Kroger opened its first ghost kitchen Friday in Los Angeles with partner Kitchen United Mix and said it plans to open more in Texas later this month.
Kroger hasn’t responded to a request for more details, saying only that the collaboration will expand to Texas “later in the month.”
A ghost kitchen is a restaurant without seating that offers ordering from multiple restaurant menus out of a single spot.
Several ghost kitchen concepts are already operating in the Dallas area, but Kroger will be the first grocery chain to offer the option here.
Kitchen United’s website said sites in Dallas, Frisco, Plano and Houston will open in January. The Dallas location is in the Kroger on 5665 E. Mockingbird Lane, and the Houston address a Kroger at 1035 N. Shepherd Drive.
Two other Kitchen United sites are free-standing locations: 9506 State Highway 121 in Frisco and 1941 Preston Road in Plano.
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Kroger, which operates as Ralphs in Southern California, is collaborating with Kitchen United to offer on-demand restaurant meals, the retailer said. Consumers can place orders from one or more of the participating restaurants at the same time.
The supermarket’s customers place orders either from Kitchen United’s website or from an in-store ordering kiosk to be picked up or delivered. The partnership’s first kitchen, in a Ralphs store near UCLA in the Westwood neighborhood, offers meals from 10 local restaurants.
Kitchen United was founded in 2017 and pitches its platform as a way for new and established restaurants to enter into new markets.
The concept is popular with celebrity chefs. Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Kitchen has partnered with Robert Earl, the founder of Planet Hollywood, for a delivery-only operation in parts of Allen, Dallas, Frisco and Southlake.
Twitter: @MariaHalkias
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