DoorDash Sponsors Silicon Valley Virtual Restaurants

DoorDash has decided to broaden its main consumer benefit — the ability to skip the restaurant dining room and have the food delivered directly — so that chefs can adopt this model, too.

And so DoorDash is opening up “virtual restaurants” and a preparation space all its own in the firm’s new commissary in Silicon Valley. Chefs prepare food for delivery, but there is no dining room space.

The move comes as the firm is trying to help restaurants save money on labor and adapt to changing consumer habits.

“I jumped at the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone,” said restauranteur Ben Seabury. “The landscape of dining in America is changing.”

DoorDash Kitchens are also on offer for real-world restaurants looking to book overflow kitchen space or delivery and catering menus.

It’s a move that comes as food delivery in specific, and delivery in general, becomes a much tighter and more level playing field. GrubHub is the best-known name in the space today — but it is getting ever more crowded.