How do you successfully launch a restaurant during a global pandemic?
Ghost Fried Chicken is a California restaurant that focuses on Southern-style fried chicken. This client had three months to invent a restaurant from concept to the grand opening. In the spring of 2020, COVID 19 was about to rock the world, and would hit the service industry particularly hard. It was a period of intense creativity, on-the-fly decision-making, and it turned out to be one of the most exciting projects MoMo Monocle has worked on to date.
Project Overview
Market research
Brand concept ideation & design
Developed brand voice and style
Drafted website copy
Designed and built company website
Launched & managed social media channels for the first six months
Devised and managed advertising budget
Crafted & implemented a grand-opening ad campaign
Research
After researching the San Diego food scene, we discovered there was a demand for “spicy food” and “fried chicken,” yet there was no restaurant in the area filling this niche market. Furthermore, we uncovered that the demographic seeking “spicy fried chicken” were southerners stationed at the two nearby military bases (Camp Pendleton and Miramar).
After pitching several concepts and brainstorming with the client, the brand’s overall direction started to take shape. We wanted to know what Colonel Sanders would have been like if he had grown up on the streets of San Diego and loved “carvin’ mad swells.” And so, Ghost Fried Chicken was born!
UNIQUE CHALLENGE: HOW MIGHT WE LAUNCH A SUCCESSFUL RESTAURANT DURING COVID-19?
While this project was underway, the COVID 19 pandemic hit.
Our solution, run a ghost kitchen. The term “ghost kitchen” was first coined in New York City in 2015. It’s a term that refers to a professional kitchen that operates without the sit-down function of the restaurant. The ghost kitchen functions as a take-out or delivery service only.
The benefits of a ghost kitchen are copious. With the pandemic shutting down the entire dine-in industry, reduction of operating costs was imperative. As a result of renting out a much smaller space, from which to operate, the company could focus solely on take-out and delivery orders without hemorrhaging the cost of a vacant dining room.
We were also able to help Ghost Fried Chicken partner with San Diego breweries. Meeting California’s ordinance to serve alcohol as long as food was served was a perfect marriage for the company and local breweries like Societe Brewing Company and the Gaslamp Tavern. This collaboration furthered profits beyond take-out and delivery orders by visiting popular locations and directly serving to beer-drinking patrons.
A year after the launch, Ghost Fried Chicken has not only survived the pandemic, it has established itself as one of the best-fried chicken joints in San Diego. It has furthered its collaborative efforts with other local businesses and has a spicy future ahead of itself.