The Great Wings Rush
By Josh Dzieza | June 1, 2021, 10:00am EDT
Photo illustrations by Alex Castro, Amelia Holowaty Krales, Grayson Blackmon
It was March 2020, and restaurants across the country were shutting down, setting up takeout windows, or doing whatever they could to absorb the shock of COVID. But it was Chuck E. Cheese, of all places, that had the foresight and steely clarity to see not just what the new era required, but what it permitted. With much of America suddenly interacting with restaurants through delivery apps, the food industry had been transformed into e-commerce, and the arcade better known for its ball pits than its food was free to invent a new identity: “Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings.”
Thirsty Lion Gastropub, a division of Concept Entertainment Group, has picked its Chandler location to launch Central Kitchen â an online food hall.
Four new restaurant concepts were developed for Central Kitchen, each featuring unique culinary directions and scratch-made food available for takeout and delivery from the one central website.Â
âThe online food hall launched in Oregon last fall with great success,â said the company, and Arizona is now the fourth state where it has launched.
âWeâve been fostering the idea of a kitchen focused on takeout and delivery for the last year,â said John Plew, president and CEO of Thirsty Lion Gastropub. âThe pandemic put the process into hyper speed, and we saw this as the perfect opportunity to pivot with the climate and launch an idea that aligns with current consumer demands.Â
Smokin Ace just started selling sausages, sandwiches and other eats from its delivery-only kitchen inside the massive new CloudKitchens facility at 810 Vallejo Street. It was one of the first ventures to launch there, but the facility can host some fifty food businesses, so other outfits like Combi Tacos and Meta Asian Kitchen (which has its original location inside Avanti Food & Beverage) are now joining in the fun, with many more to come.
CloudKitchens, founded by former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, is one of several new ghost-kitchen businesses opening in multiple cities. ChefReady is another, with ten kitchens available at 1468 South Cherokee Street. The model targets relatively inexpensive properties in centrally located areas of cities, allowing third-party delivery companies easy access to heavily populated neighborhoods. So your tacos, noodles, hot dogs and more could all be emanating from the same location.
NOBANA
More Ghost Kitchens Are Cropping Up
The owner of the Arizona-based, health-leaning eatery Wildflower has recently opened NOBANA, which means wildflower in Japanese. This Asian-inspired ghost kitchen offers gluten-free noodle bowls, salads, and wraps for delivery from DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Postmates. In addition to NOBANA, Thirsty Lion Gastropub at 3077 West Frye Road in Chandler is now hosting a Central Kitchen virtual food hall. Participating restaurants offering takeout and delivery include Soy Joy, Southern Jewel, Killer Wings, Pizza and Spice, and of course Thirsty Lion.
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