Kitchen United, a Los Angeles-based virtual restaurant provider, announced the opening of its next kitchen center at 825 N. Sedgwick Street in Chicago’s River North neighborhood. Coming on the heels of a $10 million funding round led by GV, Kitchen United will work with restaurant partners to begin move-in in mid-December, and will start serving Chicago consumers in January.
With this launch, Kitchen United is offering national, regional and local restaurant chains a value-driven, low-risk opportunity to offload busy and disruptive, off-premise operations, or find entry into the Chicago market. Kitchen United already has commitments from several large restaurant chains who will be moving into the facility, and expects that this location will be fully subscribed by the time it starts serving consumers in early 2019.
Kitchen United’s “kitchen centers” are facilities that can house 10-20 restaurants with commercial kitchens optimized specifically for the catering, delivery and takeout marketplace. The company creates turnkey solutions for restaurants and positions its kitchen facilities in areas where demand is high and the local restaurant infrastructure is strained by the influx of non-traditional business.
“We select locations for our kitchen centers very carefully, and this space passed our site-selection process with flying colors,” said Jim Collins, CEO of Kitchen United. “River North has an extremely high demand for food delivery, catering and pickup services. Restaurants in the area are stressed by the new business and the new facility will cater to both the in-place community, as well as bringing new dining options into the area to meet rising consumer demand.”
Kitchen United’s core business serves local, regional and national chains, but the company reserves space in each facility to enable restaurant and food service entrepreneurs an opportunity to start or expand their business and the River North location will provide space for this purpose as well. Chicago is the second market for Kitchen United’s shared kitchen spaces and the company has aggressive growth plans for the year ahead.
“Changes in consumer preference are dramatically shaping the food landscape across the country,” said chief operating officer of Kitchen United, Meredith Sandland. “Our facilities are designed to empower local and national restaurants to meet the demand for more off-premise dining options in their most relevant target markets. We’re thrilled to bring our next kitchen center to life in Chicago, and are hard at work to meet our expansion goals for the year ahead.”
