4 . Frato’s Pizza looks like a typical family restaurant, with its black-and-white checkered floor and red chairs. But in the kitchen, the cooks are cooking for four other restaurants at the same time.
There is, of course, the delicious pizza that customers have come to expect from Frato’s when they walk through the door. But there are also spicy chicken gyros for Halal Kitchen, barbecue chicken tenders for Tenderlicious, salmon grilled cheese for Cheesy Deliciousness and Butterfinger milkshakes for Heavenly Shakes, all of which can only be ordered through online sites Grubhub, DoorDash and UberEats.
Owner Michael Kudrna launched the four spin-offs (分店) earlier this year in a matter of weeks as he races to keep his Chicago-area business ahead of a growing trend: restaurants designed only for delivery or take-out.
Thousands of restaurants are experimenting with these virtual spin-offs tucked (隐藏) inside their own kitchens. Others are opening “ghost kitchens”, where all food is prepared to go.
Both concepts have come out to take advantage of the rising popularity of ordering out instead of dining in. The trend also speaks to the growing power of third-party delivery companies, which have transformed the way many people find restaurants and raised expectations for speed and convenience.
The $26.8 billion online ordering market is the fastest-growing source of restaurant sales in the United States, according to David Portalatin, a food industry adviser for The NPD group. Digital orders, while still accounting for just 5% of all restaurant orders, are growing by some 20% each year. Restaurant visits, meanwhile, are remaining mostly flat.
In this case, UberEats has helped launch 4,000 such virtual restaurants worldwide and about half of them are in the U.S. and Canada, according to Kristen Adamowski, head of Uber’s virtual restaurant program.
Grubhub and UberEats say their virtual restaurant programs help small businesses compete in this landscape. Both actively reach out to restaurants with suggestions for online spin-offs based on data collected from customer searches — extending their influence from how people get their food to what should go on the menu.
Virtual restaurants also have the obvious benefit of testing new concepts without taking on the high rent or hiring more staff, said Rick Carmac, head of restaurant management at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York.
1. What is the purpose of paragraphs 1-3?
| A．To introduce a famous restaurant. | B．To list some examples of diverse food. |
| C．To add some background information. | D．To introduce the topic of the passage. |
2. Which of the following may have caused the virtual restaurants to appear?
| A．People find restaurants have changed. | B．Ordering out has become a trend. |
| C．Customers expect speed and convenience. | D．The delivery companies grow quickly. |
3. What does the underlined word “flat” in paragraph 6 probably mean?
| A．Smooth. | B．Calm. | C．Inactive. | D．Boring. |
4. What could be the best title of the passage?
| A．The Rise of Virtual Restaurants | B．The Benefit of Online Restaurants |
| C．Restaurants Designed for Delivery | D．Booming Stores on the Internet |
