eighteen eighty nine became the world's first pizza

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Speaker 4: delivery customers. So shout out to King Umberto and Queen Margarita.

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Speaker 4: Can you guess what kind of pizza they had delivered?

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Speaker 3: Uh? Pepperoni?

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Speaker 4: Close Margarita, they got a Margarita pizza.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and I swear I've seen a pizza chain, If

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Speaker 3: not a chain, definitely a handful of one offs called Umberto's.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I don't know if it's a coincidence, you know, me

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Speaker 3: and my reaching and grasping etymological straws, but it's certainly possible.

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Speaker 4: It's weird though, right because I I, for some reason,

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Speaker 4: I was on the fence. I imagined the predecessor of food

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Speaker 4: delivery would be much much older or much more recent.

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Speaker 4: But turns out eighteen eighty nine and ever since then,

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Speaker 4: food and food delivery has sort of mirrored these larger

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Speaker 4: historical trends. Wars affect how food is delivered, They affect

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Speaker 4: the way food is preserved. Right, and if it weren't

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Speaker 4: for Napoleon, we might not have King and food. The

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Speaker 4: technological advances, shifting forms of labor rights, and so on,

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Speaker 4: they all determine how and when people order stuff to

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Speaker 4: eat at home. The most amazing thing happened just a

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Speaker 4: year later, in eighteen ninety. Have you guys heard of

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Speaker 4: Daba Walla or Daba Vala?

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Speaker 2: New to me?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? No, new to me too. It's really quickly Humberto's

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Speaker 3: pizza chain and New York State and New York City

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Speaker 3: like maybe like twelve or thirteen of them. But I

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Speaker 3: wasn't just making that up. Tell us about the moment

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Speaker 3: by Dabba Walla service. I know about the chai wallas,

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Speaker 3: you know, which is a very popular, you know, dispensation

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Speaker 3: kind of method of chai tea in train stations and

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Speaker 3: that became very sort of a national sort of identity

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Speaker 3: factor for India.

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Speaker 4: But tell me about the Daba Wallas. Yeah, Dabba Walla

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Speaker 4: dates back to eighteen ninety. It's the very first massive

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Speaker 4: meal delivery serve, the very first meal delivery system en

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Speaker 4: mass and it occurs under British colonialism in India. Here's

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Speaker 4: what happened. Tons and tons of people moved to Mumbai,

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Speaker 4: which was then called Bombay. They would leave for work

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Speaker 4: extremely early in the morning and they would work all

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Speaker 4: day and into the night. They didn't have time to

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Speaker 4: dine out. And so with all these hungry people flooding

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Speaker 4: the city, a guy named Mahadeo Havaji bachace partner pronunciation

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Speaker 4: figured this out. He said, let me get a small

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Speaker 4: army of dudes to deliver food. And these deliverymen became

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Speaker 4: known as dabba wallas, which translates to the one who

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Speaker 4: carries a box. And if you ever want to have

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Speaker 4: an interesting lunchbox, check out Tiffins Tiffi in They're super cool.

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Speaker 4: I keep trying to rationalize buying what But this service

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Speaker 4: is so successful delivering food that it booms. It feeds

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Speaker 4: hundreds of thousands of people on a daily basis and

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Speaker 4: continues to do so during the rise of food delivery apps.

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Speaker 4: This system, by the way, is so sophisticated and so

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Speaker 4: accurate that management companies study it for guidance. Their error

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Speaker 4: rate is something like one in x million.

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Speaker 3: Reminds me of the way the British cabbies have to

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Speaker 3: study those crazy routes and maps and take that test

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Speaker 3: called the knowledge.

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Speaker 5: Hmmm, well let's get back okay. So that's an amazing

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Speaker 5: alteration into how food can get to you and your family. Right,

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Speaker 5: that's a huge change. It's amazing, And then fast forward

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Speaker 5: to just us growing up. When you guys were growing up,

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Speaker 5: the only food that ever got delivered to my house

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Speaker 5: were it was a pizza or from whatever chain, whatever

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Speaker 5: pizza chain they would deliver and like a Chinese food

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Speaker 5: restaurant basically would come to me. I think, I think

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Speaker 5: there may have been an Indian restaurant like that was

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Speaker 5: a little bit further a wave, but like they wouldn't

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Speaker 5: come to my house basically.

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Speaker 3: Just have a steak out, remember a steak out. Their

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Speaker 3: whole thing was that they were at delivery, a steak

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Speaker 3: delivery place. They would deliver burgers and steaks, and you know,

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Speaker 3: kind of the kind of their whole gimmick was was

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Speaker 3: the kind of stuff you typically have to go to

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Speaker 3: a you know, sit down restaurant for. But that the

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Speaker 3: fact that that could even be a business model kind

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Speaker 3: of gimmick shows your point that there really were very

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Speaker 3: few options. And I always think of Chinese restaurant as

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Speaker 3: kind of cornering the market on delivery for a very

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Speaker 3: long time.

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Speaker 5: Because they would hire specific staff right at a restaurant

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Speaker 5: to do their deliveries. That was it, that's what they

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Speaker 5: worked for, that's how they got money tips through that

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Speaker 5: single restaurant m H.

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Speaker 4: Like a pizza delivery workers as well. And this is

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Speaker 4: also the age of the frozen food delivery truck, where

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Speaker 4: there would be came the different names of them. These

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Speaker 4: guys would drive through neighborhoods similar to ice cream vans,

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Speaker 4: and they would deliver like a month's worth of frozen,

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Speaker 4: you know, microwave meals. But you might be interested to find,

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Speaker 4: Matt that we have a returning guest in tonight's story.

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Speaker 4: The notorious consulting firm McKenzie. McKenzie agrees with you, Matt.

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Speaker 4: They say that just low less than two decades ago,

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Speaker 4: if you want a delivery with notable exceptions like your

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Speaker 4: example Steakeout Noll, most people in the US, if they

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Speaker 4: were able to get delivery, they would get something from

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Speaker 4: a Chinese restaurant or they would get pizza delivered. It

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Speaker 4: became normalized, and now that is no longer the case.

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Speaker 4: The food delivery industry has as of just like three

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Speaker 4: years ago, it was worth more than one hundred and

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Speaker 4: fifty billion dollars and that price is the result of

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Speaker 4: a triple digit growth since twenty seventeen. And then it

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Speaker 4: was already doing gangbusters. Before the COVID nineteen pandemic hit,

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Speaker 4: it was growing about eight percent a year, and then

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Speaker 4: everything changed because you couldn't go places right, or you

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Speaker 4: didn't want to go places you risk exposing yourself and

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Speaker 4: your loved ones to a very dangerous pathogen. So now

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Speaker 4: we're in the current situation where in the US alone,

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Speaker 4: sixty percent of people order delivery or get some takeaway

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Speaker 4: at least once a week. And I don't know about you, guys,

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Speaker 4: but in the interest of transparency, I'm probably among that number.

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Speaker 4: I cook a lot, but not every single day of

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Speaker 4: the week.

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Speaker 3: I think I love to cook as well, but I

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Speaker 3: admittedly do delivery minimum two times a week, like complete transparency,

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Speaker 3: no question about it.

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Speaker 2: Sometimes more well, well, I'll just be the minor outlayer.

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Speaker 5: I've pretty much stopped unless I don't have time to

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Speaker 5: make food for my son after like for instance, after

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Speaker 5: we're recording or something and there's not enough time between

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Speaker 5: bedtime and me, you know, stopping recording with you guys,

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Speaker 5: then I will maybe do a DoorDash or something, but.

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Speaker 3: I arrive like right when you're done.

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Speaker 2: It's it's as really helpful for that too, exactly.

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Speaker 5: I don't know if you guys ever seen me pull

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Speaker 5: my phone up like as right, it's to an episode,

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Speaker 5: but it's because it's I kind of have to do

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Speaker 5: it or.

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Speaker 3: Else having for those lifestyle you know, the necessities. It's

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Speaker 3: also a great crutch for lazy people. It's probably more

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Speaker 3: my deal.

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Speaker 5: But yeah, but just to the point, Ben, I think

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Speaker 5: it is so it can't be understated how much the

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Speaker 5: fear of catching some potentially scary thing was and how

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Speaker 5: much that pushed all of us, like globally humanity to

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Speaker 5: move in this direction.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and right now, the online delivery business is projected

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Speaker 4: to reach one trillion dollars by twenty thirty. That's assuming

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Speaker 4: another pandemic spike doesn't occur. If another global crisis like

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Speaker 4: the pandemic spikes again, then that number is going to

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Speaker 4: be much much higher. I think the way I put

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Speaker 4: it was a pandemic spike, puts some real stink on

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Speaker 4: those numbers. But that's perhaps a big Yeah.

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Speaker 3: It reminds me too of the way, like it's become

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Speaker 3: really difficult to get people to fully commit to going

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Speaker 3: back to the office because that whole trend just was

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Speaker 3: so you know, hammered into us the whole work from

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Speaker 3: home thing. People are kind of wont to give it up.

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Speaker 3: So it becomes this whole negotiation with employers where it's like, well,

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Speaker 3: if you come into the office a couple of days

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Speaker 3: a week, we'll give you free snacks or something, because

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Speaker 3: you know, it's hard to turn back the clock when

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Speaker 3: people make these big life changes.

