Ghost Kitchen area Company Pounces on Downtown Space Where by Foodstuff Hall Folded

The 10,500-square-foot Wells Road Sector house has been vacant due to the fact September, and what was the moment an alluring downtown spot is not so eye-catching through COVID-19. But 4 months later, Kitchen United, a California-based ghost kitchen area enterprise has announced it will get about the room at 222 N. Wells Road. The corporation, which entered the Chicago market place in late 2019 with a River North spot, hasn’t unveiled when the Loop locale will debut.

© Barry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago
Ghost kitchens are coming to the former Wells Street Market place space.

This move will expand Kitchen area United’s shipping footprint, bringing a lot more of its manufacturers to Downtown Chicago. The new locale will observe a equivalent style and design as the company’s to start with Chicago ghost kitchen at 831 N. Sedgwick with a handful of critical variances, in accordance to a rep. The space will ultimately provide as a de facto food items corridor when it unveils indoor and outdoor seating, a thing absent from the Sedgwick location. It’ll include 10 kitchen area areas with a central get and pickup region in the center.

The two outposts will function allow shoppers to get food from multiple dining establishments in 1 orders, paying for it all with one monthly bill. It’s a related technique to that noticed at Chowbus, a third social gathering that specializes in providing Asian food items from Chinatown dining establishments.

There is no word on what restaurants will occupy the ghost kitchen. The Sedgwick spot presently properties chains which includes Jollibee, Portillo’s Panera Bread, Chick-fil-A, and Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill — a listing that stokes considerations between some nearby cafe proprietors that national chains will price tag out compact, unbiased enterprises. It’s very similar to worries surrounding genuine estate in neighborhoods like West Loop, where only these with major investors can afford house.

Though ghost kitchens and virtual eating places existed in advance of the COVID-19 pandemic, they’ve turn into a staple of the hospitality industry due to the fact the virus shuttered dining rooms across Chicago. Kitchen area United has partnered with 3rd-get together shipping and delivery companies — yet another outstanding pandemic aspect — these as Grubhub, Seamless, Uber Eats and DoorDash. Even though smaller eating places bemoan these organizations for predatory procedures, which includes fee charges — which are now capped at 15 per cent underneath a Chicago ordinance — Kitchen United and other similar firms welcome them.

A spokesperson suggests to hope additional particulars, which include an opening day, in early February.

Kitchen area United Mix, 222 N. Wells Street, Scheduled opening day is mysterious.