Local Kitchens, a “micro” food hall, opened a new location on California Avenue in November, bringing the convenience of mixing and matching dishes from different restaurants across the Bay Area to Palo Alto.
Local Kitchens takes popular Bay Area restaurants’ bestsellers and makes ordering them accessible on one website before customers can pick up their order at the store closest to them and eat there, at some locations, or take their food home. Local Kitchens also delivers orders.
“[Customers] can add all of the items that they want to from all the different restaurants to one cart and check out that way,” Operations Associate AJ Glassman said.
Local Kitchens’s website, app and in-store kiosks allow users to easily choose from an assortment of dishes. The layout puts what Glassman called the “greatest hits” of Bay Area restaurants such as Curry Up Now, Senor Sisig, Proposition Chicken and The Melt in one place.
Curry Up Now is featured at Local Kitchens with its Indian street food-inspired burritos and bowls. Senor Sisig’s Filipino fusion combines Mexican cuisine with the peppery flavors of Filipino cooking. Senor Sisig also features more Filipino dishes, such as a Sisig bowl. Proposition Chicken offers chicken cooked in different ways and in a variety of dishes, and The Melt serves grilled cheeses and burgers.
Once customers have selected the dishes they want, Local Kitchens sends them a text, and Glassman said Local Kitchens typically has the food ready within ten minutes. When their order has been prepared, customers receive a text message. When a customer enters the restaurant, they’re greeted and can wait to pick up their food.
Local Kitchen makes accessing restaurants from different parts of the Bay Area easier for customers, and it also helps expand the reach of the featured businesses.
Local Kitchen makes accessing restaurants from different parts of the Bay Area easier for customers, and it also helps expand the reach of the featured businesses.
“We really want to bring these popular restaurant brands that are located in San Francisco into more communities around the Bay Area,” Glassman said.
That’s what founders Jon Goldsmith, Andrew Munday and Jordan Bramble wanted to accomplish when they first began working on Local Kitchens. Goldsmith and Munday noticed the rapid pandemic shutdowns of restaurants, and decided to use their prior experience working together at DoorDash to create Local Kitchens in an attempt to assist the restaurant industry; Bramble joined the team as a third founder.
“Helping local chefs and bringing great food to local communities was the main vision,” Glassman said.
He added that Local Kitchens’s new location in Palo Alto is the business’s first location that utilizes that vision, and more locations are planned for Roseville, Davis and Los Gatos. The modern design of the store, packed with icons that represent the Local Kitchens brand, emphasize the welcoming feeling that the business is meant to inspire within customers.
“Our front of house vibe is going to be … a place that is able to offer … a dining experience as well as being a place for people to pick up from and deliver from,” Glassman said.
Local Kitchens is open on California Avenue on Monday to Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 12 a.m and Thursday to Sunday from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m.