Dallas restaurants turn to ghost kitchens - WFAA

Michele's take

Ghost kitchens gaining traction in a major market like Dallas tells me operators are still wrestling with the unit economics of traditional brick-and-mortar — labor costs, lease obligations, and front-of-house overhead simply don't pencil out for every concept or every trade area. What franchise networks should take from this is that delivery-first or hybrid models aren't a fallback strategy anymore; they're a legitimate expansion vehicle that lets you test demand in a market before committing capital. The smart play is to treat ghost kitchen performance data as your proof-of-concept before signing a 10-year lease.