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Speaker 4: Agreed and no. Obviously, for anybody who tuned into our

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Speaker 4: previous episode, you know that McKenzie is a source with

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Speaker 4: let's say an angle. They have a goal. The research

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Speaker 4: is solid though. They point to the pandemic's effect on

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Speaker 4: food service and they say, you know, check it out.

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Speaker 4: Restaurants that once upon a time would never serve takeout

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Speaker 4: they found themselves relying on it to keep their business afloat,

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Speaker 4: and companies like door Dash, grub Hub, Uber Eats, and

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Speaker 4: so on, etc. At all they flourished during this time.

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Speaker 4: Though to be absolutely fair, we cannot necessarily say the

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Speaker 4: same about the drivers working for those companies.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and this is you know, a pretty deep topic,

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Speaker 3: you know, because obviously you see there's so much wrapped

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Speaker 3: into it from very recent history. So this might be

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Speaker 3: the first and sort of a mini series of episodes

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Speaker 3: but for now, let's leave the history stuff there largely,

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Speaker 3: and let's move on to this. If you live in

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Speaker 3: a developed country and have a disposable income, let's call it.

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Speaker 3: Although sometimes it's just you know this, you have to eat.

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Speaker 3: To your point about Checkers, Ben, it's just a matter

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Speaker 3: of like what options do you have, how much are

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Speaker 3: you going to spend? Can you afford to have this

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Speaker 3: delivered right to your door? So if you do have

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Speaker 3: the means to pay that extra fee, all sorts of

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Speaker 3: restaurants are at your disposal to wait upon you hand

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Speaker 3: and foot, everything from you know, fast food restaurants like

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Speaker 3: Checkers to literal fine dieting. A lot of these really

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Speaker 3: nice places are supplementing their income by you know, having

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Speaker 3: a delivery component. Some places totally we're like, no, we

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Speaker 3: don't do that, that's not we don't have the personnel,

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Speaker 3: and that we should get into that a little bit

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Speaker 3: too late, and I'm sure you will. It's about how

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Speaker 3: much personnel this takes and how much of a tax

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Speaker 3: that can put on the people making the food. That's

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Speaker 3: obviously a big part of this episode. But you can

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Speaker 3: call a restaurant directly, sure, and honestly, a lot of

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Speaker 3: places would ask that you do do that because if

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Speaker 3: you use a go between like an Uber eats or whatever,

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Speaker 3: there are fees involved in the restaurants having to pay

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Speaker 3: out some of their you know, their profits to these

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Speaker 3: these third party services. So people typically don't really do

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Speaker 3: that they use these apps. But often if you search

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Speaker 3: for a type of food, whatever you might want, it's

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Speaker 3: there and then you just wait and frankly, depending on

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Speaker 3: what neighborhood you live in, what part of the world

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Speaker 3: you live in, it can come pretty absurdly quick.

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Speaker 4: But with all that being true, tonight's question it dives

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Speaker 4: into something that might surprise a lot of us listening

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Speaker 4: to law at home. Where do all these restaurants come from?

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Speaker 4: When you search for a genre of cuisine, Like you say,

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Speaker 4: I want some faw and there's a pa restaurant you've

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Speaker 4: never heard of, but they can get it to you

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Speaker 4: in thirty five minutes. Who are these people? What the

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Speaker 4: heck is a ghost kitchen? I suggest we pause for

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Speaker 4: a word from our sponsors, maybe a quick snack break,

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Speaker 4: and then continue to explore because God, it's such a

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Speaker 4: cool name. Ghost kitchen. Yeah, here's where it gets crazy.

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Speaker 4: We've talked about this one a little bit off air,

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Speaker 4: and maybe I think we mentioned it in a stream

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Speaker 4: news or listener mail segment. But a great way to

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Speaker 4: get into this phenomenon is a Reddit thread from twenty

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Speaker 4: twenty in Philadelphia. Shout out to Reddit user Kendall Neff,

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Speaker 4: who ordered what she thought was pizza from a local

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Speaker 4: Philly restaurant called Pasqually's or Pascali's.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, this is the one you brought I think, Ben,

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Speaker 5: you brought this up, or when you guys brought this up,

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Speaker 5: and I was like, what is Pasqually's And you guys

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Speaker 5: are like, oh, let me tell you.

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Speaker 2: But isn't it the idea where you're just you're in

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Speaker 2: one of.

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Speaker 5: These apps and you you find a place that looks

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Speaker 5: to be pretty nearby, you order what you think is

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Speaker 5: a local pizza.

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Speaker 3: Well, and pasqually certainly has the ring of truth to

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Speaker 3: it in terms of like, you know, local Philly type fair.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I think one of the most popular Philly

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Speaker 3: places is called Peaquads, and then there's also like a

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Speaker 3: cheese steak type place with names like that. It has

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Speaker 3: that sort of you know, oh this seems legit, right.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's Philly is face for having restaurants where it's

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Speaker 4: some guy's name, right, So this pizza and wing joint

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Speaker 4: passes that sniff test and our friend from Reddit. She

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Speaker 4: gets her food delivered and she texts the driver afterwards

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Speaker 4: after the delivery succeeds, and she says, quote, also, just curious.

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Speaker 4: Was this food from Chuck E Cheese? The driver replies

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Speaker 4: and says, there was. This was the Chucky Cheese store,

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Speaker 4: but the windows had the Wing restaurant on them. I

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Speaker 4: was curious too, go lmao.

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Speaker 3: Well, first of all, what tipped her off to ask

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Speaker 3: the driver that question? I'm curious there, she was already

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Speaker 3: suspicious before it even arrived.

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Speaker 5: Let me just say, I think we all know a

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Speaker 5: Chuck E Cheese pizza when we've tasted a Chuck E

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Speaker 5: Cheese pizza one time?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, tasted it again, school.

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Speaker 4: Lunch pizza jobs. Yeah exactly. I'm with you there, Matt,

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Speaker 4: Because it turns out our pal Charles Entertainment has been

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Speaker 4: using some burner identities. Pasqually is the name of the

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Speaker 4: chef in the Chucky Cheese Extended Universe and the human

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Speaker 4: he's a party animal. If you go pizza party animal,

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Speaker 4: just so, and if you go to delivery websites across

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Speaker 4: the US. You will see Pasqually's all over the place

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Speaker 4: because there are a lot of Chucky Cheeses still. Check

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Speaker 4: out our ridiculous history series on the history of Charles entertainment.

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Speaker 4: And they so people ask them about this. They asked

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Speaker 4: Chuck E Cheese about this this.

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Speaker 3: Second no comment, get out of here with that.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, this kind of name switch ru is not, for

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Speaker 4: the record illegal, and they said, They said the following

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Speaker 4: they were talking to Business Insider and one of their

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Speaker 4: reps said, best Wally's Pizza and Wings is a delivery only,

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Speaker 4: premium pizza brand operating from Chuck E Cheese kitchens. So

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Speaker 4: dba doing business as well.

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Speaker 3: We also know Chuck E Cheese has had some financial

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Speaker 3: woes for a long time and it was just exacerbated

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Speaker 3: by the pandemic. So this makes a lot of sense

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Speaker 3: where they're like, holy crap, We've got this the golden

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Speaker 3: opportunity to like kind of trick people, but do it

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Speaker 3: in a way that's like not overtly bad until they

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Speaker 3: get caught. I don't blame them exactly, but it's shady. Still,

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Speaker 3: it's seen, don't you guys think kind of But yeah,

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Speaker 3: defense too.

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Speaker 5: They've got a commercial kitchen in every one of their locations.

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Speaker 5: They're probably not cooking that much pizza for the kids

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Speaker 5: that are running around doing all the gaming and stuff.

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Speaker 4: Right on your Jesus, especially during a pandemic.

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Speaker 5: This feels like a move because I don't I can't

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Speaker 5: imagine that you could capture a lot of the market

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Speaker 5: share if you just said, hey, we're chuck e Cheese.

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Speaker 4: We delivered exactly. I mean you could. You could say

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Speaker 4: it's a willful deception, and there's some validity to that,

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Speaker 4: But on the other hand, it is a smart and

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Speaker 4: totally legal business move. Let's face it, chuck does not

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Speaker 4: have the most stellar rep amid pizza snobs and right,

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Speaker 4: and you know, it's whether whether or not you agree

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Speaker 4: with the idea of folks. We might be surprised to

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Speaker 4: learn chuck Ee is not the only rat in the

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Speaker 4: game here. Applebee's also delivers food under a sub brand

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Speaker 4: called Neighborhood Wings. Just Salad has another brand called Health Tribes.

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Speaker 4: These are targeted, or at least Health Tribes is targeted

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Speaker 4: at people with dietary restrictions. Doghouse has eight other virtual brands.

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Speaker 4: Companies love this stuff because the look, all the food

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Speaker 4: goes through the same health standards as any other restaurant.

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Speaker 4: They are to your point, Matt, they're just aware of

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Speaker 4: pre existing brand associations and the baggage that comes with that.

