Luna's on Dryden Road.
GrubHub was able to give a word after my previous article’s discussion on Ithaca’s ghost kitchens on their application and clarified several technical terms. The previous article discussed how many listings on Grubhub were ghost restaurants that operate in the same location.
Jenna DeMarco, the Manager of Corporate Communications for Grubhub, outlined that:
“A virtual restaurant is a delivery-only restaurant concept operated from an existing brick-and-mortar restaurant location. Some restaurateurs will create their own virtual restaurant with a menu that’s spun up from ingredients they already have from their brick-and-mortar menu, while others will partner with Grubhub to launch a pre-built, established, branded virtual restaurant.
“Virtual concepts provide restaurant partners with ways to open additional, delivery-only menu concepts; creating new revenue streams, attracting new diners and increasing restaurant exposure, without adding overhead. Grubhub ensures that new virtual restaurants have several menu items available, differentiate their menu from the brick-and-mortar restaurant, and display images to help market the restaurant.”
When pressed on whether or not duplicate storefronts for these listed ghost kitchens were protected or prevented in Grubhub’s policies, DeMarco remarked that “multiple VRs can operate out of the same brick-and-mortar location” as long as these virtual restaurants “have a % of the menu differ from their brick-and-mortar location”.
DeMarco did not specify the exact percentage but UberEats recently enacted changes specifying that virtual locations need to have menu items that “are at least 60% different” from any other virtual kitchens operating from that same physical location.” UberEats has also specified that these ghost kitchens and its parent restaurants must “maintain a 4.3-star rating or higher on the app, have 5 percent or fewer orders that they have canceled, and have a 5 percent or lower inaccurate orders rate.”
The ghost kitchens mentioned in my previous article do not exactly break these policies. An odd quirk is that, instead of creating different menus, many of the Ithacan ghost kitchens listings on GrubHub simply offer small selections from their main menu. These menus are sufficiently different to pass muster but they are being derived from the same general full menu. Ironically, this rule could incentivize restaurants to make more ghost listings, not less. Kitchens that attempt to place larger portions of their menu on a ghost listing are penalized while kitchens that divide up their menu among many listings are not.
The most prolific duplicate restaurateur is Ithaca Hospitality, a local food service management organization in Ithaca, NY, and founded by Kevin Sullivan. The group owns several physical businesses in Ithaca, including Ithaca Ghost Kitchen, Loco Cantina, Jack’s Collegetown Grill, Pronto Craft Pizza & Artful Salads, Luna’s (including two brick and mortar locations and a food truck), Revelry Yards, Purity Ice Cream. They have some catering locations as well.
Several Cornell students have commented their thoughts on the matter. One Redditor on r/Cornell commented that:
“I’m willing to give restaurants that have unique storefronts somewhat of a pass because I don’t think that multiple restaurants having the same owner is as bad as one restaurant running multiple ghost kitchens. It’s not “great” by any means. But it’s a bit more excusable if you actually take the time to open an additional storefront and hire an additional restaurant’s staff.
So when it comes to (for example) Jack’s, Pronto’s, and Revelry Yards being owned by the same person who owns Luna’s… I’m not going to complain as much. When it comes to Luna’s itself running 10+ ghost kitchens out of one address? Yeah, no, not okay. Screw them.”
Another was more adamant about their displeasure at the Grubhub listings from Ithaca Hospitality owned restaurant listings:
“From 7 of these physical locations, they operate over 40 storefronts. They have multiple types of cuisine —multiple ‘Mexican’ restaurants, multiple ‘Italian’ restaurants, and so on. This is just ridiculous. I actually used to be a supporter of some of their restaurants, as the food was okay and the prices were affordable. They’ve nearly doubled the price of every menu item over the past year or two, and the food has gotten significantly worse as well (if you can believe that). The ghost kitchens are even more ridiculously priced. I don’t even know what can be done about this, but surely something needs to be done about it. Figure out a way to get them banned from delivery apps? Boycott every single one of their restaurants (incoming “people actually eat there as it is?”)? I just want to be able to open Grubhub or UberEats and see a legitimate restaurant, rather than an endless sea of sh—y Luna ghost kitchens.”
While Grubhub seems to have no issues with any of the Ithaca Hospitality group’s ghost restaurant listings on their platform, many Cornell students do. The Ithaca Hospitality group can continue to buy Ithaca restaurants, but they cannot buy the residents’ faith and trust.
This article originally appeared in the Review’s Spring 2023 Print Edition.
