The trailer, which takes up about half of the 12 spots within the tiny lot at 21 A St., is a “ghost kitchen,” one among a number of within the space run by Reef Know-how, an organization that manages parking heaps and has expanded into the last-mile supply enterprise. For the previous three years, it has been attempting to persuade lot house owners they will earn more money by utilizing the areas for one thing apart from parking automobiles.
The trailers, which it dubs “vessels,” function a central dispatch for delivering meals to prospects who order via apps resembling Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub. A single trailer, such because the one in South Boston, may put together meals for greater than half a dozen eating places, which license menu objects to Reef, much like a franchise mannequin. Reef handles preparation and packaging and usually pays a charge to lot house owners to park its trailers.
Many of the manufacturers Reef sells exist solely on-line via ghost kitchens, resembling Man vs. Fries, Sticky Wings, and Insurgent Wings. However place an order for a Nathan’s Well-known scorching canine on Uber Eats from a Boston neighborhood, and it might additionally come from a Reef trailer, regardless that the chain has 5 brick-and-mortar places in Massachusetts.
The meals is delivered in branded packaging with no signal of its origin.
“Clients would don’t know that is the place their meals comes from,” Reyes stated.
Reef, backed by Japanese funding agency SoftBank, raised $1 billion final 12 months to broaden throughout the nation, and it has since opened three ghost kitchens within the Boston space, together with the one in South Boston. The opposite two are situated side-by-side in an industrial stretch of Everett’s Industrial Triangle, close to the place a developer recently won a key approval to construct a luxurious residential constructing.
Jonathan Medina, a line cook dinner in one of many Everett kitchens, stated most supply drivers have turn into used to touring to the desolate space of the town to choose up orders, though initially it was disorienting.
“A number of come right here for the primary time and are confused, asking, ‘Is that this Nathan’s? Is that this Insurgent Wings?’” he stated.
Medina stated it takes some explaining to assist folks perceive what’s going on.
“I normally use manufacturers folks know and say it’s like having McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s in the identical truck,” he stated.
Firms resembling Miami-based Reef have turn into extra engaging to restaurateurs because the onset of the pandemic, permitting them to succeed in a wider buyer base with out having to open new places or rent extra employees.
Main chains are all-in on the idea, too. In August, Wendy’s signed a deal with Reef to open 700 ghost kitchens in the USA, Britain, and Canada over the subsequent 5 years, citing the necessity to broaden past conventional restaurant codecs, particularly in cities. A number of the kitchens in Boston are promoting meals from DJ Khaled’s “Another Wing,” a digital model he launched final Thursday with Reef. It is going to be featured in additional than 150 ghost kitchens globally, about half of Reef’s present kitchen footprint.
Ron Jewett, Reef’s supervisor in Everett, stated enterprise is booming, with every kitchen getting ready as much as 300 or 400 orders on weekend nights. He stated Reef is planning so as to add a 3rd trailer to the location that may supply packaged items, resembling ice cream, chips, and sweet.
Though it sells meals from greater than a dozen eating places in Massachusetts, Reef solely has 30 workers. It plans to rent one other 40 to satisfy demand, stated Mason Harrison, a Reef spokesman.
Jewett expects Reef so as to add seven extra trailers within the Boston space and in addition transfer right into a two-story constructing close to Suffolk College that might home a supply service for meals, comfort objects, and groceries.
Previously generally known as ParkJockey, Reef was based in 2013 as a car parking zone operator. By partnerships and acquisitions, it grew to be the most important car parking zone firm in North America, with 5,000 properties underneath administration, together with about 200 in Massachusetts, in accordance with Harrison.
The corporate’s ambitions have far surpassed parked automobiles. In 2019, it rebranded to deal with changing heaps to hubs for ghost kitchens and different supply operations.
However not all Reef-managed heaps are destined to turn into greater than a spot to go away a automobile. Reef owns Republic Parking, for instance, which manages about 100 MBTA parking services. A spokesman for the T, Joe Pesaturo, stated the company has no plans to make use of the heaps to host Reef kitchens, and underneath the present contract, Reef can’t put modular buildings on MBTA property.
As Reef expands, it’s dealing with pushback from metropolis governments over the way it ought to be regulated. Enterprise Insider reported that the corporate’s kitchens have been shut down in not less than six cities for flouting metropolis and well being codes.
Harrison stated Reef tries to work with cities to determine how its mannequin can greatest match into present allowing framework. Though Reef sells meals, it doesn’t technically function like meals vehicles or eating places, that are required to satisfy sure requirements that don’t at all times apply precisely to ghost kitchens, he stated.
In Boston, Reef obtained meals truck permits that enable it to organize meals for supply solely. (A Metropolis of Boston spokesperson confirmed that Reef has handed its well being inspections.)
“Laws and compliance are an ongoing dialog throughout all cities as a result of we’re creating one thing new,” Harrison stated in an e-mail.
Bob Luz, president of the Massachusetts Restaurant Affiliation, stated Reef’s meals truck permits, which prohibit on-premise gross sales, make the idea much less of a risk to close by eating places.
“So long as they should play by the identical guidelines … so long as these [rules] are enforced and stored in verify, I believe it will likely be OK,” he stated. “Meals vehicles didn’t lead to a large closures of eating places.”
In South Boston, Reef signed a six-month lease with native car parking zone proprietor Stanhope Storage. Ken Aiken, workplace supervisor of family-owned Stanhope, stated month-to-month income from the South Boston lot has tripled in contrast with pre-pandemic occasions due to the Reef lease, and the businesses are discussing whether or not the meals operation will take over the whole lot, he stated.
“We wouldn’t get that from parked automobiles,” Aiken stated.
In the meantime, the Everett property will quickly switch hands as a part of a redevelopment undertaking, so the way forward for the Reef trailers there may be unsure. A spokesperson for the Metropolis of Everett didn’t reply to a request for touch upon Reef’s allowing or leasing standing.
Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe
Reef’s supply hubs don’t come with no facet of site visitors congestion. Supply drivers clog Spring Road in Everett on weekends, Medina stated. In South Boston, Reef’s kitchen sits throughout the road from condo and condominium buildings.
Yossi Sheffi, director of MIT’s Heart for Transportation and Logistics, stated that past having legitimate permits and passing inspections, corporations resembling Reef have to be good neighbors.
“It really works till there’s a lawsuit, after which the questions usually are not about whether or not they have a allow, however relatively if they’re a nuisance to the neighborhood,” he stated.
Joe Rogan, vice chairman of gross sales and advertising and marketing at catering firm Rita’s Hospitality Group in Everett, which is situated down the road from Reef, stated Reef is working within the “wild, wild west” of the post-pandemic restaurant world. Rogan stated he wouldn’t order from a trailer-based digital restaurant, however he realizes he’s in all probability not Reef’s goal demographic.
“Quite a lot of youthful people who find themselves cell app-friendly, they see this as handy as a result of it will get delivered; they don’t should exit,” he stated. “The know-how is getting folks to order.”
Anissa Gardizy may be reached at anissa.gardizy@globe.com. Observe her on Twitter @anissagardizy8.