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Speaker 4: So if you're already ordering something expensive like Uber Eats

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Speaker 4: is always going to be kind of expensive, then you

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Speaker 4: might not want to say, I'll pay for chuck e cheese.

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Speaker 4: You might want to say, if I'm splurging, let me

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Speaker 4: get something quality, let me go past scalies.

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Speaker 5: Well, let's talk about that just with Applebee's because the

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Speaker 5: Neighborhood Wings thing is a newer thing, and it before

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Speaker 5: they tried to call it Cosmic Wings and really put

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Speaker 5: it off as though it was a whole separate thing,

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Speaker 5: and then they had to shudder that whole side of

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Speaker 5: the business and move it over to basically this thing,

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Speaker 5: the Neighborhood Wings or like if you go to the

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Speaker 5: website Cosmicwings dot com, I think that's what it is. Yeah,

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Speaker 5: for during the pandemic, that was a whole separate business

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Speaker 5: that Applebee's was running kind of without the Applebee's, but

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Speaker 5: it was all from Applebee's.

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Speaker 3: But was it even like like spins on Applebee's dishes,

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Speaker 3: do they because even so many Applebee's stuff, ask Paul

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Speaker 3: Mission Control is one of his favorite restaurants. They're kind

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Speaker 3: of signatory dishes, you know, like they like, you know,

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Speaker 3: what is it now, I'm thinking of Chili's but like,

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Speaker 3: for let's take chilies for example, like Southwestern egg rolls.

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Speaker 3: You'd see that on a menu for another place and

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Speaker 3: be like, where have I heard of this before? Or

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Speaker 3: were they like kind of masquerading the names of the

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Speaker 3: dishes too, or maybe even just using the ingredients in

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Speaker 3: different ways.

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Speaker 4: A little bit of all, a little bit of all

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Speaker 4: those approaches, depending on the venue or the outfit. And

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Speaker 4: you know, look, this is to be clear. This was

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Speaker 4: not as some kind of crooked conspiracy to move like

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Speaker 4: contaminated pizza or literal bad apples.

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Speaker 2: This was we have no proof of that.

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Speaker 3: We have no proof yet these pies.

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Speaker 4: And of course if that is the case, they'll never

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Speaker 4: get in trouble because the franchise model is a hell

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Speaker 4: of an argument in court. But these so we're showing

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Speaker 4: you that this is a very common practice. As a

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Speaker 4: matter of fact, there is a non zero chance that

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Speaker 4: some of us listening this evening might have a new

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Speaker 4: favorite restaurant from the pandemic, and guess what it might

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Speaker 4: be the I hop up the street just gonna let

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Speaker 4: you know, let's step out of Plato's grub hubcalf here

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Speaker 4: and be honest with each other.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's so easy to get caught up in like

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Speaker 3: brand stuff, you know where it's like this place is

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Speaker 3: known for having the best eggs in town, and that

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Speaker 3: hype can kind of infiltrate your mind and your perceptions.

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Speaker 3: And they might just be lightly seasoned scrambled eggs, but

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Speaker 3: because you got it from X place that's got a reputation,

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Speaker 3: it tastes better. So, you know, Pasqually's, you're thinking that

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Speaker 3: it's like, oh, I've discovered this new neighborhood joint. You

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Speaker 3: in your mind might have these positive associations with something

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Speaker 3: that you've definitely eaten before. At a kid's birthday party.

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Speaker 5: We learned that you guys, remember we talked with Oh gosh,

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Speaker 5: our friends at Savor talked with this one time about

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Speaker 5: the perceptions of wine, right, and like just great analog

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Speaker 5: for sure, just the price, the way the label looks,

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Speaker 5: the environment in which you're enjoying it. Like so much

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Speaker 5: of the psychology behind the way your brain interprets that flavor.

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Speaker 5: I think it's it's so strong here when it comes

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Speaker 5: to the branding that you see when you're scrolling through

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Speaker 5: potential food options.

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Speaker 4: Yeah. Absolutely, because taste, enjoyment of something you taste is

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Speaker 4: weirdly similar to experiences on hallucinogens. Seeing and setting and

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Speaker 4: context play a huge role, even onto the color of

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Speaker 4: the plate that your food is on, like a blue

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Speaker 4: versus red plate, And this is weird. Also, the science

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Speaker 4: behind samolier practices not as solid as we would all

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Speaker 4: like to think. But these in these cases, these are

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Speaker 4: all established, often gigantic national brands, and they're wearing you know,

435
00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:47,440
Speaker 4: they're wearing a fake mustache and some glasses to get

436
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:50,600
Speaker 4: into your house, but you know, to serve you good food.

437
00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:53,840
Speaker 4: They just don't want you to know that's actually Charles

438
00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:57,480
Speaker 4: underneath the glasses of the trench goat. But there's something

439
00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:01,200
Speaker 4: else that happened and it's going to continue happening. Probably

440
00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:05,919
Speaker 4: what if the restaurant you were ordering from isn't a

441
00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:08,840
Speaker 4: physical restaurant at all. This is the rise of the

442
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:11,439
Speaker 4: ghost kitchen. And like you said it before we went

443
00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:14,920
Speaker 4: to the ad break, ghost kitchen is such a cool name.

444
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:17,440
Speaker 4: It should be the name of a band or an album,

445
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:19,919
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. I would listen to a mixtape.

446
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,840
Speaker 4: I would listen to DJ Collead's Ghost Kitchen.

447
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,080
Speaker 3: It reminds me a lot of ghost guns, which is

448
00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:30,200
Speaker 3: a similarly not untraceable. But I guess the idea here

449
00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:33,040
Speaker 3: is that you don't know where it came from, and

450
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:35,159
Speaker 3: that's what a ghost gun is. It's like a gun

451
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:39,200
Speaker 3: where the providence of it is kind of difficult to determine.

452
00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:41,840
Speaker 5: The other name for these, which I think is great too.

453
00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:44,399
Speaker 5: I'm sure you guys saw this as a dark kitchen.

454
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:47,919
Speaker 4: Or delivery only kitchen, but dark kitchen and ghost kitchen

455
00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:48,640
Speaker 4: are the two best.

456
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:51,359
Speaker 3: And one part of this that makes a lot of

457
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:54,720
Speaker 3: sense too, is to use get the most bang for

458
00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:57,080
Speaker 3: your buck. If you're a business owner and you like

459
00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:00,800
Speaker 3: have a kitchen, a commercial kitchen, maybe people aren't coming

460
00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:03,119
Speaker 3: in and sitting down as much anymore, so maybe you

461
00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:06,199
Speaker 3: have a lot of space and a lot of commercial

462
00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:11,439
Speaker 3: kitchen equipment and implements. It's a great way to maximize

463
00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:13,400
Speaker 3: the use of all of that and stay afloat. Because

464
00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:16,240
Speaker 3: we know the margins for restaurants are very narrow, and

465
00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:17,520
Speaker 3: that stuff's very expensive.

466
00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:22,000
Speaker 5: Oh man, Just the the regulations you have to follow

467
00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:26,040
Speaker 5: to have a functional commercial kitchen in any given state,

468
00:26:26,119 --> 00:26:28,639
Speaker 5: because they do very by state here in the United States,

469
00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:32,520
Speaker 5: at least. Like, it's not only is it money, it

470
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:35,520
Speaker 5: is effort. It is special. Like you need to have

471
00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:37,640
Speaker 5: somebody who knows what they're doing.

472
00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:41,560
Speaker 3: Ramsey kitchen nightmares, you know, to see just how quickly

473
00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:44,399
Speaker 3: these things can fall apart and crumble into the ground.

474
00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:50,720
Speaker 4: Yeah, and look, it's also tremendously expensive to open a

475
00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:54,640
Speaker 4: traditional restaurant. It's crazy money, which is why a lot

476
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:57,960
Speaker 4: of times, very talented chefs team up with someone who's

477
00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:02,080
Speaker 4: essentially the money person, right, and they make all kinds

478
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:05,640
Speaker 4: of sacrifices on the way just to fit that bottom line.

479
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:11,480
Speaker 4: That's also why menus change, depending again on broader sociological patterns.

480
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:14,600
Speaker 4: There's a method to the madness here. Each of these,

481
00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:18,320
Speaker 4: we'll call them delivery kitchens. Now you know what, let's

482
00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:20,640
Speaker 4: call them ghost kitchens. Let's go with the cool name.

483
00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:24,119
Speaker 4: Each of these they're typically going to be located in

484
00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:28,600
Speaker 4: areas where a lot of people order food delivered. So

485
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 4: your favorite large or mid size city in the US

486
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:37,200
Speaker 4: almost definitely has a series of ghost kitchens. Now it's

487
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:40,879
Speaker 4: never just one, and the kitchens themselves, they'll have like

488
00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:43,280
Speaker 4: a big storefront. You can't roll up to one of

489
00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:46,520
Speaker 4: these places that often looks like a warehouse and say hey,

490
00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:48,520
Speaker 4: let me get you know, a number three, or let

491
00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:51,520
Speaker 4: me get a mean chicken palm. They'll say, go to

492
00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:57,359
Speaker 4: the app, sir, and and order it to a different address.

