DoorDash Just Opened A Food Hall In Brooklyn — Here's What We Know
Ordering from a third-party delivery app like DoorDash could go one of two ways. In one scenario, a delivery worker picks up a to-go box from your favorite fast-casual restaurant and brings it to your door. In the other, increasingly likely scenario, your order is prepared in a ghost kitchen: a commercial facility designed to make food exclusively for delivery. App-owned ghost kitchens like DoorDash Kitchens (which launched in 2020 amidst a swollen demand for food delivery during lockdowns) tend to be composed of recognizable chains like Marco's Pizza and Wendy's, per Business Insider, but the facilities have also been found to play host to brands that disguise themselves as a "mom-and-pop shops" by changing its name in the app, as one Reddit user discovered in a case involving Chuck E. Cheese.
Perhaps in an effort to disrupt the dubious reputation of these corporate premises, DoorDash announced its first-ever food hall on Monday, which is located in Brooklyn, New York and offers limited seating for customers. Here's what we know.
The food hall will make space for local restaurants
Nation's Restaurant News calls DoorDash Kitchen's new Brooklyn venture a "delivery-focused food hall-like concept" — one that will feature permanent indoor seating to 20 customers at a time and food from five different "restaurant brands."
Notably, some of those brands are local to New York City, including the Houston Street sushi joint DomoDomo, the Williamsburg-based "modern Chinese haunt" Kings County Imperial, fried chicken and pie shop Pies 'n' Thighs, local roaster Birch Coffee, "virtual bakery" Kado Patisri, and the legendary dessert purveyor Milk Bar — all under the same roof in Downtown Brooklyn. San Francisco's Korean-inspired Moonbowls and the multinational pizza chain Little Caesars are set to join the party soon. DoorDash Kitchen's Ruth Isenstadt tells Nation's Restaurant News that the new endeavor will differ from other food halls by focusing on delivery, as opposed to "on-premises offerings."
Food from the virtual dining hall will be available for pickup or delivery to customers in the neighborhoods of Dumbo, Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Fort Greene, Brooklyn Heights, Gowanus, Clinton Hill, and Prospect Heights, reports the outlet. Those who wish to dine IRL can stop by from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.