More ghost kitchens pop up in Sioux Falls

Oct. 27, 2022

A handful of new ghost kitchens have opened in Sioux Falls in recent months, offering chicken tender sandwiches, quesadillas, grilled cheese sandwiches and a new style of pizza for the market.

Diners will find these offerings online through delivery services such as DoorDash and Grubhub, and some of the menu items can be ordered at the restaurants where they’re made.

Bird Dawgs is a Buffalo Wild Wings concept. The Dawgs are chicken tenders with toppings served in a hot dog bun. They come in several varieties, including Buffalo, barbecue and loaded, which features chicken tenders topped with New Belgium Fat Tire beer cheese, grilled onion, green onion and wild honey mustard.

The Bird Dawgs menu includes appetizers, chicken tenders, chicken sandwiches and a couple of desserts.

Franchisees could decide if they wanted to opt into the concept, and both Buffalo Wild Wings locations in Sioux Falls offer Bird Dawgs, said James Smith, general manager of the restaurant on Louise Avenue.

Diners can order the food through DoorDash, the restaurant’s website or in the restaurant.

IHOP has incorporated two ghost kitchens: Thrilled Cheese with grilled cheese sandwiches and Super Mega Dilla with quesadillas. They’re part of a partnership with Nextbite, a virual restaurant provider.

“As we look back at the past two years, IHOP’s off-premise business has sustained its momentum at over 20 percent of our sales mix,” Jay Johns, president of IHOP, said in a news release in March announcing the start of the partnership. “This Nextbite partnership will be a continued growth driver for our restaurants, specifically as we look at non-peak hours during lunch and dinner. These new virtual brands leverage what we do best, create delicious food on our griddles, and the menus are perfect for our existing equipment and capabilities.”

The franchise-owned Sioux Falls IHOP started preparing the Thrilled Cheese and Super Mega Dilla menu items in August.

Thrilled Cheese has a half-dozen options. One of those, the New Wave Fave, has American cheese, bacon, tomato, fried eggs and avocado on multigrain bread.

Super Mega Dilla’s menu was inspired by the trend of folding quesadillas in different ways. Options feature spicy peppers, chicken tenders, onions or pepperoni.

Both concepts are available only through third-party delivery services.

Red Robin in The Empire Mall began offering Donatos Pizza in August, and customers can order the pizzas through delivery services or in the restaurant.

Donatos was started in 1963 as a single restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, and has grown to more than 375 locations in 22 states, with 170 traditional restaurants in 11 of those. The partnership with Red Robin began in 2018 with four restaurants and has been expanding across the chain.

The pizzas have a thin crust, edge-to-edge toppings and square slices. Customers can build their own or choose from several offerings, including the Founder’s Favorite with pepperoni, sausage, shaved ham and banana peppers. Gluten-free and cauliflower crusts also are available.

Red Robin also offers delivery-only ghost kitchens for MrBeast Burger, Chicken Sammy’s and Fresh Set.

Some of the other newer ghost kitchens in Sioux Falls include Super Bowlz at Agua Fresh, The Pancake Kitchen at Cracker Barrel, Maggiano’s Italian Classics at Chili’s and Wow Bao at Fazoli’s.

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More ghost kitchens pop up in Sioux Falls

A handful of new ghost kitchens have opened in Sioux Falls in recent months, offering chicken tender sandwiches, quesadillas, grilled cheese sandwiches and a new style of pizza for the market.

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