Notre Dame's secret ghost kitchen is a hit with students

There's a new after-hours dining option at the University of Notre Dame, and it's touching on three of the biggest college dining trends: Mobile ordering, ghost kitchens, and robot delivery.

Gipper's Late Night Kitchen, which opened this past fall, operates out of the university's South Dining Hall. But it only functions as a ghost kitchen and students can only get food by ordering via the GrubHub app.

"The ghost kitchen concept was introduced to have a more complete dining portfolio by filling a void in student late night offerings," says Notre Dame Director of Marketing Jennifer Heckel. Students can place orders on Friday and Saturday nights from 8:00 P.M. to 2:00 A.M.

“It is programmed to be a late-night dining experience. You could be at your dorm or your friend’s dorm and you put it on your phone and something will be delivered to your dorm coming from this kitchen,” says Campus Dining Executive Director Luigi Alberganti.

Gipper's operates as a regular kitchen during the day, Heckel notes. Since it's closed as night, it made sense to take advantage of the existing space for a late-night concept. "We leverage operational efficiencies within existing space," she says. "We leverage existing equipment, inventory, and staff to execute the menu."

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Gipper's is also an opportunity to pivot quickly from one concept to another and drum up new business. "With the ghost kitchen concept, we've also been able to flex to try other target audiences with small adjustments to time and menu," Heckel adds.

Staffers are cross-trained to execute multiple menus, including Gipper's. That allows Notre Dame to "service the ghost kitchen without additional talent," Heckel says. "Our staff loves trying new concepts and this one has been fun to deliver."

The menu, which is limited, sticks to the kind of late-night classics that have always been popular among dorm dwellers. There's cheese, sausage, and pepperoni pizza. (The pizza is Detroit-style with crunchy edges and cheese.) Wings with six sauce options, including buffalo sauce, hot honey, garlic parm, mango habanero, and Nashville hot. Chocolate chip, Oreo, and sugar cookies. Vanilla bean or chocolate gelato.

Groups can order the All-American, featuring two pizzas, six chocolate chip cookies, and two half-pints of gelato. That's the most popular option, particularly when made with pepperoni pizza according to Alberganti.  

Everything is under $10 except the All-American, which is priced at $32.99. Students can pay with their cashless dining cards or credit or debit cards.

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After an order is placed on the app, it's assembled and packed up in the ghost kitchen.  Then the order is delivered to a student's dorm by one of 30 autonomous robots. In addition to being convenient, Alberganti sees robot delivery as a safer option compared to heading off-campus for food late at night.

Alberganti reports that interest in Gipper's has been "high (because) the quality of the product is really good, very unique."

That's the case even though dining services hasn't made an effort to market Gipper's in any way. In fact, not talking about it seems to be part of its appeal. “The concept of a ghost kitchen is not necessarily something that you promote a lot. It evokes curiosity,” Alberganti says. “Part of the concept is not to promote it. It’s student-driven and just for the students. The word goes around in the community.”

Alberganti imagines that word about Gipper's spreads just by one group of students hearing another talking about placing a late-night order, or seeing their order and wanting to know where it comes from. “When you see an order to a dorm, you’ll see another order to the same dorm, proving that they’re all talking to each other about Gipper’s,” he says. “It was fun to see.”

It's likely that Gipper's limited hours and days will expand if lots of students keep ordering. And Heckel predicts it's a trend that's here to stay. "Not only does it bring something new and fun to campus, but they offer dining teams control and flexibility with creating new concepts without some of the elements associated with franchised concepts. Dining programs can provide diverse menus to fill gaps with minimal costs and the agility to pivot when needed," she says.