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How a Shadow Army of Ghost Kitchens Took Over America’s Restaurants
Inside the brave new world of data-driven, search-optimized virtual restaurants that exist only on DoorDash and GrubHub
For a small town of 4,000 people in New York’s Hudson Valley, Highland Falls punches well above its cultural weight. In more normal years, tens of thousands of tourists would descend upon the town to tour the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and nearby Revolutionary War sites. Billy Joel, a onetime resident, wrote a beloved B-side about the place. And late last year, Highland Falls became the chosen host of another national institution: Chipotle’s very first ghost kitchen, a new store model with no in-person ordering and no in-store dining.
On a recent winter afternoon, I trekked an hour north of New York City to see it for myself. From the outset, it was more or less what you’d expect at a Chipotle. Those familiar concrete floors and that minimalist steel-and-plywood design aesthetic, plus pop music overhead and the smell of grilled onions and peppers. One major difference, of course, is that it was eerily devoid of actual customers jamming themselves into small communal tables and lurking near seats that might open up. That this newfangled, online-only Chipotle didn’t even have a bathroom truly drove…
