Your Next Favorite Restaurant Might Not Be a Restaurant
你最喜歡的下一個餐館或許不是餐館
Jon Dominick Querolo 喬恩·多米尼克·奎羅洛
At Chili's and Maggiano's， the buzz is about their booming new side hustle-It's Just Wings. Same at Applebee's， where its startup， Neighborhood Wings， is doing a brisk business.
Both are online-only ventures that the chains quickly set up in hundreds of their kitchens-fresh takes on a business that the industry likes to call digital restaurants. The push into this model was tepid for years， but the pandemic created an urgent scramble to find new customers and put idle kitchen staffs back to work in a bid to revive a sector among the hardest hit by months of social-distancing and rolling lockdowns.
Additional chains， like Chuck E. Cheese， have started similar online brands. And just last week， Chipotle debuted a 「digital-only」 restaurant that bears its name， but only takes web orders and has no dining room. They've been joined by smaller operators who have a growing， easy-to-use infrastructure. One company， The Local Culinary， has eliminated the need to come up with a concept by franchising out 50 established digital brands.
Conventional wisdom has been that once the pandemic fades， people will flow back into eateries. But Americans are cooking more， especially younger adults. Consumers have invested in their kitchens， splurging on breadmakers and deep freezers. And for nine months， they've turned eating out occasions into ordering in-what the industry calls 「off-premise.」 Across the U.S.， which is seeing daily Covid cases hit new highs， sit-down dining is still down more than half from what it was a year ago， according to data from OpenTable.
Serving food without a dining area isn't new-pushcarts and food stands have been around for centuries. But what's different today is that a mix of technology， abundant commercial space and increasing delivery speed from third-parties like Grubhub， Uber Eats and DoorDash have made expansion easier and cheaper.
Since luring diners doesn't matter， kitchens can be set up in a basement， warehouse or second floor. If you already have kitchens， like Chuck E. Cheese， which launched digital brand Pasqually's Pizza and Wings during the pandemic， the space is already paid for.
Given the economic incentives of lower operating costs， Americans' love of immediate gratification and that Covid may have permanently changed eating habits， it's not hard to see a future where the next McDonald's or TGI Fridays invests little in tables and waitstaff and instead seeks an advantage by spending on online advertising， digital bells and whistles and making better food at lower prices.
What's happening in restaurants mirrors the broader retail industry， where digital startups became national players quickly thanks to the reach of the internet and advancements in targeting consumers through digital marketing， like social media. Instead of taking a decade to gain customers across the country， they did it in a few years. Now virtual restaurants， started by established chains and entrepreneurs， are trying to replicate that.
For other chains， birthing a virtual concept has proven to be a quick and cheap way to target a new demographic， an issue that every legacy chain faces. In the past， such an effort would have meant spending oodles on marketing or building out a fleet of locations.
Richard Leteurtre， chef and owner of Bistro 1902， signed up with The Local Culinary after the pandemic temporarily shuttered his restaurant in Hollywood， Florida. His French cuisine doesn't hold up well when delivered， leaving him in a bind. But after a month， the digital brands he made food for accounted for about a quarter of his sales.
「It's a lot of work at the beginning， a lot of prep， a lot of mise en place. It's not easy money，」 said Leteurtre， who has worked in restaurants for a quarter century. But 「it's a part of the future.」
在奇利斯餐廳和馬賈諾餐廳，讓店員們忙得團團轉的是蒸蒸日上的新副業——「只有雞翅」。蘋果蜂餐廳的情況也是如此，新項目「鄰家雞翅」生意火爆。
「只有雞翅」和「鄰家雞翅」是這些連鎖餐廳在數以百計的廚房裡迅速開發的純線上生意——是餐飲業喜歡稱之為數字餐館的業務上的新嘗試。這種模式的推進工作多年來一直缺乏熱情，但疫情促使該行業為實現復甦而緊急爭奪新顧客，同時讓無事可做的後廚員工返崗。餐飲業是遭受持續數月的社交隔離和接連不斷的封鎖措施打擊最嚴重的行業之一。
還有一些連鎖餐館，如查克芝士，也啟動了類似的線上品牌。就在上周，齊波特爾快餐連鎖餐廳推出了同名「純數字」餐館，只接受網絡訂單，沒有實體餐廳。採取同樣做法的還有規模較小的經營者，它們的設施正在擴張且易於使用。一家名為「本地烹飪」的公司通過出售50家知名數字品牌的特許經營權讓其他餐館不必推出新的概念。
按照常理，一旦疫情退去，人們將會重新湧入餐館。但美國人現在做飯比原來多了，尤其是年輕人。消費者投資自家廚房，在麵包機和冷凍柜上大把花錢。9個月來，他們改外出就餐為在家訂餐——餐飲業稱之為「非堂食」業務。「開放餐桌」網站的數據顯示，在美國新冠肺炎單日新增病例屢創新高之際，全國店內就餐人數至今仍不及一年前的一半。
無堂食供餐並不是新鮮事——手推車和小吃攤已經存在多個世紀。但今天不一樣的是，技術的融合、充裕的商業空間以及第三方平臺越來越快的配送速度降低了這種業務擴張的難度和成本。第三方平臺包括「食物中心」公司、優食公司和多爾達什公司等。
既然吸引食客不再重要，那麼廚房就可以設在地下室、倉庫或二樓。如果廚房是現成的，那麼空間的費用就省下了，例如查克芝士在疫情期間推出了數字品牌「帕斯誇利披薩和雞翅」。
考慮到降低運營成本的經濟動機、美國人對即時滿足的偏愛以及新冠疫情可能永久改變飲食習慣，不難想像，未來下一家麥當勞或者星期五餐廳可能不再投資餐桌和服務員，而是通過投資線上廣告和花哨的數字形式附加服務以及製作味美價廉的食品來獲取優勢。
餐飲業的現狀是更廣泛的零售業的縮影。在零售業，由於網絡普及並且通過社交媒體這樣的數字營銷方式可以更好地鎖定客戶，數字領域的創業公司迅速走向全國市場。它們不需要花十年時間在全國範圍內贏得消費者，短短幾年就能做到。現在，由知名連鎖店和企業家創辦的虛擬餐館正試圖複製這一模式。
對其他連鎖店來說，事實證明創造一個虛擬概念可以迅速且廉價地鎖定新的客戶群體，而鎖定新客戶是每一家老字號連鎖店都面臨的問題。過去，這種努力意味著在營銷上一擲千金，或者建設一大批新店面。
佛羅裡達州好萊塢市的比斯特羅1902餐廳因疫情臨時關閉後，老闆兼主廚裡夏爾·勒特爾特與「本地烹飪」公司籤約。他的法餐在配送之後不那麼新鮮，這讓他左右為難。但一個月之後，他為數字品牌供餐的業務佔到他銷售額的大約四分之一。
勒特爾特說：「起初要做很多工作，很多的預備，很多的食材準備。這錢賺得不容易。」但「這是未來的一部分」。他已經在餐館裡工作了四分之一個世紀。（卿松竹譯自彭博新聞社網站11月18日文章）