Dive Brief:
- DoorDash has opened a DoorDash Kitchens unit in San Jose, California, two years after unveiling its initial pop-up DoorDash Kitchens in the Bay Area city, the company wrote in an email to Restaurant Dive.
- The virtual food hall is located at The Plant Shopping Center and includes 10 local, regional and national restaurants.
- DoorDash opened its first DoorDash Kitchens location in 2019. It has four total virtual food halls in San Jose, New York City, North Hollywood and Redwood City, California.
Dive Insight:
The San Jose virtual food hall will offer in-person ordering via kiosks or QR codes at each table, as well as pickup and delivery from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. The company initially tested its full-service model with its San Jose popup inside the Westfield Oakridge Mall and also offers full-service business at its New York City location. Its initial Redwood City, California, location only offered off-premise ordering.
Rival ghost kitchen platforms have shifted tactics to appeal to more consumers. Kitchen United, for example, paused its mall development strategy earlier this year to focus on opening within grocery stores and standalone locations.
DoorDash Kitchens in San Jose offers menu items from Aria Korean Street Food, Ivan’s Chicken Shokudo, Koi Palace, Little Spoon, Nekter Juice Bar, Plentiful, Sweet Street and The Melt, with Milk Bar coming soon. Academic Coffee will be available in-store only. San Francisco concept Souvla will offer frozen Greek yogurt as a standalone dessert option in the near future.
At DoorDash’s San Jose location, restaurants will be able to test their concepts in a new market without opening a physical location. The company worked with each restaurant to fine tune their menus to appeal to the local demographics. The location is also expected to offer more earnings opportunities for DoorDash’s couriers, a company spokesperson said.
