In order for a food business operating in a delivery ghost kitchen to reach its retail customers, third party delivery tactics are pretty much essential.
There are several approaches to meal delivery. Let’s explore the pros and cons of each.
Commercial Delivery
The names are familiar – Grubhub, DoorDash, Uber Eats. These food delivery services exploded during the COVID pandemic, and the convenience caught on. A National Restaurant Association survey in 2021 showed 65% of respondents ordered dinner for delivery and 46% ordered takeout or delivery for lunch.
These delivery giants deal with individual restaurants or ghost kitchen chefs in two ways. You can sign up to be on a list of options for a delivery service, or you can contract with one or more of the services to deliver your orders.
This approach can be expensive – platforms can charge 15-30% commission on the deliveries. Depending on the agreement, there can be marketing and other fees as well, cutting into an already thin profit margin. (Still cheaper than opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant, though.)
It does open access to a large pool of local customers, though. And the name brands can provide consumer confidence simply by name recognition.
The first method – being an option on one or more of the delivery apps – has another large drawback. The delivery app keeps all the customer information, leaving your operation without the key details you need for direct marketing or building brand loyalty.
Quality Assurance
As every chef knows, a reputation for quality is key to success. You likely went into this business to put your unique stamp on the food you prepare.
But once that food is handed over to the delivery service, the customer’s perception is literally in their hands. If an order takes a long time to get to its destination, or if the hot food arrives cold, even the best meal loses its appeal.
Knowing the people responsible for the delivery helps. Having the delivery people take ownership of the quality is even better. Operating through a shared kitchen means the delivery firms and drivers quickly become familiar with every food outlet and customer base.
Another Option
As a tenant in a ghost kitchen like Partake Collective, you already are taking advantage of the lower capital costs inherent in sharing space and equipment. Third-party delivery is organized at Partake, and the communal approach can cut costs.
A driver-friendly area is set aside at the facility to make pickups from any of the kitchens convenient for all. Even better, Partake offers a GoTab platform that allows customers to order from multiple concepts inside Partake and pay on one check. There also is a pick-up option and a food hall for on-site dining.
On the Partake website (partakecollective.com), customers can connect directly to outlets open at the time to make orders as well.
Do-It-Yourself
Some chefs have developed their concept to the point where they have a strong local base of customers. At that point, it might make sense to make your own deliveries, at least part of the time.
Self-delivery, also called native delivery, allows a closer hand over quality control rather than handing your product over to a third-party delivery service. However, it also means spending time managing the service and the employees or contracts required to keep the service going.
A blended approach – delivering to a local customer list yourself while contracting with the third-party companies for a broader reach – can provide the best of both worlds. Partake allows native delivery, but does not oversee it, as it oversees the arrangements with Uber Eats, Grubhub and DoorDash.
Conclusion
Bottom line, you can cook the best food around, but if you can’t get it to your customers, your business will fail. A relationship with a strong commercial kitchen operation can make that delivery component both efficient and affordable.
In both Long Beach and Los Angeles (the Glassell Park area), Partake Collective fills that bill.
We’re happy to help, and believe that Partake Collective compares favorably to any Los Angeles area operation.
Tours of both Partake locations are available. Partake Long Beach is at 456 Elm Ave. Partake Los Angeles (Glassell Park) is at 3716 Eagle Rock Blvd. To book a tour, go to partakecollective.com/book-a-tour.
© Partake Collective 2025
English 
Spanish 
Khmer 
Chinese