Coronavirus News
Dallas restaurant group opens ghost kitchens with burgers, wings, and bowls
Dallas-based Consolidated Restaurant Operations Inc. is jumping onto the virtual "ghost" kitchen bandwagon, in which restaurants spin off delivery-only concepts to keep their kitchens busy while the pandemic still limits dining capacity.
Recognizing that ghost kitchens are a growing trend, CRO, which owns venerable restaurants such as III Forks, Cantina Laredo, and El Chico, has debuted three virtual kitchen concepts, each dedicated to a single cuisine: burgers, wings, and healthy bowls. These delivery-only kitchens are now open, serving the DFW area.
Here are the details:
Hashtag Wings. This concept with the clever social media name is all about wings, which it does four ways: Buffalo, Garlic Herb Parmesan, Sweet Thai Chili, and Chipotle Barbecue. A batch of five wings is $8; a dozen is $18. A side of hashbrowns is $3, and blue cheese and ranch dipping sauces are 60 cents.
Craftsman Burgers. Burger concept uses Angus beef in its quarter-pound burgers. There are four offerings: The Craftsman ($12), with cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, sliced red onions, and pickles; Smoked Gouda Bacon Melt ($12); the Truffled Mushroom Burger ($13), which comes with fried onion strings on top; and the Veggie Burger ($10), with house-made lentil cakes.
Craftsman Bowls. They do chef-crafted bowls with seasonal ingredients, priced from $9 to $14. Offerings include: the Steakhouse Bowl, with tenderloin, fingerling potato, asparagus, tomato, bacon, green onion, almond, white balsamic vinegar, and creole mustard dressing; and the Vegetarian Poke Bowl with sweet potato, beets, wild rice, cucumber, avocado, jalapeño, cilantro, sesame seed, and ponzu sauce. There's a Creole salmon with wild rice, squash, and zucchini; and Tuscan kale with baby kale, goat cheese, dried cherry, pepitas, fennel, and apples in a mustard vinaigrette.
The food from these three kitchens is available only via delivery. You can order via third-party partners suchas Grubhub, Door Dash, Favor, and Uber Eats.
