Remote Restaurants Are A New Way To Serve Without Expanding

There's a new way restaurants are serving more customers without opening new locations.

Barbecue from Tomball, Texas, is now a popular takeout option among diners in New York City thanks to Wonder, new company that is recreating restaurant meals far from their home kitchens.

"Wonder is a delivery-first food hall. We've got some of the best chefs and the best restaurants from around the country that we've brought to a single location," said Marc Lore, Wonder's founder and chairman.

Some 30 restaurants have partnered with Wonder, licensing their recipes and cooking techniques in exchange for an equity stake in the company. The partners include famous chefs like Bobby Flay, Jose Andres and Marcus Samuelsson, but they also include restaurants like Tejas Chocolate & Barbecue in Tomball, a city near Houston. Their barbecue is recognized as some of the best in the state, repeatedly making Texas Monthly's Top 50 list.

"It's not a cuisine that is easily found in Manhattan, obviously," said Tejas founder Scott Moore, Jr.

Barbecue pitmasters and cooks from Wonder traveled to Texas to train in-person at Tejas, observing how the team trims and seasons brisket and their technique with massive smokers. Wonder brought those lessons back to the Northeast, where they use their own smoker and post oak wood that is shipped up from the Lone Star State.

Wonder says they apply the same attention to detail to each of their partner restaurants, and Tejas is now the top-selling restaurant at Wonder's first New York City location on the Upper West Side.

"New Yorkers love Texas barbecue," said Lore. "Tejas is my favorite restaurant inside of Wonder. I absolutely love it. It's hard to get good barbecue in New York City, so our mission at Wonder is to make great food more accessible. And that's what we're doing."

Other companies are also helping restaurants grow without opening their own new locations or using traditional franchising models. Goldbelly is a platform that allows restaurants to ship everything from New Orleans gumbo to Chicago deep dish to diners nationwide.

For a small business like Tejas Chocolate and Barbecue, the deal with Wonder is a huge financial opportunity. "The money they were offering was more than this restaurant was going to make over several years combined," said Moore, Jr.

But it all comes down to the food. Moore, Jr. recently traveled to New York and tried some of his specialties, as prepared by Wonder. "I'm hanging our hat on it. I'm proud to tell you in New York that that's Tejas's product."

Wonder will open 10 locations in the New York City area within the next year and plans to eventually expand around the country.