CloudKitchens' San Francisco location is in the city's SoMa district, a neighborhood that has been taken over by new housing and trendy tech offices in recent years.
Source: 7X7
It's wedged within a nondescript alleyway. When we visited, an Amici's East Coast pizzeria truck was parked in front of the kitchen before driving off.
There's not much to indicate the kitchen's location except for a fairly bustling stream of delivery workers coming and going, or standing and waiting to pick up their orders.
A sign on the building says "No Parking," though there were plenty of cars parked that presumably belonged to the waiting delivery workers.
Inside was a delivery window and a row of tablets where drivers were instructed to sign in upon arrival.
The mural behind the tablets read San Francisco-centric things like "Fog City" and "Hella," a slang term that supposedly originated in the Bay Area. Through a door to the left of the tablets was a hallway where the kitchen stations likely are located.
The couriers listed were GrubHub, UberEats, and DoorDash, alongside orders from delivery-only restaurants like Moonbowls, The $5 Salad Company, Colombos, and Zoodle2.
We also saw delivery bags bearing the logo for Sweetgreen, the fast-casual salad chain, which also has a brick-and-mortar location in the city's SoMa neighborhood.
CloudKitchens isn't the only ghost-kitchen startup making waves — there's Kitchen United, backed by Google venture branch GV, and Amazon recently announced its foray into the market.
Source: The Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch
Even food-delivery platforms are getting in on the action — DoorDash recently announced the opening of its own commissary kitchen in Redwood City, about an hour south of San Francisco.
Source: SF Gate
