Article
The kitchens might be virtual, but the money is real
As virtual kitchens and food halls become more common ways for fast casual brands to economically expand their footprints, FAT Brands CEO Andy Wiederhorn isn't bothering with a third-party partner.
August 7, 2019 by Cherryh Cansler — Editor, FastCasual.com
As virtual kitchens and food halls become more common ways for fast casual brands to economically expand their footprints, FAT Brands CEO Andy Wiederhorn isn't bothering with a third-party partner to ghost out his kitchens. His Los Angeles-branded company owns eight brands that operate more than 350 restaurant units across the world, and Wiederhorn is putting all that kitchen space to good use. So far, he's transformed 15 L.A.-based, co-branded Fatburger and Buffalo's Express locations into virtual kitchens for one of the its sister brands — Hurricane Grill & Wings — based in Florida.
"What we've found is that 70% of the customers who are ordering from these virtual Hurricane locations are new customers, who never ordered from Fatburger or Buffalo's Express before," Wiederhorn said in an interview with FastCasual.
Often an early adopter of trends and innovations — UberEATS and the Impossible Burger, for example — Wiederhorn is convinced that virtual kitchens are a cost- and space-efficient way to introduce Hurricane Grill & Wings to more customers across the country. And what's even more cost-efficient for FAT Brands is that it doesn't have to rent kitchen space.
"We've brought in sauces and Hurricane packaging, fired up some additional UberEATS tablets and virtually launched the Hurricane brand out of the back-of-house of our Fatburger and Buffalo's Express locations," said Wiederhorn, who takes care to represent each brand independently of one another to retain their identities. Hurricane items, for example, are available via delivery only on UberEATS, and packaging carries Hurricane branding.
"We don't want customers to be upset or feel like we pulled a fast one on them serving Hurricane out of a Fatburger and Buffalo's co-branded store," he said.
His strategy is clearly working. The virtual kitchens are adding $2,000-$5,000 in weekly sales at each location, which is inspiring Wiederhorn to think bigger.
"We are also planning to launch other virtual restaurants across our portfolio of brands," he said.
Photo courtesy of FAT Brands.
About Cherryh Cansler
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