18 restaurants, 1 location: Take a look inside Moncton's virtual kitchen

No serving staff, no dining room and 18 different restaurants operating out of one kitchen — it's known as a virtual kitchen.

The concept has popped up in other regions of Canada, but in New Brunswick, Taylor Wilson, co-owner East Coast Restaurants Group, said the idea of having multiple restaurants in one kitchen is a relatively new one.

Some restaurants have one or two additional menus operating out of their brick-and-mortars — a revenue builder without having to invest in additional staff or tables — and that's exactly how Wilson got into the virtual kitchen game, too.

When the pandemic hit, Classic Burger, which Wilson also co-owns, had to close. So to help keep the business afloat, Take the Cake opened as a virtual kitchen, also known as a ghost kitchen.

"It was no additional staff, no additional equipment, just bringing in the extra food and it worked really well. So from there, we kind of came up with the idea of a full virtual ghost kitchen."

Paulette Cormier-MacBurnie, a professor in tourism and hospitality management at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, said she thinks virtual kitchens are a good way for restaurants to test new ideas and products without the added expense of opening a new brick-and-mortar.

She expects to see some continued demand for virtual kitchens.

"Take-out and delivery has become something that is part of the regular lives of lots of people, and particularly our younger populations," she said. 

"Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, people became very used to take-out and delivery and acquiring restaurant food in that way. And I think … some elements of that have continued on."

East Coast Restaurants Group began with 12 brands, but soon grew to be the 18 it is now, including tacos, poutine, pizza, lobster, cake and more.

Day to day, Wilson said it can be "a little chaotic" and the kitchen crew is trained on all of the menus.

"Paparazzi Poutine, we have 86 poutines. So that alone is a full restaurant menu. So then we kind of throw 17 more [menus] at them," said Wilson.

And while the idea comes with its benefits for the owners like less staff, no sit-in service and a lot of visibility on delivery apps — it also has its challenges, said Wilson, including technical issues with having 54 tablets and having to rely on delivery apps.

She said people will sometimes call and explain that their order was dropped off at the wrong location, but because the delivery was done through a third-party app, there's no way for the virtual restaurant to know where it was dropped or where it was supposed to go.