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Scroll through DoorDash, Grubhub and Postmates, and you’ve surely seen a ghost — a ghost kitchen, that is. Designed for online ordering and delivery, ghost kitchens operate from rented spots at shared commercial spaces such as Smart Kitchens in Irvine and the Hood Kitchen Space in Costa Mesa.
On the apps, you can sometimes tell the ghosts from the rest — they’re usually that new concept you’ve never heard of. Often the people behind them are aspiring restaurateurs who use the lower investment costs of these spaces to test their ideas and themselves. But since the pandemic hit, you’re more likely to see the other type of ghost kitchens, which aren’t really “ghosts” at all.