TikTok & Grubhub’s Restaurant Delivery Concept

TikTok, US food delivery service Grubhub and US ghost kitchen marketing specialist Virtual Dining Concepts are tapping into #FoodTok with new restaurant concept TikTok Kitchen that will deliver the social media app’s top trending dishes and drinks straight to consumers’ doors.

The menu at the chain of delivery-only restaurants will reflect the most popular dishes on the app, with the debut options including baked feta pasta (1.1 billion views), air-fried pasta chips (one billion views), smash burgers (213 million views) and corn ribs (15 million views). The selection will change quarterly to reflect emerging trends on the platform. Creators who inspired the recipes will receive a portion of the proceeds and feature heavily in promotional materials.

The offering will be set up in existing restaurant kitchens and use their current staff, who will be provided with training, recipes from TikTok and food packaging for the service, with delivery handled by Grubhub. Three hundred sites are planned for its initial launch in early 2022, with another 700 sites to be added by the end of the year.

According to US publication The Verge, Virtual Dining Concepts previously worked with American social media star MrBeast on his burger dining concept, which has proved so popular since its launch at the end of 2020 that it’s now available across 1,500 sites in the US, Canada and the UK. This success has set a precedent for the potential viability of social media-led dining establishments that TikTok hopes to follow.

TikTok launched a similar offering in Los Angeles in 2020, in partnership with US delivery service Postmates, as covered on The Brief.

Source: Stylus