Frisch’s Big Boy is not changing it’s mascot – turns out it’s a different chain with the name "Big Boy".
They are, however, changing their name. On delivery apps, at least.
Let me back up. The other day, I read on Cracked where Steve Aoki has a pizza place that pretends to be a bunch of different restaurants.
And those other people, scrolling through their delivery app, noticed that Aoki’s wasn’t the only pizza place said to be at 444 N La Cienega Boulevard. There was also a place called “Thick & Tasty.” And another called “Gabriella’s New York City Pizza.”…But then people thought to give the place a visit, and they reported seeing just two guys working there alone, surrounded by boxes with different labels. Phone, and they won’t know which restaurant to identify themselves as. Sometimes, you’ll order from one restaurant, and they’ll send you the pizza in the wrong box.https://www.cracked.com/article_28015_5-celebrities-whose-side-projects-are-pure-yikes.html
It’s something called a “ghost kitchen”, where restaurants pretend to be something different. The reasons range from “we want to try something new” to “let’s change names whenever we get a bad rating.” And this isn’t just something done by small places.
Chick-Fil-A, The Halal Guys and Dog Haus are among top brands that have opened ghost kitchens through Kitchen United, a startup that builds kitchen commissaries for restaurants looking to enter new markets through delivery or take-out only.https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/10/21/ghost-kitchen-virtual-restaurant-heres-how-works/4053659002/
Which bothers me. Quite a bit. I have issues with some restaurants, both chains and local. I don’t patronize them on purpose – whether it’s political stances, open racism, or owners mistreating workers and forcing them to work without masks.
I don’t want people handling my food to be pretending to be someone else. So that brings us back to Frisch’s Big Boy… and Order XOXO. They seem like very different places… until you do a bit of sleuthing.
