Guy Fieri is the latest celebrity tapping into his fame to launch an online-exclusive ghost kitchen, which is a restaurant concept that operates exclusively via smart phone app and online ordering. Best known as the host of Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives, which has featured more than a dozen restaurants around San Diego County, Fieri’s Flavortown Kitchen has opened in 23 states and Washington, D.C. over the past week.
Like other celebrity-backed ghost kitchen concepts, Flavortown Kitchen is preparing its food and delivering from the kitchens at Buca di Beppo locations, including in San Diego's East Village, Mira Mesa and Carlsbad. The concept is owned by Robert Earl, founder of such restaurants as Buca Di Beppo, Planet Hollywood and Earl of Sandwich. Flavortown Kitchen is one of a handful of celebrity ghost kitchens controlled by Earl under his Virtual Dining Concepts brand, which also includes MrBeast Burger, DJ Paulie D’s Italian subs, Mariah Carey’s Cookies and Mario Lopez Tortas, to name a few. Fieri also partnered with Earl on his Chicken Guy chain of restaurants.
Flavortown Kitchen is currently available only through delivery apps like UberEats, Doordash, Grubhub, and Postmates, offering a comfort food menu with "out of bounds" items like bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers, cheesesteak egg rolls, bourbon brown sugar BBQ wings, bacon mac n' cheese burger, Chicken Parm-eroni, an Italian Stallion Salad, and cheesecake topped with pretzels and potato chips. Most locations are currently open for delivery from 10:30am to 9:30pm.
Ghost kitchens are becoming increasingly more prevalent in San Diego and around the country since the COVID-19 pandemic took the world by storm in early 2020. Last fall, San Diego's own Sam "The Cooking Guy" Zien pivoted his incoming Seaport Village restaurant in the former Buster's Beach House building to become a multi-concept eatery operated online and through take-out. The former CEO of ride-share giant Uber is also in the process of opening a branch of his CloudKitchens "virtual" restaurant hub in a 10,000 square-foot industrial building in San Diego's Barrio Logan that will house approximately 50 eateries.
For more information about Guy Fieri's Flavortown Kitchen and to place your order, visit guysflavortownkitchen.com and check out the menu below.
