Restaurant of the Future? – It’s Here in Pasadena Now

(Gerry Furth-Sides) It’s shocking to think that 60% delivery is not uncommon in todays most successful restaurants (we just wrote about the Mandarette going through this)  in the rapidly changing restaurant world.  On the one hand, less personal contact is already here with delivery options, and now the newest common trend of self-ordering.

 

According to a report from the National Restaurant Association, in an article this fall by Alice Kelso in Forbes (see below for link)  off-premise sales—including drive-thru, delivery and carryout—now make up 60% of all foodservice occasions. Driving much of this expansion is the advent and acceleration of convenience-driving technologies like mobile ordering.

And if this sounds radical, what is coming is stunning.  “The basic paradigm of what constitutes a restaurant, much of it technological,  is in the “virtual kitchen,” and there is a new one in Pasadena now.  What’s more, there is a built-in restaurant section you can dine at as well.

Eats On Madison, a to-go food hall from the team at Kitchen United, contains multiple restaurants all focused on making fresh and packaged “food to go”  for pickup or delivery.  It currently includes ) Mama Musubi, a local LA Farmer’s Market favorite and Amazebowls, a vegan smoothie company that specializes in delicious, healthy, colorful smoothie bowls

In order to introduce the public to the site, Eats on Madison has introduced “Tasty Tuesday,” a monthly event showcasing the wide variety of delectable food options from its restaurant members. Already popular at  several Farmer’s Markets in SoCal, Mama Musubi serves mouthwatering karaage (Japanese fried chicken).   Amazebowls offers samplings of  three bowls including Amazebowls (acai), Blue Bowl (blue spirulina and mango) and Dragon Bowl Z (pitaya).

Eats On Madison is a local kitchen center, created and operated by the team at Kitchen United.  The company site contains multiple restaurants, all focused on making “food to go,” by providing a fully licensed, dedicated prep kitchen.  Everything, other than the restaurant dine-in facility, is packaged for pickup or delivery.

Kitchen United – a virtual kitchen company provides restaurant operators with a value-driven, low-risk way to enter into new markets, grow revenue through off-premise dining and expand delivery areas by removing barriers such as capital or technology challenges. Eats on Madison is open from 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., while specific restaurant partner pick-up and delivery hours may vary.

Union Kitchen fits right into the trend of Virtual Restaurants and Cloud Kitchens, which are accelerating more and more. It is am example of  “Growth fueled by the expansion of central kitchens for food prep and social-media marketing that showcases menus, philosophies and chefs.”  It could be one of the “new chains could quickly emerge regionally or nationally,” as reported in a recent Restaurant News survey.

Statistics look promising in the report. Consumers use restaurants both for the convenience and social aspects. The industry workforce will likely exceed 17 million by 2030.Total U.S. employment is expected to increase 8.5% between 2018 and 2030,and o.5%in the upcoming decade.

As the same time, the restaurant industry remains complex and fragmented that includes higher food costs due to climate change.   This is another reason restaurants need more options to succeed.  Over the next 10 years, there will obviously be robotic delivery and drone delivery. “When I think about the industry, it truly is this giant oak tree that continues to develop additional branches of growth.”

Riehle, who has worked the association’s decade reports back to 2000, added that the majority of findings are related to technology.  Identifying the opportunities is pivotal, Riehle said.

One of the concepts includes food providers teaming up with Media-streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Video.  Union Kitchen as an existing meal delivery services to create an all-in-one dinner and entertainment experience would fit right into this space.

Restaurants are anticipated as a social meeting place solution to the decline of shopping malls and brick-and-mortar retail. Eats on Madison/Union Kitchen fits right in with delivery or eat-in options.   Eats on Madison’s expanded and versatile seating options fills the need for the European-style gastropubs and full-bar fast-casual restaurants with less emphasis on table turnover and more on facilitating repeat socializing by customers,” as the report noted.  Eats on Madison fits into the new direction of restaurants in food halls and bustling Asian street-food markets.”

(//www.forbes.com/sites/aliciakelso/2019/10/03/what-constitutes-a-restaurant-in-america-is-changing/#2f85eac54763 “Harnessing Technology to Drive Off-Premise Sales,”)