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Why MrBeast Burger is the most important restaurant concept in the US right now
- Thread starter Forerunner
- Start date
I heard of this right when he launched but never ordered.
Couldn't figure out where my food was coming from or who made it.
Seems another Uber type development. Will people be forced to use their kitchen as a pewdiepie prep station to make ends meet? Only after they use their car to drive the rich people using their master bedroom as an airbnb .
The low wage employees our society argues aren't talented enough to paid appropriately are just expected to work 2 jobs at once? With different prep and service standards?
Couldn't figure out where my food was coming from or who made it.
Seems another Uber type development. Will people be forced to use their kitchen as a pewdiepie prep station to make ends meet? Only after they use their car to drive the rich people using their master bedroom as an airbnb .
The low wage employees our society argues aren't talented enough to paid appropriately are just expected to work 2 jobs at once? With different prep and service standards?
I think one popped up in my town back in November though an Italian restaurant. There were a few news stories about it and then silence. IIRC a co-worker ordered to give it a try and the review was "not good but not terrible."
That's the thing. These companies set up these kitchens so they can run multiple "restaurants". So the 300 kitchens can cook the menu for a bunch of these restaurants, which are literally just brands. It's more like a ghost cafeteria offering different kiosks, but the food all comes from the same kitchen.
This particular company caters to celebrities. So they pitch it to them as being able to offer them access to 300 existing locations instantly.
Not sure what's so important about this concept. Selling a product that's been done to death and is ubiquitous in the market or take away/delivery only?
It's the ghost kitchen part that is important, the article is just doing a poor job of explaining it.
I don't know what this specific business expects to do but the idea I've seen makes perfect sense and is better for the environment.
You get a cooking facility (restaurant with no seating, delivery only), and multiple virtual brans with their own menus are created and are accessible only inline, and they all use the same space and staff.
You can significantly cut down rental space costs as this can be setup almost anywhere, and more easily source staff as well. You lower a lot of costs normally associated with non-VR spaces as well.
This is a great way or putting some forever-abandoned commercial spaces to use where WFH has emptied them permanently.
The next big shift after that will be more quality restaurants directly in residential sectors as they leave downtowns and people want to eat out more often as they eat at home more often due to WFH.
There are some great changes coming in the restaurant business. A decade from now and it will feel like a mix of Europe and East Asia, where people and families eat out more regularly, along with the new VR model.
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All I'm seeing is further exploitation of restaurant workers. Unless I missed the part where they get paid double for working at 2 restaurants.
This is wild. Apparently there's one in my town and I checked the address. Mr. Beast Burgers here are made at Bertucci's.
why is this good? It's just taking one large restaurant menu and dividing it up among 4 brands. Wont this just continue to gut local mom and pop restaurant if it catches on at scale?
Won't this get rid of the supplemental income jobs that many of the most desperate cling to to make ends meet?
These kitchens are set up and staffed to cook the menus for multiple restaurants(the menus tend to be small as well). Like I said, it's more like a cafeteria with multiple little kiosks.
Some are these are prepared in the regular kitchens of existing restaurants, I'm not sure whether that could be seen as exploitative or not. If anybody works at a restaurant that does this, it would be interesting to hear about that.
The places that sell it here are just throwing a sticker on food they already sell. Not sure how that's working at 2 restaurants.
And the one place i check it out said it helped bring in cash flow they desperately needed when people couldn't dine in. I haven't asked every single place in my city that does this if that's the case but the handful of places that do sell it are all local resteraunts that already make those burgers and chicken sandwiches.
Yes it's exploitative. Unless they all get substantial raises for learning prep for 4+ restaurants (or frankly an infinite amount. Why couldn't pewdiepie and H3 lease the same restaurant area and ingredients mr. Beast is, but with slightly adjusted prep?) Or unless the owners who are giving their min wage employees additional responsibilities also opt to share the increase in revenue they get through these deals.
The only bright side I see is long term maybe(???) it somehow allows unionization in the space more easily but I would of course not hold my breath there lol.
