Trend for restaurants to be found only via apps
By Christopher Mims, Wall Street Journal
If you have ever ordered a burrito or a Hawaiian poke bowl through a food-delivery app, you may have been the patron of a virtual restaurant.
No, you don’t need to put on a VR headset to experience one, and the food is quite real. What makes these new restaurants virtual is that you only find them online.
Tucked inside industrial parks, commissary kitchens and refitted basements in cities like New York, Chicago and San Jose, these restaurants have no dining room, no wait staff, no takeout window and no signage. (They still have to pass inspections from health boards, though.) Many don’t take orders over the phone and are accessible only through online services like Grubhub , GRUB 2.24% DoorDash or Postmates.