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Comment by mywittyname | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, I know.

They are called commissaries, not 'cloud kitchens', not 'ghost kitchens'. Commissaries are not new, they are used all the time in the restaurant industry. If you've had food from a food truck or caterer, then that food was likely prepared in a commissary.

Giving hip new names to old tech is not doing anyone a favor. Preparing food in a commissary is a sound, established business model. The idea doesn't need any fluff, delivering food prepared in a commissary, rather than a restaurant, makes perfect sense. The benefits are, lower real estate costs, shared labor, fewer stops for delivery personnel, and the ability to quickly change food offerings & experiment.

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The idea of a 'cloud kitchen' or a 'ghost kitchen' is different from a commissary kitchen, and the terminology doesn't help make this distinction. 'Cloud restaurant' or 'ghost restaurant' would be more appropriate, as the "restaurant" is the ethereal part, not the kitchen. A commissary kitchen can act as the kitchen for a 'cloud restaurant', but the restaurant itself is more a product of branding and food curation that only lives in the minds of the creator and the customer, and this is enabled by decoupling the distribution channel from the production. Food trucks and caterers bring food directly to their customers, and usually have a more personal relationship with them.

They are not the same, but ghost kitchens do operate out of a commissary. A commissary is a shared use kitchen. A ghost kitchen (which admittedly would probably be better called a ghost restaurant) is basically just a delivery/pickup-only restaurant. It may operate out of a commissary or its own space.

The Food Corridor is a (very terrible) piece of software that allows bookings for kitchen space, so they probably focus on the ones that work from public kitchens for that reason, but lots of them have dedicated kitchens or rent from a church hall or VFW.

EEK. CEO of The Food Corridor here. Are you a client?

I work out of a kitchen that uses TFC and frankly everyone finds it difficult to use. Sorry!

Got it. We just finished a cohort of food business interviews to help identify and fix these issues. You should see some changes to the booking system and mobile enhancement releases in the coming months. If you ever want to talk to us directly and provide feedback, we are open to it. hello@thefoodcorridor.com

Great. Thinking about it, I should apologize for "terrible". That's an exaggeration to be sure. And also, I suspect some of the problems we have are our kitchen's implementation.

That doesn't seem to match with the definitions I can find for commissary.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/commissary

see for example Calif. retail code section

"113751. “Commissary” means a food facility that services mobile food facilities, mobile support units, or vending machines where any of the following occur: (a) Food, containers, or supplies are stored. (b) Food is prepared or prepackaged for sale or service at other locations. (c) Utensils are cleaned. (d) Liquid and solid wastes are disposed, or potable water is obtained."

https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CEH/DFDCS/CDPH%20Document%2...

yeah but do they elevate the consciousness of the universe?

maybe elevate the the appetite of the universe

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