The most popular restaurant food delivery order in NJ
Seeing strange cars in someone's driveway or parked awkwardly in front of their house used to arouse curiosity. Nah, not anymore.
It's someone getting food delivered to their front door from one of the many services and options we now have in most of America. In New Jersey, it seems half of the population is or has been working for one of the many food delivery apps.
It's sometimes obvious what type of food is being delivered if the vehicle has one of those lighted signs with the store logo on the roof. Not so these days. So many people are dropping off food (sometimes at ridiculous expense) from any number of places.
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Some places don't even really exist, ghost restaurants. {See later in this article about 'ghost kitchens'}.
If you've ever wondered what the most popular food delivery order is, you probably guessed right in about three seconds. Yes, in New Jersey, of course, it's pizza!
According to the survey from the popular website Eat This, Not That, "cheese pizza" is the No. 1 most popular delivery order in every state. We commonly call it a plain pie, but whatever. New York had the same result.
It was pretty shocking to see the No. 1 delivery order in some other states.
In Oklahoma it's croissants?!
In North Dakota the No. 1 delivery order is gyros?! They are one of my favorite foods, but I didn't expect it in Oklahoma!
Catfish is No. 1 in Mississippi. That makes sense.
As to ghost kitchens. One night I noticed an ad pop up on my phone for a pizza place in my area I had never heard of. It turns out it was a ghost kitchen.
Ghost kitchens are physical spaces for operators to create food for off-premises consumption. What is a ghost kitchen? Where virtual restaurants cook their food.
They are essentially food prep operations with no waiters, no dining room no parking lot and really, no public presence whatsoever. But on food delivery apps, they’re alive and well.
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On apps like Grubhub and DoorDash, listings for restaurants operating out of ghost kitchens usually don’t look any different than those for brick-and-mortar operations.
The food is from legit restaurants with real cooks and real food but it's only in the imagination of the restaurant owner and the customer. Maybe they'll have some packaging with the name of it, but there's no sign on any building.
It's just another way for restaurants to maximize their operating space and their business. We are definitely living in interesting times!
NJ fast food: If you don't have these apps, you're losing money
Gallery Credit: Erin Vogt
LOOK: 20 American foods that raise eyebrows outside of the US
Gallery Credit: Charlotte Barnett
Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy only.
