TASTE FOOD 101
COMMAND CENTER Restaurateurs are creating their own apps, with the goal of improving the customer experience and their own financial bottom line By Mark Spivak
Above: With the Crumbl app, users can learn the weekly cookie flavors and place orders. Far left: The Pura Vida app awards loyalty points that can be exchanged for certain food and drink items.
Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Kitchen is a deliveryonly ghost kitchen.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS? WHEN SCROLLING THROUGH YOUR FOOD-DELIVERY APP OF CHOICE YOU MIGHT NOTICE SOMETHING EERIE OR, AT LEAST, PECULIAR: SOME OF THESE RESTAURANTS AREN’T RESTAURANTS AT ALL. GHOST KITCHENS ARE DELIVERY- OR TAKEOUT-ONLY FOOD CONCEPTS THAT TYPICALLY OPERATE OUT OF A COMMERCIAL KITCHEN WITHOUT ANY KIND OF DINING AREA. AS THE DEMAND FOR DELIVERY SKYROCKETED DURING THE PANDEMIC, SO TOO DID THE PREVALENCE OF GHOST—OR CLOUD, VIRTUAL, OR SATELLITE—KITCHENS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. ONE SUCH EXAMPLE IS GUY FIERI’S FLAVORTOWN KITCHEN, WHICH SLINGS GUILTY PLEASURE GRUB FROM MORE THAN 150 OUTPOSTS NATIONWIDE, INCLUDING IN WEST PALM BEACH AND PALM BEACH GARDENS. DINERS CAN ORDER THE MAYOR OF FLAVORTOWN’S CULINARY DELIGHTS VIA AN EPONYMOUS APP OR OTHERS LIKE UBER EATS. (GUYSFLAVORTOWNKITCHEN.COM) —M.M.
158 PALM BEACH ILLUSTRATED