493
00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:01,120
Speaker 4: This is a virtual restaurant. It's a digital storefront, which

494
00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:04,240
Speaker 4: means they save so much money not just on real estate,

495
00:28:04,359 --> 00:28:06,960
Speaker 4: but on front of house, on overhead, on all those

496
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:11,280
Speaker 4: other things that will just nickel and dime a traditional

497
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:12,680
Speaker 4: food joint to death.

498
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:15,240
Speaker 3: It's almost like a digital version of the kind of

499
00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:17,720
Speaker 3: pop up c see a lot of times where a

500
00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:22,239
Speaker 3: restaurant will will allow a budding chef to use their

501
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:24,960
Speaker 3: kitchen or to use their space for you know, an

502
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:29,439
Speaker 3: exclusive period of time or whatever tests exactly but like

503
00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:32,320
Speaker 3: you know, you it's an event. But like with this,

504
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:34,399
Speaker 3: you can kind of get on, get your thing off

505
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 3: the ground really quickly and test the waters. And I

506
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:38,760
Speaker 3: know a lot of places that probably start like this

507
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:41,200
Speaker 3: and then ease their way into getting a brick and

508
00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:43,800
Speaker 3: mortar space after they realize that the demand is there,

509
00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:47,120
Speaker 3: which I think is really cool as opposed to spending

510
00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:49,800
Speaker 3: all the money and then realizing, oh no, we've made

511
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:51,760
Speaker 3: a horrible decision. We can't sustain this.

512
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 4: Places like dot Obisco, places like I mean there are

513
00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:58,720
Speaker 4: there are tons. This is very popular in Atlanta, New York,

514
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:01,960
Speaker 4: and Los Angeles in particular. I imagine many other cities as well.

515
00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:05,640
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, And often the route is this, right, one

516
00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:08,440
Speaker 5: of these shared kitchens, then maybe a food truck in

517
00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:10,160
Speaker 5: a lot of those markets, then.

518
00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:11,040
Speaker 2: A brick and mortar.

519
00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:13,840
Speaker 5: If that's success, you're basically going up a chain now

520
00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:16,840
Speaker 5: of viability in getting your food out to people. And

521
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:21,880
Speaker 5: this ghost kitchen concept, again from the concept, feels like

522
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:24,360
Speaker 5: a great idea that would work for everybody.

523
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:29,280
Speaker 4: Still still a significant amount of financial risk, but a

524
00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:32,960
Speaker 4: far smaller amount of risk that would be associated with

525
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:37,479
Speaker 4: someone saying it's always been my dream to have a

526
00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 4: seafood counter and we're gonna make fish sandwiches and we're

527
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:43,360
Speaker 4: just gonna hope people like them for the ten years.

528
00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:47,840
Speaker 4: It takes us to break even, right, That's true, It's true.

529
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:51,280
Speaker 4: I mean there there's another part here, which is of

530
00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:55,200
Speaker 4: course this makes sense. You're in a sense or sense

531
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 4: no pun left behind. You're in a prime area. Fraction

532
00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:02,240
Speaker 4: of the costs. You don't have to worry not just

533
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:05,960
Speaker 4: about the expenses involved with having people sit down in

534
00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:09,840
Speaker 4: a restaurant, but you also will be able to contract

535
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:14,000
Speaker 4: out with these third parties, these facilities that just own

536
00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:18,360
Speaker 4: that commercial kitchen space and they will do fulfillment and

537
00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:22,720
Speaker 4: logistics services, so you can get this dream that a

538
00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:26,400
Speaker 4: lot of people have quested for in hospitality and restaurant

539
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:30,880
Speaker 4: restaurant industries. You can just focus on cooking, dude, you don't.

540
00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:34,280
Speaker 4: You don't have to worry about the gripes and the

541
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:37,440
Speaker 4: rabble rousers. All you have to do is rent out

542
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:41,640
Speaker 4: space at the appropriate facility. In the beginning, people were

543
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:45,520
Speaker 4: just running out straight warehouses that had the right utility hookups.

544
00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:48,280
Speaker 4: But now you're going to find a place that is

545
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:52,840
Speaker 4: like a furnished apartment. You can just move your concept

546
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:56,400
Speaker 4: in and they'll have everything you need to function at

547
00:30:56,440 --> 00:30:59,840
Speaker 4: the scale of a physical restaurant. Your work goes into

548
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:03,160
Speaker 4: launching the brand, and by the way, depending on the company,

549
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:05,440
Speaker 4: for an added fee, they're happy to help you with

550
00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:05,880
Speaker 4: that too.

551
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:09,320
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, are we talking about places like cloud Kitchen.

552
00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:13,080
Speaker 4: We are talking about places like cloud Kitchen, and.

553
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:15,480
Speaker 3: This was new to me, or at the very least

554
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:18,000
Speaker 3: this particular company. But even the idea of ghost kitchens

555
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:21,480
Speaker 3: being more of a service, because I think initially it

556
00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:23,600
Speaker 3: was sort of just a concept where a lot of

557
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:28,360
Speaker 3: pre existing places sort of got this, you know, bright idea.

558
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:31,239
Speaker 3: Perhaps simultaneously, I want to I want to learn more

559
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:33,400
Speaker 3: about the you know, the history of whose idea this

560
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 3: actually was. But the idea of a company that's like

561
00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:37,920
Speaker 3: this is what they specialize him that was sort of

562
00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:41,520
Speaker 3: like a interesting kind of development for me. I wasn't

563
00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:42,560
Speaker 3: really aware of this angle.

564
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:44,960
Speaker 5: What's the name of the guy that started this one,

565
00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:47,440
Speaker 5: Travis kalan Nicky.

566
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:48,440
Speaker 2: Yeah.

567
00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:51,600
Speaker 4: Also he was deep with Uber beforehand. He's a co

568
00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:52,480
Speaker 4: founder of Uber.

569
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:55,880
Speaker 5: So the one of the guys, one of the brains

570
00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:58,520
Speaker 5: behind Uber is like, well, let's do uh, let's do

571
00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:01,800
Speaker 5: something similar here in serrupt the restaurant industry.

572
00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:06,960
Speaker 4: As long as we hold to our number one priority.

573
00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:10,800
Speaker 4: Not we're recognizing the rights of the drivers.

574
00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:14,560
Speaker 5: Yeah, you're paying taxes correctly, but we'll make the driver sorry,

575
00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:15,320
Speaker 5: I mean kitchen.

576
00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:20,080
Speaker 4: I mean, well, so they're going to pay taxes. What

577
00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:24,280
Speaker 4: are they poor people? Anyway? So Cloud Kitchens you can

578
00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:26,480
Speaker 4: go to their website right now, let's talk a little

579
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:31,040
Speaker 4: bit about them. According to them, you can get your

580
00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:35,520
Speaker 4: kitchen up and running in as little as one month ish,

581
00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:38,840
Speaker 4: so as little as six weeks honestly, And they say, look,

582
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:43,480
Speaker 4: we also provide facility management. If you've never been in

583
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:46,640
Speaker 4: the restaurant industry, that might sound like a dry term,

584
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:52,000
Speaker 4: but dudes do debts and doudoids listen. That means you

585
00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:54,880
Speaker 4: can work and you don't have to clean grease traps

586
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:56,720
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, you don't have to

587
00:32:56,840 --> 00:33:00,280
Speaker 4: wipe down friars, You skip all that messy jazz, just

588
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:01,680
Speaker 4: cook and then you go home.

589
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:05,200
Speaker 2: You're not a chef if you're not cleaning that kitchen.

590
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:07,880
Speaker 3: Oh and that's oh, that's part of the business model too,

591
00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:10,600
Speaker 3: is the regimentedness of that and keeping your staff in

592
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:13,480
Speaker 3: line and keeping your your place spotless or whatever. But

593
00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:16,000
Speaker 3: this to me sounds a whole lot like a kind

594
00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:20,480
Speaker 3: of restaurant version of Airbnb, you know, or you get

595
00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:23,680
Speaker 3: all the privileges of having the space at your disposal,

596
00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:25,000
Speaker 3: but you don't have to do any of the work

597
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:27,560
Speaker 3: for a price, of course.

598
00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:31,400
Speaker 4: I mean yeah, speaking to prices, look at the math

599
00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:35,480
Speaker 4: for cloud Kitchen. We're using cloud Kitchen as one example,

600
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:39,719
Speaker 4: but there are multiple entities out there. Cloud Kitchen tells

601
00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:43,320
Speaker 4: you the budding chef or restaurant tour that for as

602
00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:48,840
Speaker 4: little as thirty thousand dollars US, you can start your

603
00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:51,960
Speaker 4: kitchen going in about six weeks and then if everything

604
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:55,560
Speaker 4: goes right in six months, you will break even and

605
00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:59,280
Speaker 4: that creates a ten percent profit with one million dollars

606
00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:04,320
Speaker 4: in total sale. Of course, again these are ideal conditions.

607
00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:06,680
Speaker 4: This is a lot like just to be honest, and

608
00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:09,080
Speaker 4: this is not a ding on cloud Kitchen nor it's founder,

609
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:12,480
Speaker 4: But this is a lot like saying, hey, if you

610
00:34:13,200 --> 00:34:16,000
Speaker 4: start running when you're little, you can get the gold

611
00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:19,799
Speaker 4: medal at the Olympics too. You can potentially, but not

612
00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:20,719
Speaker 4: everybody does.

