Don’t Be in the Dark About Restaurant Digital Transformation

A “dark kitchen” sounds like the setting of a horror movie. But they’re actually a sign of a powerful trend that’s changing the restaurant sector: the growing habit of ordering on a smartphone instead of cooking. Numerous companies have sprung up to cater – literally – to the soaring demand for meals ordered online for pickup or delivery. It’s a shift that may appear small on the surface, driven simply by our desire to do everything on our smartphones, but these rapidly evolving customer expectations have implications that could reshape the entire restaurant industry.

Dark kitchens take this transformation to the extreme. The logic is, if customers are ordering online rather than wanting to eat in, then why spend money on a fancy dining area with staff and expensive furniture? Dark kitchens exist only to fulfil delivery orders and are generally off-limits to the public. Delivery riders coming and going are the only signs that a busy kitchen staff is turning out…