In a bid to better understand the restaurateurs they service, food delivery platform Deliveroo plans to open a pizza parlor in its hometown of London.
The Amazon-backed company wants to “understand restaurants’ pain points with the aim of solving them,” a Deliveroo spokesperson told The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal. “And to do this by having a deep understanding of restaurant owners’ mind-set.”
The pizzeria, dubbed Pizza Paradiso, will reportedly feature indoor and outdoor seating, a front-of-house pizza oven, and a back-of-house kitchen, where Deliveroo staff can learn how to manage a restaurant that offers dine-in and delivery. There are currently no plans to expand beyond the single pizzeria in London’s Swiss Cottage neighborhood, the Journal said.
Despite its British roots, Deliveroo operates in hundreds of locations across Europe, Asia, and Australia; it also boasts delivery-only Editions sites in eight countries, allowing chefs to prepare meals outside of traditional restaurant kitchens.
The ghost kitchen concept has really taken off, inspiring Wendy’s to open 700 delivery-only kitchens in the US, Canada, and UK by 2025. Even TikTok wants in on the trend, announcing last month that it’s teaming up with Virtual Dining Concepts and Grubhub to bring popular dishes to fans.
Multiple pandemic lockdowns helped raise the profile of food delivery services like Deliveroo, which works with some of the country’s biggest chain restaurants to deliver meals straight to your door. But, the return of dine-in customers, supply-chain issues, and labor shortages have proven difficult for the firm, which, according to WSJ, saw a decline in transactions between the second and third quarters of the year.