No? It gives greater access to cooking facilities to people who want to make restaurants and can't afford it.
In south America this concept exists already, people started making menues at home and selling delivery only but over time places started opening to provide equipment and space and allow them to meet sanitary requirements.
Cooperatives could easily benefit from this too.
Elimination of redundancy increases return on investment and brings more competition and makes servicing demand easier. This is a good thing as it makes restauration more accessible to those who want to get into it.
Anyway I am not going to be surprised if this is seen as apocalyptic here as usual, but it doesn't matter, it's where things are going and already were and certainly not just in the US.
Edit: employees working for "4 restaurants" don't work harder, they work as much as in a busy place. Costs are so much lower and it's so much easier to scale they scale according to demand just as any restaurant ever did. On top of that there is less down time which means more stable employment which can lead to the elimination of tips and normal employment like in any other business, greater chance of unionization and more cooperatives.
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here's a midwest concept that might be the first example of the "Ghost kitchen"
www.clustertruck.com
delivery only, operating tons of menus from one massive kitchen. i figured it was only a matter of time before celebs got into it.
ClusterTruck
www.clustertruck.com
delivery only, operating tons of menus from one massive kitchen. i figured it was only a matter of time before celebs got into it.
Some of the places didn't for mr. Beast didnt even make burgers before. Whatd they slap a sticker on at a subway?
A few of the local Bertuccis were the ones with the kitchen for this in my area, and now it looks like the same locations do the Guy FIeri equivalent. They all seem fairly expensive so I haven't entertained the idea of ordering yet.
Concept sounds interesting, all I really care is if the food is good and the kitchen is sanitary.
I doubt there is much learning to be honest. I'm speculating here, but I highly doubt there is seven different version of fries, for example.
Again, I'm not sure how this is different from working in a large cafeteria. I'm not saying cafeterias aren't already exploitative, just that this wouldn't necessarily be more or less.
i just looked up where my closest mr beast is and it is a struggling italian restaurant that was hit hard by covid. what a surprise.
RIP Bertuccis
I just checked and there are a few of these within a 50 mile radius. I'll check it out!
It actually taste good and isn't crazy money. Like it better than 5 guys and I can get fries with it for the same price as a 5 guys burger.
It's a good thing in these types of restaurants. They can stay open and keep people employed rather than closing. The wait staff don't benefit, obviously.
There are a limited number of things someone needs to learn to prep, store, and assemble.
If every thing you train the employees on is done the same for all restaraunts, using the same tools, you're not going to have 7 restaurants in one. You're going to have one restaurant branded and sold 7 times.
Which maybe is what we already have but imagine if McDs, Wendy's, and BK all used the same fries, meat, tools, prep, and assembly. How would you tell them apart?
With that said I'd gladly work in a ff kitchen like this over a normal one, thanks to there being no risk of exposure to the entitled public.
Many of these are separate employees from the shadow kitchen working in an established kitchen, they aren't always using the staff of the actual restaurants. Lot of these big chain places have large spaces and especially with the pandemic they are seeing less business, so they are making up for it by renting out the space in the kitchen. It all depends on the agreement the restaurant has made but in many cases its not the same staff.
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Who cares? You don't have to buy what you don't like. All these new businesses are review-supported now. Those that suck die, it's not complicated. Any restaurant right now could buy premade fries en masse and they don't. Why? Cause people would trash them for having bad fries.
Who cares? You don't have to buy what you don't like. All these new businesses are review-supported now. Those that suck die, it's not complicated. Any restaurant right now could buy premade fries en masse and they don't. Why? Cause people would trash them for having bad fries.
Ill bite. Is their one near Ann Arbor Mi?
mrbeastburger.com
Edit: ooh nevermind Ann Arbor. Theres one in Livonia. Thats even closer.
MrBeast Burger Delivery Only Restaurant Locations
MrBeast Burger is a Delivery Only Restaurant with hundreds of locations across the U.S. Browse locations to find a store near you.
mrbeastburger.com
Edit: ooh nevermind Ann Arbor. Theres one in Livonia. Thats even closer.
