By Emily Tung, New Delivery Models team
At DoorDash, we’re constantly thinking about ways to help our merchants grow their reach and revenue while bringing the best selection of restaurants closer to our customers.
From our restaurant partners, we know that launching brick and mortar locations can be a costly and time-intensive endeavor and that merchants are increasingly looking for alternative, more cost- and labor-efficient ways to accelerate their expansion trajectory.
With that in mind, we designed DoorDash Kitchens, our first shared commissary kitchen located in Redwood City, CA. We welcomed beloved Bay Area brands, including The Halal Guys, Rooster & Rice, Nation’s Giant Hamburgers, and Humphry Slocombe, to the mid-Peninsula for the first time!
With DoorDash Kitchens, the restaurants have a turnkey solution to quickly establish a foothold in a new market and generate revenue. They are not beholden to 10+ year-long leases and most importantly, DoorDash is an invested partner by their side.
For example, DoorDash takes on the infrastructure build-out and permitting responsibilities and co-designs the space with each merchant. This is a top priority, as it is important for us to co-create an environment that merchants love and their employees can flourish in. In our Redwood City kitchen, we worked closely with each restaurant to install custom outlets for special equipment and bespoke refrigeration units to house their products.
On the business front, we helped the merchants refine their menus to serve local takeout preferences and co-developed marketing materials to get the word out to local residents.
We are not the restaurants’ landlords; rather, we are their partners in success.
“Third party delivery is changing the restaurant industry in new and exciting ways, and we’re proud to partner with DoorDash for the launch of their new Redwood City commissary kitchen. I’m very eager to see the great things we’re able to achieve by pairing DoorDash’s industry-leading software and IT expertise with Nation’s 65-plus year history of serving delicious food in the greater Bay Area.”
— Patrick Marasco, Vice President of Business Development, Nation’s Foodservice, Inc.
From a consumer perspective, DoorDash Kitchens gives customers on-demand access to new, popular local restaurants not previously available in their immediate area. Although the Halal Guys, Rooster & Rice, Nation’s Giant Hamburgers, and Humphry Slocombe have all been in the broader Bay Area ranging from 2–60 years, none of them have storefronts, let alone delivery access, in Atherton, Belmont, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Carlos, and Woodside. A Nation’s fan living in Menlo Park would have to drive more than an hour away to the East Bay to enjoy their favorite burger.
Now, for the first time, customers living in these Peninsula neighborhoods can order from these restaurants for delivery (individual or group orders) or pickup exclusively on DoorDash. Customers can even mix-and-match foods from multiple merchants at the DoorDash Kitchens while paying just one delivery fee. Locals can now pair Rooster & Rice’s famous Thai-inspired chicken and rice with the Black Sesame ice cream from Humphry Slocombe — this unique menu pairing is only available to Peninsula residents!
With multiple top restaurants under one roof, we are excited by the many opportunities for collaboration and efficiency on the horizon. We will continue to empower our merchants to offer customers new menu offerings and pairings unique to the DoorDash Kitchens’ restaurants. We have some exciting collaborations happening soon, so stay tuned for the holidays!
Until then, to celebrate our grand opening, DoorDash is offering $0 delivery fees on customers’ first order from DoorDash Kitchens’ restaurants through the end of the year. So if you’re living in Atherton, Belmont, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Carlos, and Woodside, open your app and order from Nation’s Giant Hamburgers, Rooster & Rice, Humphry Slocombe, and The Halal Guys to take advantage of this limited-time offer.
DoorDash Kitchens opens in the Peninsula was originally published in DoorDash on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.