GREENSBORO, N.C. – If you’ve ordered food delivery recently, there’s a chance it’s not from a restaurant, but rather what’s known as a ghost kitchen. 

What You Need To Know

  • Ghost kitchens are food prep facilities that don’t have a dining room attached

  • Empanada Grill Owner Rose Melendez said ghost kitchens help small businesses get off the ground without the costs of owning a brick-and-mortar establishment

  • More ghost kitchens are springing up across the nation

Rose Melendez owns the Empanada Grill in Greensboro and is one of several businesses that work out of a local ghost kitchen called The City Kitch.

Ghost kitchens are food prep facilities that don’t have a dining room attached. Businesses that utilize them can serve food through take-out, delivery or food trucks. When Melendez rents a workspace, she is able to access the kitchen’s wide variety of professional food service equipment. 

She said these resources are changing the landscape of the food industry while helping small businesses get off the ground.  

“It gives you the opportunity to grow your business at your pace and not have the added stress of a brick-and-mortar situation,” Melendez said. 

Melendez said the decision to use a ghost kitchen came about during her research into owning a restaurant, and she counts the shared environment as one of the many benefits. 

“We really feel like a community here, so it makes it even that much more pleasant to come in. Everybody’s doing their own thing but yet we’re here together,” Melendez said. 

Ghost kitchens are springing up across the nation.

In addition to its Greensboro site, The City Kitch has two locations in Charlotte.

A separate ghost kitchen, Project Short Street, is coming to the Triad this year.