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Location: Nationwide and at the Citizens Food Hall in New York City
Operated by: C3
Facility: Ghost kitchens
Delivery: All major delivery providers
Concept(s): Los Angeles-based Soom Soom is joining the virtual brand company C3 with six units. The Soom Soom menu will be offered at C3’s new Citizens and Graduate Food Hall locations in September before opening additional locations in New York, Atlanta, Seattle, Berkeley, Minneapolis, Tempe, Iowa City, Richmond and Ann Arbor.
“C3’s execution, integrated supply chain network and unmatched culinary team is what we need to scale our restaurant into a nationally recognized brand while preserving the integrity of our carefully crafted Mediterranean dishes,” said Zahi Ofengart, founder and COO of Soom Soom. “Together, we will inspire the world to come together through the love of our food.”
Menu: Israeli-Mediterranean favorites made from scratch without preservatives. Features housemade hummus, falafel, shawarma and kebabs. The restaurant’s pita, tahini and proprietary spice mix are imported directly from Israel.
Price: Sandwiches range from $11 to $14 for meat-based options and $9 to $13 for vegetarian options. The hummus menu ranges from $11 to $13 and comes with pita.
Location: Miami
Operated by: N/A
Facility: Ghost kitchen
Delivery: All major delivery providers
Concept(s): This sandwich and champagne shop is delivering “victory,” as they call it, to doorsteps. Heroes (hot or cold) and champagne are the entire menu, based around late 1990’s culture when bottles of champagne were popped for championships.
Menu: All heroes are named after famous sports stars, like The Serena (fresh mozzarella, sweet peppers, arugula, olive tapenade and roasted garlic pesto on ciabatta), or supermodels from the ’90s like The Campbell (polenta-dusted calamari, banana peppers and arugula with house red sauce in a wrap).
While not released yet, the drink menu is set to include champagne as well as mixed drinks featuring champagne, like a Mimosa Spritz. There are no sandwich and champagne pairings on the menu at this time.
Price: Heroes are between $11.95 and $13.95. Champagne has not been added to the menu for pricing.
Location: California; Jailbird is available for pickup at various DogHaus locations across the country
Operated by: DogHaus, The Absolute Brands
Facility: Kitchen United facilities and Dog Haus kitchens
Delivery: All major delivery providers
Concept(s): The two new brands are DogHaus offshoots featuring the brand’s signature menu items: burgers and wings. Each concept has a limited menu with a lot of flavor options:
Jailbird serves wings and tenders in various sauces.
Big Belly Burgers serves “old-school” burgers with vegetarian-fed Black Angus beef and a variety of sides.
“Menu innovation has always been a mainstay at Dog Haus, and this key piece of our business continues to enable The Absolute Brands to thrive,” said Dog Haus partner Hagop Giragossian. “The Absolute Brands have been huge for us so far. We have cultivated a strong culinary team eager to whip up more unique creations for guests, so we are excited to carry this momentum and introduce JAILBIRD and Big Belly Burgers to fans across the country.”
Menu: Jailbird: Wings and tenders are available in flavors like Nashville Hot, Chipotle Honey, Korean Hot, Teriyaki and more. Sides of sauces like Sweet Orange Chili are available as well.
Big Belly Burger: The Smash burger (smashed Creekstone Farms beef patty, white American cheese, pickles, diced onions, caramelized onions and secret sauce; served on a sesame seed bun) is available in single, double or triple patty, along with items like the Fatty (10-inch, half-pound brat, mustardy mayo, caramelized onions; served on a French roll) and the Fried Chicken Sandy (fried chicken tender, secret sauce, pickles; served on a sesame seed bun).
Price: Jailbird: Wings range from $13.49 for a 6-piece to $44.99 to a 20-piece, and tenders range from $9.99 for a 3-piece to $33.99 for a 10-piece. Sides range from $3.49 to $6.49.
Big Belly Burgers: All sandwiches are between $6.49 and $11.49. Sides range from $3.49 to $6.49.
Location: Across the country
Operated by: Dickey’s Barbecue Pit
Facility: Dickey’s kitchens
Delivery: All major delivery providers
Concept(s): Dickey’s introduced a new virtual brand as an option for any franchisee as a way to boost off-premises profits for franchisees of the fast-casual brand. Since its debut, Dickey’s has seen a 1% rise in sales, according to the company.
“Wing Boss not only makes our pit-smoked wings and tenders more accessible, it’s also an innovative business model built to cater to today’s times,” said Laura Rea Dickey, CEO of Dickey’s. “As a family-owned company, we are always looking for ways to support our owner/operators and Wing Boss creates an additional opportunity to expand their earning potential and capitalize on the delivery trend of today’s convenience-minded consumers. Due to the uniqueness that smoked chicken brings to the category, we are continuing to invest in the brand and scale it across all of our locations. Our continued innovation plays a huge role in our brand’s rapid growth and we have no plans of slowing down.”
Menu: Wing Boss features bone-in or boneless cluckers that are pit-smoked over hickory wood. Wing Boss also offers a wide variety of dry rubs and sauces including Atomic, Sweet Chili, Barbecue Dry Spice, Buffalo Mild, Buffalo Hot, Original Barbecue, Sweet Barbecue, Cajun Spice, Lemon Pepper, Spicy Korean, Texas Hot Sauce and Garlic Parmesan.
The new virtual brand is also serving sides including Cajun Fries, Cheese Fries, Buffalo Ranch Fries, Coleslaw, Mac and Cheese, Veggie Sticks and Buttery Texas Toast.
Price: Combo meals with chicken, a drink and a side range from $8.50 to $23 depending on the number of chicken pieces. Wings by the piece start at $12.50 for 10 wings and tenders start at $6.75 for four tenders.
Location: Franklin, Tenn.
Operated by: A. Marshall Hospitality
Facility: Scout’s Pub kitchen
Delivery: All major delivery providers
Concept(s): Fresh 96 Kitchen, the third virtual concept from A. Marshall Hospitality, features light, healthy fare with coastal, Southwest and Japanese influences.
“We merged fresh produce and inventive ingredients to create unique flavor combinations,” said A. Marshall Hospitality regional chef Jesse Quatro. “Healthy and convenient dining options can be difficult to come by, and Fresh 96 Kitchen offers an option for carefully-crafted dishes that can be picked up or delivered right to your door.”
Menu: Menu items include Don’t Poke Me, made with AAA saku tuna, a taco Caesar wrap, ceviche salad and more. Dessert and hand-crafted non-alcoholic drinks are also available.
Price: Food ranges from $7 to $15.
Location: Queens, N.Y.
Operated by: Innovation QNS
Facility: Restaurant kitchens operated by Bbot and Innovation QNS
Delivery: All major delivery providers
Concept(s): Joe DiStefano, a food writer and tour guide known as the “Culinary King of Queens,” has curated multiple concepts for this virtual food hall highlighting the local food in Queens. This includes Astoria Bier & Cheese, Boishakhi, Duzan, Mar’s, Ornella, Tacuba and Zenon Taverna. All concepts currently announced feature cuisines from around the world as well.
“For the past 20 years, I’ve been falling in love with the richly diverse food culture of ‘The World’s Borough,’” said Joe DiStefano. “As a partner in Innovation QNS, I’m so excited to help bring Astoria Eats to life. From fresh Greek seafood and classic NYC pizza to Nigerian yassa and Thai boat noodle soup, in-the-know Queens residents now will be able to enjoy the very best restaurants Astoria has to offer while supporting these small businesses that are the backbone of our community.”
Menu: Varies by concept
Price: Varies by concept