613
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:24,000
Speaker 5: In the end, all of your efforts and no matter

614
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:27,200
Speaker 5: what your ghost kitchen is, have to work to hit

615
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:30,560
Speaker 5: those metrics right. Yes, like your marketing has to be

616
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:33,080
Speaker 5: spot on to where people using those apps it looks

617
00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:35,760
Speaker 5: at yours and goes, oh, that is the most appealing

618
00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:39,200
Speaker 5: insert food type here, and then you know enough people

619
00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:42,640
Speaker 5: have to order amongst all of the Again, if you're

620
00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:45,440
Speaker 5: in a place that is really big in these ghost kitchens,

621
00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:48,120
Speaker 5: that means there's probably a lot of brick and mortar

622
00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:51,640
Speaker 5: stores around too, and somehow you got to beat that competition.

623
00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:53,560
Speaker 4: Yeah.

624
00:34:53,600 --> 00:34:55,440
Speaker 3: I had one quick question though, Like you know, I

625
00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:59,200
Speaker 3: made the Airbnb kind of connection, and I'm not sure

626
00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:01,719
Speaker 3: if I'm missing here, but it's cloud kitchens that these

627
00:35:01,719 --> 00:35:04,839
Speaker 3: are all facilities they own and operate, or are they

628
00:35:04,920 --> 00:35:11,000
Speaker 3: connecting budding chefs with available space and potential other ghost

629
00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:14,920
Speaker 3: kitchens that are run by other individuals, largely.

630
00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:18,640
Speaker 4: The former o Ando spaces they also. I mean, it

631
00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:21,359
Speaker 4: just makes sense and it could be a really great

632
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:26,240
Speaker 4: opportunity for a buddying chef. Again, because restaurants are cutthroat business,

633
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:31,160
Speaker 4: razor thin margins, a lot of plagiarism occurring, any legal

634
00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:36,320
Speaker 4: edge is an enormous mission critical advantage to everyone involved,

635
00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:39,400
Speaker 4: including potentially you the customer.

636
00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:41,160
Speaker 2: Guys.

637
00:35:41,239 --> 00:35:43,719
Speaker 5: I'm you're right man, I'm thinking of these places called

638
00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:46,359
Speaker 5: salon lofts in Atlanta. Have you ever heard of these?

639
00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:47,560
Speaker 4: Yeah? Is that where?

640
00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:47,719
Speaker 3: You?

641
00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:50,160
Speaker 4: Like? I see it a lot in cosmetology. You can

642
00:35:50,200 --> 00:35:53,160
Speaker 4: rent out a space inside a larger space and you

643
00:35:53,280 --> 00:35:54,840
Speaker 4: pay them rent exactly.

644
00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:57,000
Speaker 5: That's that's like to me, that's a one to one

645
00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:00,520
Speaker 5: to that where you've got kitchens in a facility right

646
00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:03,319
Speaker 5: where you rent your kitchen within their big thing.

647
00:36:03,560 --> 00:36:06,000
Speaker 3: Oh, there's a place in East Atlanta village here that's

648
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:08,239
Speaker 3: sort of called I forget what the official title is,

649
00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:11,080
Speaker 3: but it's like Beauford Highway and EAV or something like that.

650
00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:13,439
Speaker 3: And be Buford Highway is this area of Atlanta that's

651
00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:17,200
Speaker 3: got a lot of amazing Asian restaurants and Latin restaurants

652
00:36:17,200 --> 00:36:20,080
Speaker 3: and all kinds of different cuisine. But this place it's

653
00:36:20,120 --> 00:36:23,000
Speaker 3: got like five or six different rotating not rotating that

654
00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:25,640
Speaker 3: sort of like are there until they move on, but

655
00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:29,279
Speaker 3: it's in one giant space that clearly they're renting or

656
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:31,040
Speaker 3: their a little corner of it, almost like you w

657
00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:33,640
Speaker 3: at a table at a flea market or like you know,

658
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:36,040
Speaker 3: artist's market or something you know, like.

659
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 4: A food hall there. Yeah. So I think the example

660
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:43,200
Speaker 4: there with the prefurnished apartment in a nice part of

661
00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:46,239
Speaker 4: tow And that works really well. And these other examples,

662
00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:51,880
Speaker 4: the Salon the Salon Collective also makes a lot of sense.

663
00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:55,200
Speaker 4: This is just good business. In the case of these

664
00:36:55,239 --> 00:37:00,279
Speaker 4: ghost kitchens, business is still boomy. Cloud Kitchens alone, per

665
00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:04,239
Speaker 4: their website, has four separate facilities O and O's in

666
00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:07,400
Speaker 4: the Atlanta area. Surprised by the way in the interest

667
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:13,080
Speaker 4: of full transparency. Recently, Cloud Kitchen has had some pretty

668
00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:17,440
Speaker 4: big problems as the like they exploded at the start

669
00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:21,320
Speaker 4: of the pandemic. But now as of September of twenty

670
00:37:21,400 --> 00:37:24,720
Speaker 4: twenty three, they've been laying off a lot of staff.

671
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:29,760
Speaker 4: They've been shuttering warehouse locations because, just like ghost kitchens,

672
00:37:29,920 --> 00:37:33,560
Speaker 4: a lot of businesses that sprang up in the environment

673
00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:38,400
Speaker 4: of the pandemic are now struggling to function with more

674
00:37:38,440 --> 00:37:40,600
Speaker 4: and more people, you know, going back to work, hopping

675
00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:44,120
Speaker 4: back in their cars, going out and frolicking.

676
00:37:44,840 --> 00:37:46,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's crazy to think.

677
00:37:46,080 --> 00:37:49,720
Speaker 5: They had a valuation of fifteen billion dollars in twenty

678
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:54,080
Speaker 5: twenty one. Because we again that pandemic state of mind

679
00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:57,120
Speaker 5: and reality that we were in, they were like, Oh,

680
00:37:57,200 --> 00:37:58,840
Speaker 5: this is the new thing, this is the future. It

681
00:37:58,880 --> 00:38:01,000
Speaker 5: will always be like this and it will only.

682
00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:03,640
Speaker 2: Grow from here. And it's just changed a lot.

683
00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:10,320
Speaker 4: And the next question is who is using ghost kitchens?

684
00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:13,239
Speaker 4: Are they? Are they as I had hoped when we

685
00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:17,319
Speaker 4: started researching this, Are they kitchens populated by ghosts. We'll

686
00:38:17,360 --> 00:38:27,440
Speaker 4: tell you afterword from our sponsor, and we've returned. As

687
00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:30,520
Speaker 4: far as we know, all the staff of ghost kitchens

688
00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:34,920
Speaker 4: are in fact human beings, which means they're haunted houses

689
00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:36,480
Speaker 4: with a ghost inside them.

690
00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:39,880
Speaker 2: So sort of you mean the human being is the

691
00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:41,040
Speaker 2: is the haunted house?

692
00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:44,400
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, every human beings a haunted house, is the argument.

693
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:48,319
Speaker 4: But the thing is, like, if you think about who

694
00:38:48,440 --> 00:38:52,000
Speaker 4: uses ghost kitchens, if you like, we had a nice

695
00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:55,120
Speaker 4: sample size of three here, I think without checking with

696
00:38:55,200 --> 00:38:59,040
Speaker 4: our palle michig control, we've got some folks who are

697
00:38:59,160 --> 00:39:02,200
Speaker 4: ordering out once a week, maybe twice a week. We've

698
00:39:02,239 --> 00:39:05,520
Speaker 4: got some folks who pretty much avoid it unless time

699
00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:08,799
Speaker 4: runs against us. But if you're a person who, for

700
00:39:08,800 --> 00:39:12,279
Speaker 4: one reason or another uses an online service like this,

701
00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:16,440
Speaker 4: unless you know for sure the restaurant you're ordering from,

702
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:21,120
Speaker 4: you quite possibly have given business to a ghost kitchen.

703
00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:23,640
Speaker 4: There's nothing wrong with it. You're one of the people.

704
00:39:23,760 --> 00:39:24,319
Speaker 4: U see them.

705
00:39:24,719 --> 00:39:27,480
Speaker 3: And so the ghost kitchens, as we've sort of you

706
00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:30,640
Speaker 3: mentioned already, their biggest customers are going to be these

707
00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:32,799
Speaker 3: aspiring chefs and folks that are trying to break into

708
00:39:32,880 --> 00:39:38,040
Speaker 3: the restaurant business. People that have a vision. Perhaps they've

709
00:39:38,120 --> 00:39:41,240
Speaker 3: got some sort of brand they're establishing that's hugely important.

710
00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:44,040
Speaker 3: Just like you mentioned with the savor of conversation, Matt

711
00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:46,440
Speaker 3: about the wine labels and all of that. I mean,

712
00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:48,520
Speaker 3: this stuff is huge and it can really have an

713
00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:52,080
Speaker 3: effect on the way that your taste buds perceive the stuff.

