Restaurant Dictionary: Ghost Kitchens

Deli sandwiches bring back the best memories of high school lunch. Spending an entire free period walking into town, waiting on line, and then rushing back to devour chicken cordon bleu on a roll, roast beef smothered in gravy or any combination of cold cuts tucked between bread was something widely considered “cool.” Of course, it was only preparing me for adult lunches, which basically had the same time crunch but substituted sad desks for sad cafeteria tables.

So you can imagine my excitement when one day browsing through Seamless, I came across a listing for Sarge’s Deli, one of the classic NYC’s Jewish delis known for piling on the pastrami high. However, in addition to the mouth watering photos that had me debating for 30 minutes which sandwich I should pick, I noticed that the address listed wasn’t Sarge’s actual location in Manhattan’s Murray Hill neighborhood. Did Sarge’s discreetly open a new location? Why wasn’t there more media attention or influencers telling me I needed to get my ass down there?

A typical sandwich at Sarge’s Credit: @sargesdeli

As I soon learned by walking past the address listed on my Seamless receipt, it wasn’t that Sarge’s had in fact opened another location, but a new kitchen on the block had convinced the beloved deli to let them compile and deliver their famous “Monster” sandwiches, which is basically Sarge’s baby. So yes, this upstart gained enough trust to deliver the sandwich equivalent of a baby. Impressed, I investigated further.

That kitchen happened to be owned by Zuul, the Gatekeeper of Gozer, who after being defeated by Dr. Peter Venkman and the Ghostbusters, retired from attempted world takeovers to pursue its true passion: creating casual dining experiences that rely on technology!

Okay, that would be an amazing origin story, but the Zuul we’re actually talking about is a start up founded by Corey Manicone and Sean Fitzgibbons. In addition to Sarge’s, they count Sweetgreen and Junzi as current partners. The company specializes in offering commercial kitchen spaces and services where restaurants can assemble and deliver ready to eat meals. And they are winning (from a growth standpoint that is) during the COVID-19 pandemic because people are really relying on food delivery. So now you know that a ghost kitchen is a term used to identify a shared space individual restaurants can rely on to create and deliver food from.