Feb 8, 2021

Brands don’t always need to build their ghost kitchens from scratch. Otto’s Tacos In Mighty Quinn’s case, working Otto’s Tacos into their earnings didn’t require any capital investment to start. Owning a digitally exclusive brand may have been inconceivable a year ago, but an increasing number of restaurants are preferring to focus on their online footprint. New York City-based Otto’s Tacos is one brand moving its real estate digital, and is using barbecue restaurant Mighty Quinn’s to help it do so. “[Otto’s Tacos and Mighty Quinn’s] kind of came up with the idea of bringing back Otto’s Tacos as a delivery-only concept,” Mighty Quinn’s cofounder Micha Magid says. “We didn't really have the bandwidth or desire to open up more brick-and mortar-locations, and we’re lucky in that Otto’s four restaurants were located in areas that we had serviced through Mighty Quinn's footprint.” Under this partnership structure, Mighty Quinn’s licenses Otto's Tacos name and fulfills orders from its kitchen. Customers then receive their digital order from Otto’s Tacos using first- or third-party platforms. The roots of this partnership stretch pre-pandemic, as the two brands lived about a block away from each other in New York City’s East Village. When COVID-19 challenged Otto’s Taco’s ability to survive after seven years as a brick and mortar, the two brands kept in contact and developed the partnership. Otto’s Tacos has served customers for more than a month under this new setup, and Magid says the partnership has gone smoothly. “Everything is done out of the Mighty Quinn's kitchens. Otto's Tacos is obviously very supportive of what we're doing and are with us to ensure that everything we're doing in our kitchen meets the Otto's Tacos brand standard,” he says. “The food is coming out exactly the same as it was under their locations.” For Magid, the food itself is one aspect that makes the partnership so seamless. Even though Mexican food and barbecue are two distinct restaurant categories, Otto’s Tacos’ simple menu allows Mighty Quinn’s to step into another food category without expending a significant amount of resources. But this may not be the case for every restaurant collaboration. “Not all kitchens were set up to do everything. For example, a dumpling shop can't crank out brick-oven pizzas,” Magid says. “I think it's really trying to find where your core competency lives and what your infrastructure will allow you to do.” For restaurants that do find their ghost kitchen match, there can be big advantages in a similar type of partnership. In Mighty Quinn’s case, working Otto’s Tacos into their earnings didn’t require any capital investment to start. The partnership also allowed Mighty Quinn’s to use available kitchen space due to the lack of catering orders and overall sales shift. Considering the brutal effects of COVID-19 on New York City’s restaurant industry, finding another source of income may be the difference between sinking or survival. By August 2020, employment in the restaurant industry was still only 55 percent of its pre-pandemic levels in February . And though indoor dining bans have lifted in some parts of New York, New York City had been slow to recover.