714
00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:56,680
Speaker 3: But what are some other examples of folks that would

715
00:39:56,880 --> 00:40:01,520
Speaker 3: benefit from this kind of model, Guys, I distinctly remember

716
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:04,640
Speaker 3: sitting with the two of you and our favorite, our

717
00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:09,799
Speaker 3: favorite restaurant, Dave and Busters, and we were looking online.

718
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:13,160
Speaker 3: We were talking about something called mister Beastberger, and we

719
00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:16,239
Speaker 3: were looking at their website and we noticed that, all

720
00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:18,200
Speaker 3: of a sudden, we had just heard about this thing.

721
00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:25,160
Speaker 3: They had fifty sixty locations listed, like as though they

722
00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:27,480
Speaker 3: were brick and mortar places. And this was before we

723
00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:31,040
Speaker 3: knew much about ghost kitchens. This is a relatively new phenomenon.

724
00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:32,920
Speaker 3: It wasn't like top of mind, and we were like,

725
00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:35,200
Speaker 3: what the hell is going on here? I know this

726
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:38,800
Speaker 3: mister beasts guy's got a lot of money, YouTube money,

727
00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:42,040
Speaker 3: but this seems out of the realm of possibility for anyone,

728
00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:43,440
Speaker 3: even with like superpowers.

729
00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:47,680
Speaker 4: Yeah, one of the big third bucket of ghost kitchen

730
00:40:48,200 --> 00:40:51,799
Speaker 4: customers is going to be we see not. Thanks for

731
00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:55,760
Speaker 4: the edit here, Paul. Celebrities celebrities love a ghost kitchen,

732
00:40:55,800 --> 00:40:59,000
Speaker 4: and you're right well, I appreciate bringing up Dave and

733
00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:02,919
Speaker 4: Busters in any context. By the way, mister Beast back

734
00:41:02,960 --> 00:41:07,560
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty one, street named Jimmy Donaldson. He announced

735
00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:12,120
Speaker 4: that he opened three hundred restaurants across America, caveating we

736
00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:15,720
Speaker 4: only serve people through delivery apps. And I remember checking

737
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:19,040
Speaker 4: this out with you guys. Because mister Beast, the Mister

738
00:41:19,080 --> 00:41:24,840
Speaker 4: Beast Burger, it mainstreamed public awareness of ghost kitchens. For

739
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:28,120
Speaker 4: anybody who is not familiar with mister Beast, the guy

740
00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:31,960
Speaker 4: and his team are famous throughout YouTube and therefore the

741
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:38,040
Speaker 4: world for conducting these amazing, I don't know, stunts, right,

742
00:41:38,200 --> 00:41:43,200
Speaker 4: sometimes pranks like staging a fake bank robbery that ends

743
00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:46,839
Speaker 4: up with giving someone a really nice gift at the end,

744
00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:50,440
Speaker 4: wholesome stuff usually, and New York Times writes about it.

745
00:41:50,480 --> 00:41:55,120
Speaker 4: This mainstreams ghost kitchens, and they say they put the

746
00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:57,839
Speaker 4: relationship this way. They say, in exchange for a cut

747
00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:01,880
Speaker 4: of sales the brand in the case, mister Beast supplies

748
00:42:01,920 --> 00:42:05,120
Speaker 4: the name, the logo, the menu, the recipes, and the

749
00:42:05,120 --> 00:42:09,120
Speaker 4: pr images for any restaurant owner with the space and

750
00:42:09,160 --> 00:42:12,440
Speaker 4: the staff just make some burgers on the side. So

751
00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:16,640
Speaker 4: it so mister Beast Burger became a little bit like

752
00:42:17,239 --> 00:42:20,960
Speaker 4: an anonymous collective of food. You know, it's a it's

753
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:24,160
Speaker 4: a Wendy's one day, Wendy's franchise one day, and then

754
00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:28,640
Speaker 4: later they're also processing mister beast Burger orders well.

755
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:30,600
Speaker 3: And to the point I think we mentioned earlier in

756
00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:34,280
Speaker 3: the episode of the kind of scenario with the person

757
00:42:34,320 --> 00:42:36,960
Speaker 3: getting the chuck e cheese delivery and the driver being like,

758
00:42:37,040 --> 00:42:39,560
Speaker 3: well they had this window. I was watching some YouTube

759
00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:42,280
Speaker 3: kind of expos's or a little news pieces about this stuff,

760
00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:44,360
Speaker 3: and a lot of these places have like ten different

761
00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:48,560
Speaker 3: little sticker things outside of their windows. I get maybe

762
00:42:48,600 --> 00:42:50,480
Speaker 3: that's the law. I don't know, maybe it's just a

763
00:42:50,520 --> 00:42:53,520
Speaker 3: style thing. But it's an odd look in them, and

764
00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:54,360
Speaker 3: I think it's.

765
00:42:54,280 --> 00:42:56,920
Speaker 5: Just to let the delivery drivers know, oh, you are

766
00:42:56,960 --> 00:42:57,640
Speaker 5: in the right place.

767
00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:01,200
Speaker 2: This confusing, but ye, you're here.

768
00:43:01,560 --> 00:43:03,240
Speaker 3: It's a hell of a lot cheaper than a sign

769
00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:04,719
Speaker 3: having it printed and installed.

770
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:08,200
Speaker 4: Look, I like it. I'm all about that stuff. And

771
00:43:08,280 --> 00:43:11,480
Speaker 4: you know, Regardless of how you may feel about places

772
00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:14,840
Speaker 4: like grub hub and door dash and uber, the the

773
00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:19,759
Speaker 4: problems with those places are the systems right in which

774
00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:22,319
Speaker 4: they operate. The problem is just like when you call

775
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:24,759
Speaker 4: a big company on the phone, the person who is

776
00:43:24,760 --> 00:43:29,080
Speaker 4: delivering the food is not should not be the subject

777
00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:32,560
Speaker 4: of your ire right because they're not the ones making

778
00:43:32,600 --> 00:43:33,480
Speaker 4: those decisions.

779
00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:37,560
Speaker 5: Yeah, I will say this is very hard for me

780
00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:42,719
Speaker 5: to stomach. Huhuh in some ways because I'm imagining. I'm okay,

781
00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:46,640
Speaker 5: Let's just use an example. A you guys know a whopper.

782
00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:50,279
Speaker 5: Everybody knows a burger King whopper, right. A burger King

783
00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:54,360
Speaker 5: whopper is only that because it is the same ingredients

784
00:43:54,560 --> 00:43:58,239
Speaker 5: at every burger King, right, and prepared with the same

785
00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:00,720
Speaker 5: instructions that are at every king.

786
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:03,040
Speaker 3: Flame broiled though Matt flame broiled.

787
00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:07,919
Speaker 5: But what I mean is for these ghost kitchens, it's

788
00:44:08,040 --> 00:44:11,799
Speaker 5: essentially the same thing, right, The same ingredients are being

789
00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:15,799
Speaker 5: delivered to in a Mister Beast's example. Here, it's like

790
00:44:15,840 --> 00:44:20,680
Speaker 5: to various restaurant kitchens right that are operating, and more.

791
00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:25,000
Speaker 3: Importantly, the packaging it's all from mister Beast Burger. You

792
00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:26,840
Speaker 3: know what I mean? Like, you get these boxes that

793
00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:29,680
Speaker 3: we ordered my kid just as a goof which is

794
00:44:29,719 --> 00:44:32,200
Speaker 3: a mister Beasts fan. We ordered it once and it

795
00:44:32,320 --> 00:44:35,480
Speaker 3: was fine, But the novelty of it was that we

796
00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:41,040
Speaker 3: were ordering fast food delivery from this YouTube star's fake restaurant.

797
00:44:41,480 --> 00:44:45,200
Speaker 5: Yes, but I guess just my point is it with

798
00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:49,640
Speaker 5: mister Beast. It's like various different fast not fast food chains.

799
00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:54,680
Speaker 5: It's like good kitchens, right, sure, like bo isn't it

800
00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:56,200
Speaker 5: mid veil Utah?

801
00:44:56,320 --> 00:44:56,520
Speaker 4: Yeah?

802
00:44:56,719 --> 00:44:58,640
Speaker 3: But like example, but it's standardized and if they do

803
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:00,840
Speaker 3: it right and the kitchens are clean and people know

804
00:45:00,880 --> 00:45:02,920
Speaker 3: what they're doing, the food should be identical, is what

805
00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:04,440
Speaker 3: you're saying. Right, it should be.

806
00:45:04,640 --> 00:45:08,040
Speaker 5: But just imagine the chefs working at a Buca di

807
00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:11,279
Speaker 5: Beppo were making it or is it a separate one

808
00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:13,760
Speaker 5: or two staff members that mister Beaste is hiring.

809
00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:16,640
Speaker 3: I have this question as well. Beast is not hiring them.

