Dark kitchens: simple, streamlined food delivery
Whether you’re an established restaurateur or a daring entrepreneur, you can take a bite out of the booming food delivery business. Open a dark kitchen with CloudKitchens and find success on the cutting edge of the restaurant industry.
Why dark kitchens?
Looking to increase sales for your new or existing restaurant/food business and make an impact without increasing your overhead? You might find the recipe for success with dark kitchens. The dark kitchen concept is an emerging food preparation model that is designed as a delivery kitchen solution.
With delivery-only service, dark kitchens cut down on the risks that come with managing a brick-and-mortar space—requiring less square footage, fewer employees, and lower overall costs especially for small businesses in the restaurant industry. Plus, with shorter ramp-up times and efficient ops, restaurant owners can focus on what they care about: bringing more delicious food to more hungry customers.
Our shared kitchen space is perfect for restaurateurs focusing on “delivery kitchens” that specialize in handling online ordering from a third party food delivery app (such as Uber Eats, Doordash, and more). Start multiple restaurants with a variety of cuisine or expand into new markets with your existing food business.
When you operate a dark kitchen with CloudKitchens, you also gain access to our proprietary customer technology and restaurant management tools. Lease kitchen spaces, streamline processes, reduce costs, and operate your business from one intuitive workflow with CloudKitchens.
Turn-key
solution
Open a dark kitchen in as little as 6 weeks with less capital, and leverage our proven model for delivery.
A team to
support you
We handle the logistics and fulfillment to make sure your orders are delivered with more accuracy, in less time.
New customers at
your fingertips
Our dark kitchens are located in densely populated areas with the highest volumes of delivery orders, so you can reach more customers online.
Manage orders on
one tablet
Streamline your virtual restaurant's online ordering and delivery platform orders from one single tablet. Our technology integrates all your delivery apps in one place, allowing you to focus on the food.
Build multiple food
concepts
Maximize your order volume by running multiple brands and cuisines out of a single dark kitchen.
Lower costs, higher
profits
When your labor, real estate costs, overhead, and cost of goods go down, your profits go up.
Dark kitchens versus traditional restaurants
Brick & mortar
Ghost Kitchens
Real estate
Brick & mortar
2000ft2
High cost, high traffic address
Ghost Kitchens
200ft2
Same area, low cost low traffic address
Staff required (~)
Brick & mortar
24
Many dedicated to front-of-house
Ghost Kitchens
4
We provide staff to handle all order handoffs and more
Weeks to launch 1 location
Brick & mortar
52w
10 locations 5-10 years
Ghost Kitchens
6w
Multiple locations 1 year
Upfront investment
Brick & mortar
$1M
High investment
Ghost Kitchens
$30k*
Low investment
Break even
Brick & mortar
5y
10% profit on 1M run rate
Ghost Kitchens
6m
10% profit on 1M run rate
All you need and more under the hood
We offer kitchens for modern-day chefs and help get you set up with specialized equipment and minimal fuss.
Space
- Private kitchen
- Driver pickup area
- Staff locker area
- Restrooms
- Mop wash
- Cold & freezer storage
- Dry storage
Services
- Order pickup & processing*
- Courier handoff
- Cleaning & maintenance
- Safety & health inspections
- Delivery logistics
- Extraction & ventilation
- On-site support staff
- Delivery software
*Level of service dependent on facility
Equipment
- 3 compartment sink
- Prep sink
- Hand sink
- Commercial hood
- Tablet
- Grease-trap/interceptor
Utilities
- Gas points
- Power outlets
- High power lighting
- Cold & hot water lines
- Gas/fire safety system
- WiFi
- Trash / recycle
- Ethernet connections
- Grease/trap cleaning
- Hood/flue cleaning
- Pest control
Questions?We are here to help.
What is a dark kitchen?
A dark kitchen (not to be confused with a commissary kitchen) is a commercial kitchen space dedicated to fulfilling food delivery orders through food delivery platforms, such as Uber Eats, DoorDash, or GrubHub. The “dark” descriptor comes from the lack of dining room/exterior features intended to draw dine-in customers.
How does a dark kitchen work?
Unlike a traditional restaurant, with dine-in service, a dark kitchen restaurant takes orders (typically through an app or online service), fills them, and a delivery driver delivers the completed orders to customers.
What is the difference between a ghost kitchen vs. dark kitchen?
There is no practical difference between a ghost kitchen (also known as a virtual kitchen) and a dark kitchen. They’re interchangeable terms for delivery-based commercial kitchens.
Are dark kitchens profitable?
Thanks to their comparatively low overhead, dark kitchens have the potential to turn an incredible profit. A dark kitchen’s profitability depends on several factors, like the location, branding, and operating systems at play.
How does a dark kitchen help your existing restaurant grow?
Operating a dark kitchen concept and business model allows restaurant owners to serve a wider clientele while minimizing overhead. Dark kitchens also give you the flexibility to try out new menus or even new restaurants, all within one commercial kitchen space.
How much do dark kitchens cost?
The cost of opening and operating a dark kitchen will vary. When you work with CloudKitchens, you can get your ghost kitchen up and running with an investment as low as $30k (compared to the average $1 million for a brick-and-mortar, traditional restaurant).
Start cooking with us today
