Wonder is a unique business that doesn’t quite fit into a traditional food service category. While it offers delivery services like Uber Eats and Grubhub, it also prepares all its own food in its own kitchens. Unlike ghost kitchens or virtual restaurants that only exist online, Wonder has physical locations where customers can order, pick up, and even dine in at a few tables.
The company’s internal creative team has settled on the tagline “A New Kind of Food Hall” to describe their concept. Daniel Shlossman, a former marketing chief at Sweetgreen who now works for Wonder, describes it as a place with a wide variety of food options, like a “super-app of mealtime” that offers not only Wonder’s own food, but also meals from other restaurants, meal kits, and groceries.
Wonder’s focus is currently on getting its own restaurants operational. Their kitchens are designed to be cost-effective and quick to set up, using only three pieces of electric equipment for cooking. The company prepares and partially cooks all menu items in central facilities, then distributes them to restaurants where they can be quickly finished by employees with minimal cooking skills.
During a visit to their research and development center in Parsippany, Mr. Shlossman showed off Wonder’s gleaming test kitchens staffed with professional cooks. The company’s innovative approach to food preparation and distribution sets it apart in the ever-evolving food service industry.