810
00:45:17,840 --> 00:45:20,040
Speaker 4: It's a restaurant agreement. But I see, I see your

811
00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:26,560
Speaker 4: point because it leads us to interrogate the concept of consistency, right,

812
00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:30,759
Speaker 4: and that depends upon the restaurants getting very very specific,

813
00:45:31,120 --> 00:45:37,000
Speaker 4: step by step instructions. It's also it's also hilarious to

814
00:45:37,040 --> 00:45:39,080
Speaker 4: me to think that you could go into that Buca

815
00:45:39,120 --> 00:45:42,279
Speaker 4: di Beppo and you know they're cooking the burgers, but

816
00:45:42,480 --> 00:45:45,400
Speaker 4: you can't order them, not at the place, So the

817
00:45:45,480 --> 00:45:50,360
Speaker 4: division seems sort of artificial. There's also another thing we see,

818
00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:54,680
Speaker 4: like the importance of branding and public perception. McDonald's has

819
00:45:54,719 --> 00:45:59,239
Speaker 4: been making a killing with celebrity sponsored meals. It's still

820
00:45:59,239 --> 00:46:01,720
Speaker 4: a big Mac or it's still you know, big macmeal,

821
00:46:01,880 --> 00:46:05,080
Speaker 4: but now it's got BTS packaging slapped on it. The

822
00:46:05,080 --> 00:46:08,760
Speaker 4: famous K pop band, right or Rick and Morty, Sejuan

823
00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:12,960
Speaker 4: Sauce and people. Scott used their mind over this stuff. Yeah,

824
00:46:12,680 --> 00:46:16,360
Speaker 4: and that's what that's what the company that partnered with

825
00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:19,840
Speaker 4: Mister Beast sought to do. Their name is Virtual Dining

826
00:46:19,960 --> 00:46:25,080
Speaker 4: Concepts v DC. And they said, Okay, this Mister Beast

827
00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:29,279
Speaker 4: thing is really good for us. Let's partner with Mario Lopez,

828
00:46:29,719 --> 00:46:32,520
Speaker 4: let's from Saved by the Bell, and let's partner with

829
00:46:32,560 --> 00:46:35,239
Speaker 4: a guy named Polly D. People in the conference room said,

830
00:46:35,239 --> 00:46:38,359
Speaker 4: who the heck is Polly D? And from there he's

831
00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:40,279
Speaker 4: from the shore and they said, what's the shore? It

832
00:46:40,360 --> 00:46:43,200
Speaker 4: was like the Jersey Shore And who knows if they

833
00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:45,440
Speaker 4: know that's a reality show or if they thought this

834
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:48,200
Speaker 4: guy was just big news. On the boardwalk of the

835
00:46:48,200 --> 00:46:49,160
Speaker 4: Garden State.

836
00:46:49,239 --> 00:46:52,279
Speaker 5: They were talking about Paul Dean just styling on it

837
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:56,120
Speaker 5: right right in a different life DBA, Paul Michigan Control

838
00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:58,200
Speaker 5: dec DBA is poly duh.

839
00:46:58,520 --> 00:47:00,799
Speaker 4: It all worked out, as Kurt Vonna get once said,

840
00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:05,320
Speaker 4: everything was beautiful and nothing hurt. Kidding, Matt, your point

841
00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:09,240
Speaker 4: was astute. Mister Beast had a problem with the quality.

842
00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:14,720
Speaker 4: Mister Beast sued VDC eventually to stop production of mister

843
00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:19,520
Speaker 4: Beastburger's entirely. They said, this virtual dining concept thing, they're

844
00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:23,000
Speaker 4: more focused on expanding their business so they can pitch

845
00:47:23,320 --> 00:47:26,759
Speaker 4: to other celebrities. That's what they want to be their

846
00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:30,560
Speaker 4: primary model, and they're not paying attention to the quality

847
00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:34,120
Speaker 4: of the food. They're just getting the bag and then

848
00:47:34,800 --> 00:47:35,439
Speaker 4: ditch and town.

849
00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:38,839
Speaker 5: Well yeah, but did you hear VDC's response to mister

850
00:47:38,960 --> 00:47:43,359
Speaker 5: Beast's attorneys. Yeah, yeah, they were essentially like, actually, we

851
00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:46,440
Speaker 5: didn't want to continue on with the contract with mister Beast,

852
00:47:46,520 --> 00:47:48,720
Speaker 5: and that's why he's upset and that's why he's suing,

853
00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:49,799
Speaker 5: so we're countersaving.

854
00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:53,080
Speaker 3: So the truth though, because I heard mister I heard

855
00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:55,320
Speaker 3: kind of both of those, but it sounded to me

856
00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:58,239
Speaker 3: basically right to your point. Maybe mister Beast was just

857
00:47:58,239 --> 00:48:00,080
Speaker 3: doing a spin on it, But do you guys have

858
00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:02,240
Speaker 3: a sense of which which which version is true?

859
00:48:03,040 --> 00:48:07,560
Speaker 5: Living courts decide it might be it might be something

860
00:48:07,600 --> 00:48:08,240
Speaker 5: for the courts.

861
00:48:08,280 --> 00:48:10,600
Speaker 4: The winners in this case are going to be the

862
00:48:10,680 --> 00:48:14,960
Speaker 4: legal teams because both sides here have some financial theft,

863
00:48:15,200 --> 00:48:18,600
Speaker 4: so we we don't know how that will work out.

864
00:48:19,040 --> 00:48:23,120
Speaker 4: A breached contract argument is nothing new in the business world.

865
00:48:23,520 --> 00:48:26,000
Speaker 4: But we know this is not all pipe dreams and

866
00:48:26,160 --> 00:48:29,839
Speaker 4: angel farts. We've seen some companies over expanding. We've seen

867
00:48:29,920 --> 00:48:35,319
Speaker 4: bad blood happen between so called creatives and ghost kitchen initiatives.

868
00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:38,960
Speaker 4: But one thing's for sure. Ghost kitchens are reality. I

869
00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:41,320
Speaker 4: don't love the phrase, but they might be the new normal.

870
00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:44,719
Speaker 4: They've fundamentally transformed the course of the restaurant industry. I

871
00:48:44,840 --> 00:48:47,160
Speaker 4: did not know this, but he knows a legend in

872
00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:50,920
Speaker 4: the ghost kitchen game. I hop, you, guys. I hop

873
00:48:51,239 --> 00:48:53,960
Speaker 4: is gargantuan in the world of ghost kitchens.

874
00:48:54,400 --> 00:48:55,520
Speaker 2: That makes so much sense.

875
00:48:55,640 --> 00:49:01,080
Speaker 3: They can make anything at an eye off us little deep. Yeah,

876
00:49:01,280 --> 00:49:04,080
Speaker 3: they make crapes, for God's sake. Crapes.

877
00:49:04,960 --> 00:49:07,799
Speaker 4: This is just a tangent here because we're a little

878
00:49:07,840 --> 00:49:09,640
Speaker 4: looser at the end of the year. But did I

879
00:49:09,680 --> 00:49:12,640
Speaker 4: tell you guys about Denny's in Japan, Like you guys

880
00:49:12,719 --> 00:49:13,280
Speaker 4: know Denny's.

881
00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:15,040
Speaker 3: Do they have moons over Mihami or is it called

882
00:49:15,040 --> 00:49:15,640
Speaker 3: something different?

883
00:49:15,800 --> 00:49:18,880
Speaker 4: It is crazy? Okay. First off, it's one of the

884
00:49:18,880 --> 00:49:22,000
Speaker 4: only places that has free refills, which is very much

885
00:49:22,040 --> 00:49:24,840
Speaker 4: an American thing, So that alone is a huge sale.

886
00:49:25,200 --> 00:49:28,040
Speaker 3: Also nice apparently as a bit of an American thing.

887
00:49:28,560 --> 00:49:32,560
Speaker 4: Also, it's a huge Uh, it's a huge step up.

888
00:49:32,840 --> 00:49:38,080
Speaker 4: It's a much nicer restaurant and it's weirdly Italian by

889
00:49:38,120 --> 00:49:42,080
Speaker 4: the way, Denny's in japad at least. Yeah, and it's like, uh,

890
00:49:42,840 --> 00:49:44,839
Speaker 4: it's a it's a night out on the town kind

891
00:49:44,880 --> 00:49:48,520
Speaker 4: of place you go to. The similar to how PBR

892
00:49:48,880 --> 00:49:52,680
Speaker 4: perhaps Blue Ribbon is considered a fancy beer in parts

893
00:49:52,680 --> 00:49:55,520
Speaker 4: of China, and it comes in a whole different like

894
00:49:55,600 --> 00:49:58,400
Speaker 4: it comes in like a wine bottle. It's quite expensive

895
00:49:58,560 --> 00:50:00,200
Speaker 4: and a lot of the beers.

896
00:49:59,800 --> 00:50:02,759
Speaker 3: Come and kind of wine bottles over in Japan and China.

897
00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:05,160
Speaker 3: I've noticed that we've seen it in films anyway.

898
00:50:05,560 --> 00:50:08,600
Speaker 4: Yeah, and and look We're not going to disparage the

899
00:50:08,640 --> 00:50:13,120
Speaker 4: good folks at Denny's nor PBR because it did. It

900
00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:16,319
Speaker 4: is an award winning beer. I guess technically right, they

901
00:50:16,400 --> 00:50:17,520
Speaker 4: named it after the Blue.

