University to small business

Philosophy

There is something pure about cloud kitchens that is hard to describe. To call them the quintessential business would be incorrect. In my opinion, that label requires that the business be tested by its location, and cloud kitchens bypass that. Though comparable, they are also different from posting an ad on classifieds, such as for trades services. Here, creativity, on top of technical quality, is required.

I think that cloud kitchens represent a very pure challenge of just two things: identifying market demand, and serving good food. Determining market demand should be the “easy” part. I’m leaning heavily towards a breakfast/brunch menu, as the Tim Hortons across the street gets tremendous orders during morning/lunch hours. Thus, introducing something different, with similar casual pricing (though we note that Tim Hortons is getting expensive nowadays!), should be the right direction. Food quality is the difficult part. In our restaurant’s neighborhood, we rely on return customers, and not heavy marketing, so it’s especially unforgiving. But if the food is indeed good, the turn-key benefits of cloud kitchens kicks in. Things like equipment access and overhead costs are already shared with the main kitchen. It’s all about the food. As such, from a culinary standpoint, it would be incredibly instructive and rewarding if the offerings gain traction.

Risks

Purity does not mean an absence of risk. At this stage, introducing a cloud kitchen to the main kitchen is merely a side venture, and so I have to be extremely careful to not risk the main kitchen’s operation. I find two types of risks that the cloud kitchen imposes: spatial, and temporal. Spatial risks are mitigated by carefully picking what cooking equipment I need for the proposed cuisine. For example, if the woks are critical for the main kitchen operation, and if they are often occupied, then I should count them out. Similarly, I should not have any fried items, as leaving the deep fryers on standby will unnecessarily degrade the oil, in contrast to how it’s used for higher volume orders for the main kitchen. Turning up the oil for the sake of a few orders would indirectly increase the cost of goods sold, as we would have to change the oil more often. The temporal risks go hand-in-hand with spatial risks: I don’t want to be jumping in and out of kitchen spaces during the rush hours of the main kitchen, which is ~4-8PM. Additionally, not temporally separating the kitchens would present a potential conflict of interest between them, as customers may conflate the menus when ordering.

All of this suggests that I should plan for a brunch menu that uses light equipment, with no woks or deep fryers.

A