The rampant inflation the pandemic spurred weighed heavily on American voters’ minds in 2024. The Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, won a second, nonconsecutive term over Vice President Kamala Harris by arguing relentlessly that the country’s financial situation was in better shape under his leadership.

Ongoing debates about COVID-19 origins (a Chinese lab leak?) added to voters’ already deep cynicism of government institutions. President Joe Biden and Harris, his summer 2024 replacement as the Democratic nominee, bore the brunt of this voter angst.

The pandemic had another lasting effect in the business realm — the growth and endurance of pop-up kitchens. Many appeared in what had previously been full-service, sit-down restaurants.

The ghost kitchen inside the market machine

The pandemic, despite its many disastrous effects, taught the dining public that being ghosted isn’t always bad. If it’s the phenomenon of ghost kitchens (sometimes called “cloud kitchens,” an equally wispy moniker) under discussion, being ghosted can be perfectly delicious.

While the term “ghosting” is everywhere nowadays — used to refer to personal and even employer-employee relationships, as well as the “ghosting” of dinner reservations, to the chagrin of restaurant owners — the apparitions (app-aritions?) making their presence felt in the bellies of 21st-century eaters are mostly welcome.

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic put new leases on the lives of so-called ghost kitchens, defined as delivery and digital-only restaurants with no dine-in experience on offer. One may quibble with the idea that these elusive kitchens producing food for remote, dispersed diners qualify as a “restaurant.” However, the burgeoning industry of chefs and brands native to apps such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub (which acquired this writer’s oft-used Eat24 in 2017) wholeheartedly disagrees.

“Ghost kitchens have allowed operators to try different concepts without the capital expense of opening a full restaurant,” Jeremy Julian, host of The Restaurant Technology Guys podcast, told the Washington Examiner. “As costs have continued to climb to build a physical store, many have tried to see if they can grow sales in their existing buildings by offering something that others may or may not be offering.”

Julian noted there are primarily two kinds of ghost kitchens. First, a separate brand out of an existing restaurant group. He cited It’s Just Wings, a property of dine-in mainstay Chili’s. Second, a fully outfitted ghost kitchen where the facility manages the hoods, ranges, permits, and other minutia.

“Similar to a food truck but in a fixed location,” Julian added.

Apart from popular American staples such as burgers, fries, chicken wings, and pizza, Asian cuisine stands out as particularly successful in the ghost kitchen space, agreed Julian. It’s been boosted perhaps by its popularity in urban areas serving college students, who exist on the (kitchen) knife’s edge of convenient, streamlined digital experiences.

As of the end of 2023, Asia hosts the world’s second-largest ghost kitchen economy after North America, though China and India lead in the number of individual kitchens in operation within the region. Such foundries of satiation happily haunt the realm where the popularity of noodles-in-a-cup-style eating meets modular, street food-style preparation.

Here’s the bird’s eye view of ghost kitchens in the first half of this decade:

• The global ghost kitchen market was valued at $43.1 billion in 2019 and is projected to grow to $71.4 billion by 2027.

• By 2030, ghost kitchens are expected to account for 50% of the global drive-thru and takeaway food service markets.

• [As of 2020] China leads globally with over 7,500 ghost kitchens, followed by India with 3,500 and the U.S. with 1,500.

• Startup costs for ghost kitchens range between $20,000 to $30,000, offering a cost-efficient alternative to traditional restaurants.

• Growth in ghost kitchens is driven by rising demand for online food delivery and cost advantages.

Not that there aren’t hiccups in the industry, literally and figuratively. In spring 2023, Uber Eats took a butcher’s knife to a glut of ghost kitchen menus that had begun offering redundant cuisines, degrading the company’s app experience for those thirsting for distinct culinary experiences. The efficiency of operating a ghost kitchen, where multiple brands and cuisines can handily coexist in a modest kitchen-only space with a lean staff, lends itself to this form of “clutter.”

The journey of social media phenom MrBeast into ghost kitchen-ing is a cautionary tale. Launched in late 2020, the online superstar’s MrBeast Burger leveraged stay-at-home conditions to a successful early experience, only to later face backlash over inconsistent quality control. MrBeast ditched the enterprise in mid-2023, though his finger-licking wares have rebounded since and are available for delivery throughout the U.S.

MrBeast Burger as laundered through BurgerIM above, represents a possible third form of ghost kitchen to add to Julian’s taxonomy:

Ghost kitchens are compelled to a greater extent than their dine-in brethren to put effort into packaging, as it’s one of the few ways remaining to develop brand recognition and pin down a particular aesthetic in tandem with the gastric consumption experience.

“How the food is presented, including the single-use packaging, is reflective of your restaurant’s brand,” writes Melanie Green of food product service firm PacknWood. “It could be the only interaction that your customers really have with your restaurant since there is no dining room or staff members to interact with.”

Disorder and the “vibe shift” in major urban areas in California and elsewhere in recent years have likewise served as an unsurprising boon to the eat-at-home market (though California’s recently victorious Prop 36 may yet help put a dent in the doomer narrative).

Just as remote work has pulled back from its 2020-2021 high, ghost kitchen popularity has declined since the days of standing six feet apart from one another at Starbucks. However, proof of concept has been achieved, and virtualization has now come for all things epicurean.

So, eat up! And make sure to save the packaging for paunch-bellied posterity. The COVID-19 pandemic, it turned out, had almost as big a gastronomical effect on American society as government actions. Even though the latter still gets much more attention, as the presidential election results attest.

Dain Fitzgerald is a writer and “podtuber” in Diamond Springs, California, in the beautiful Gold Country of El Dorado County. His Substack is @mupetblast.