902
00:50:17,400 --> 00:50:19,520
Speaker 3: Ribbon one at that one time, at the very least,

903
00:50:20,600 --> 00:50:23,400
Speaker 3: you know. For a couple of last thoughts on my end,

904
00:50:23,520 --> 00:50:27,040
Speaker 3: I was just wondering, do you guys think that we've

905
00:50:27,080 --> 00:50:30,080
Speaker 3: already reached kind of peak ghost kitchen? And now the

906
00:50:30,200 --> 00:50:34,360
Speaker 3: term is sort of a nag. No, you don't think so,

907
00:50:34,360 --> 00:50:38,560
Speaker 3: because to me, in culinary circles, if if you find

908
00:50:38,560 --> 00:50:40,919
Speaker 3: out something's coming from a ghost kitchen, then that sort

909
00:50:40,960 --> 00:50:43,400
Speaker 3: of I think it sort of carries with it a

910
00:50:43,400 --> 00:50:47,240
Speaker 3: bit of a blotch on the reputation of the food

911
00:50:47,280 --> 00:50:49,040
Speaker 3: because of all the things we're talking about. But maybe

912
00:50:49,080 --> 00:50:49,919
Speaker 3: I'm misperceiving.

913
00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:53,319
Speaker 4: I mean, it's it's perspective, right, Just like for one,

914
00:50:53,440 --> 00:50:54,920
Speaker 4: I don't know if this is helpful, but in the

915
00:50:54,960 --> 00:50:58,279
Speaker 4: early days of baseball, it was considered cheating to use

916
00:50:58,320 --> 00:51:01,160
Speaker 4: a glove to catch the ball, and now that's normal.

917
00:51:01,200 --> 00:51:03,720
Speaker 4: I think what we're seeing is a process of normalization.

918
00:51:04,040 --> 00:51:06,440
Speaker 3: I think it depends on the situation too, right, If

919
00:51:06,480 --> 00:51:08,640
Speaker 3: it's one of those up and coming folks that we're

920
00:51:08,640 --> 00:51:11,400
Speaker 3: talking about. That's one thing. But if it's Chuck E

921
00:51:11,480 --> 00:51:15,080
Speaker 3: Cheese trying to trick you into buying their crappy pizza,

922
00:51:15,160 --> 00:51:15,879
Speaker 3: that's another thing.

923
00:51:16,360 --> 00:51:19,279
Speaker 5: I'm no economist, but I do think we're in a

924
00:51:19,360 --> 00:51:23,640
Speaker 5: retraction from something that was catching on because it was

925
00:51:23,640 --> 00:51:28,560
Speaker 5: so economically viable. Now it's customers going through a process

926
00:51:28,600 --> 00:51:31,719
Speaker 5: of getting used to it, right, and once we're used

927
00:51:31,719 --> 00:51:34,439
Speaker 5: to it enough, I think this is just what it's

928
00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:37,759
Speaker 5: going to be, because you know, if we look at

929
00:51:37,800 --> 00:51:41,279
Speaker 5: what we studied on this show about real estate and

930
00:51:41,640 --> 00:51:45,080
Speaker 5: commercial real estate, right, and like how expensive that is,

931
00:51:45,640 --> 00:51:48,480
Speaker 5: and how running a brick and mortar in the long run,

932
00:51:48,560 --> 00:51:51,279
Speaker 5: at this point it's probably going to become less and

933
00:51:51,360 --> 00:51:54,719
Speaker 5: less of a viable thing. It's already really difficult. It's

934
00:51:54,760 --> 00:51:56,879
Speaker 5: going to get harder and harder and harder. But then

935
00:51:56,960 --> 00:52:02,000
Speaker 5: having one big, massive kitchen where you know, hundreds, if

936
00:52:02,040 --> 00:52:05,000
Speaker 5: not thousands of delivery drivers show up to every day,

937
00:52:05,040 --> 00:52:08,560
Speaker 5: that's like somewhere central, centrally located in a city.

938
00:52:09,040 --> 00:52:11,279
Speaker 2: Like, how is that not going to be a thing?

939
00:52:11,320 --> 00:52:11,760
Speaker 3: You guys?

940
00:52:12,320 --> 00:52:12,520
Speaker 5: Right?

941
00:52:12,680 --> 00:52:15,600
Speaker 4: I would argue that what we're seeing as well is

942
00:52:15,960 --> 00:52:21,680
Speaker 4: a democratization of restaurants through technology, of ownership through technology.

943
00:52:21,680 --> 00:52:25,480
Speaker 4: For someone starting out, this process is way less intimidating

944
00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:27,560
Speaker 4: they having to buy out a piece of real estate,

945
00:52:27,840 --> 00:52:31,040
Speaker 4: make friends with someone for millions of dollars, and then

946
00:52:31,200 --> 00:52:35,040
Speaker 4: just hope you guys get along for the foreseeable future.

947
00:52:35,280 --> 00:52:40,759
Speaker 4: But it's also dependent insidiously, inseparably so on the concept

948
00:52:40,760 --> 00:52:43,759
Speaker 4: of third party delivery apps, and each of those has

949
00:52:43,800 --> 00:52:47,000
Speaker 4: a troubled history when it comes to workers' rights, fair

950
00:52:47,080 --> 00:52:51,839
Speaker 4: practices with partner restaurants, and customer satisfaction. I mean, I

951
00:52:51,880 --> 00:52:54,480
Speaker 4: think this is something that we dive into with your help,

952
00:52:54,560 --> 00:52:58,040
Speaker 4: Conspiracy Realist, and future episodes do have one last note

953
00:52:58,080 --> 00:53:01,840
Speaker 4: for everybody wondering. You heard about the world's first pizza delivery,

954
00:53:02,200 --> 00:53:07,200
Speaker 4: and you, like us, probably thought, well, did Kingbirdo tip

955
00:53:07,680 --> 00:53:11,359
Speaker 4: on the world's first pizza delivery? That and many other

956
00:53:11,400 --> 00:53:14,720
Speaker 4: aspects of this story remain the stuff they don't want

957
00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:18,080
Speaker 4: you to know. I can't wait to hear what you think, folks.

958
00:53:18,400 --> 00:53:23,120
Speaker 4: Matt nol I'm I am going to guess that a

959
00:53:23,239 --> 00:53:26,600
Speaker 4: couple of people listening to the show this evening might

960
00:53:26,719 --> 00:53:29,800
Speaker 4: be driving for door Dash or grub Hub or Uber

961
00:53:29,880 --> 00:53:33,080
Speaker 4: Eats as they listen tonight, so it'd be amazing to

962
00:53:33,120 --> 00:53:35,759
Speaker 4: hear some firsthand experiences with.

963
00:53:35,800 --> 00:53:39,239
Speaker 3: This one hundred percent. You can send us those firsthand

964
00:53:39,239 --> 00:53:43,200
Speaker 3: experiences in all kinds of ways. First, you can send

965
00:53:43,200 --> 00:53:45,279
Speaker 3: it to us online via social media where we are

966
00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:50,160
Speaker 3: Conspiracy Stuff on x, Facebook and YouTube. Also be looking

967
00:53:50,200 --> 00:53:52,719
Speaker 3: for some really fun YouTube content coming in the very

968
00:53:52,760 --> 00:53:55,080
Speaker 3: near future. You can also find YouTube shorts that were

969
00:53:55,120 --> 00:53:58,359
Speaker 3: already putting out there and on Instagram and TikTok. Find

970
00:53:58,360 --> 00:54:00,839
Speaker 3: our videos at conspira Stuff show.

971
00:54:01,600 --> 00:54:03,440
Speaker 5: Hey, if you want to call us and tell us

972
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:08,000
Speaker 5: about your experience with a ghost kitchen parking situation, because

973
00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:10,560
Speaker 5: we've read some stories in the news about how crazy

974
00:54:10,600 --> 00:54:14,239
Speaker 5: the parking is around some of these hubs. Right, call

975
00:54:14,320 --> 00:54:16,400
Speaker 5: us and tell us with your stories. Our number is

976
00:54:16,440 --> 00:54:21,160
Speaker 5: one eight three three std WYTK. When you do call in,

977
00:54:21,239 --> 00:54:23,239
Speaker 5: give yourself a cool nickname, and then you got three

978
00:54:23,239 --> 00:54:25,880
Speaker 5: minutes say whatever you'd like. Just please, please, please let

979
00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:27,960
Speaker 5: us know if we can use your name and message

980
00:54:27,960 --> 00:54:30,040
Speaker 5: on the air. If you've got more to say than

981
00:54:30,080 --> 00:54:32,360
Speaker 5: could fit in that three minutes, why not instead shoot

982
00:54:32,400 --> 00:54:32,920
Speaker 5: us an email.

983
00:54:33,239 --> 00:54:36,120
Speaker 4: That's right, send us a good old fashioned email, Give

984
00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:39,600
Speaker 4: us those clips, give us those pictures, give us the links,

985
00:54:39,640 --> 00:54:41,399
Speaker 4: take us to the edge of the rabbit hole. We'll

986
00:54:41,400 --> 00:54:44,080
Speaker 4: do the rest. We read every note we get at

987
00:54:44,120 --> 00:55:04,920
Speaker 4: conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.

988
00:55:05,360 --> 00:55:07,440
Speaker 5: Stuff they don't want you to know is a production

989
00:55:07,520 --> 00:55:12,080
Speaker 5: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

990
00:55:12,160 --> 00:55:15,239
Speaker 5: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.