The low wage employees being ridden for not slicing tomatoes fast enough cares.
'They are review supported and bad ones die.'
So your theory is that bad products are never reviewed well? Or that exploitative practices to under livable wage employees should be handwaved because some will be reviewed poorly and close? I don't follow.
And fast food places don't buy fries en masse? I REALLY don't follow lol. All the places I worked bought boxes full of frozen fries. En masse lol.
The amount of work is going to skyrocket, or the consistency is going to be eliminated, or all restaraunts operating from the ghost kitchen will offer extremely similar dining experiences. One of those things.
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I checked and the Mr. Beast in Richmond VA is definitely a full on Ghost Kitchen.
Here are the restaurants all listed at the exact same address:
Mr Beast Burgers
Claudia's Bake Shop
Flavors: Chaotic good Tempeh
Seoul 2 Soul
Mariah's Cookies
Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches
A Secret Forest(Magical confections)
Joyebells Sweet Potato Pies
Fat Rabbit
Elegant Cuizines
This is in an industrial building downtown. Probably a former production facility. EDIT: It's still a production facility, now that I think about it.
Here are the restaurants all listed at the exact same address:
Mr Beast Burgers
Claudia's Bake Shop
Flavors: Chaotic good Tempeh
Seoul 2 Soul
Mariah's Cookies
Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches
A Secret Forest(Magical confections)
Joyebells Sweet Potato Pies
Fat Rabbit
Elegant Cuizines
This is in an industrial building downtown. Probably a former production facility. EDIT: It's still a production facility, now that I think about it.
Ahhh that makes more sense, but would make me wary of the food quality. If Roscoes and Dennys both came from the same kitchen I'd either be wary or ecstatic, because despite both having some of the same food, the taste is night and day
I'm not opposed to more places operating with the ghost kitchen method, I just question whether it provides enough stability for a great final product. I recently ordered from David Chang's "Fuku" which is also a ghost kitchen concept and was hugely disappointed. It wasn't just the flavors either, there was a consistency issue in two orders of fries in the same order.
It has a ton of potential, but count me skeptical for now.
It has a ton of potential, but count me skeptical for now.
There's a Chili's by my house that took the wings part of their menu, named it "It's Just Wings," threw it on DoorDash, and they make a killing selling wings that are just part of their normal menu.
specialist ghost kitchens and rebranded restaurants are the future of eating.
specialist ghost kitchens and rebranded restaurants are the future of eating.
Right if you are cooking a bunch of menus there is no way you are going to have a consistent final product.
Unless I'm mistaken, isn't this just working fine right now due to covid? I still think there is a large allure to actually going out and eating post covid.
The one here is Austin is fine by Bucca de Beppo. According to a co-worker who tried it, it was really bad.
Like I said a lot of restaurants will move/open in residential locations after covid. People want to eat out more if they WFH and WFH isn't going away. Being more often at home means you cook more, wash the dishes more, so people want to eat out more but don't necessarily want to drive out.
This shit is dumb and will just further devalue the thankless job that is line cooking thanks to big tech and influencer culture. Major Yikes.
They're very common on Uber Eats/Door Dash. Really common ones are Just Wings which is really Chili's and Pasqually's Pizza which is Chuck e Cheese. More pure Ghost kitchens, where it's dozens of restaurants in one building, are catching on more too. If you're in a major Metropolitan area and can pull up Uber Eats you'll see a ton.
I'm probably getting a little too in the weeds, but I would be worried about ingredient consistency in their supply chain. Especially when it comes down to:
- Allergens
- Nutritional accuracy
- Sourcing (Local, organic, etc...)
- Recalls on ingredients
- Finally, taste/quality
i guess I'm familiar with the ghost kitchen concept. My BIL is trying to launch a curry (I think?) delivery in LA.
I'm more talking about the virtual chains. That shit seems bizarre.