London Inc. April 2022 - 22

Enterprise
WHERE YOUR
TAKEOUT REALLY
COMES FROM
It's like a mall food court - without
the mall. Inside the London
restaurant that offers food from
more than 20 familiar brands
by KIERAN DELAMONT
rece
ce
ra zi
pr
Smoke's Poutine.
25
WH
r
Wh
- s
im
lo
he
Ghost Kitchen Brands franchisee, Troy Martin, with
wife, Paula, and sons Ranger (left) and Cooper
WHEN YOU OPEN up your food delivery app of choice,
more and more of what you see these days is a fairy tale.
What you'll often run across is a wide array of brands
- some you recognize, some you don't - giving the
impression that just about every fast-food spot, burger
joint, taco restaurant, coffee shop, snack-stand and
local restaurant is standing by, ready to deliver from
their kitchen to your door.
In reality, however, these virtual food courts are
increasingly fulfilled by only a few kitchens supplying
multiiple different brands.
You've probably heard the term 'ghost kitchen' used in
in
Yo
this context - a brand that has no storefront and is sold out
the back door of an existing kitchen, often on the delivery apps.
hi co
ck do
Ghost Kitchen Brands (www.ghostkitchenbrands.com), which
recentlyly opened a unit in the revitalized London Mall at Wonderland
Road Road and Oxford Street West, has taken this idea to the extreme,
centralizing production not for one or two different recognizable names, but
25 different brands, from Quizno's and Cinnabon to the Cheesecake Factory and
Ghost K tc
op
d Ox or
uc on n
" When I looked last weekend at about three in the morning, there were 25 brands
fferen
f
listed on UberEats for me to order from - and nine of them were mine, " says Troy
Martin, owner of the London franchise and director of brands for GKB.
Founded in Toronto by George Kottas in 2017, Ghost Kitchens Brands now has
over 50 locations in Canada and the U.S. It recently struck a deal with Walmart
that would place kiosks and kitchens in at least 60 of its American stores, 15 of its
Canadian ones and more across Central and South America.
" We can seem like this faceless store, " continues Martin. " But we're a family
from Oakridge. My wife works in there. My two boys work in there. "
22|londonincmagazine.ca|APRIL 2022
http://www.ghostkitchenbrands.com
London Inc. April 2022

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