So, you want to open a restaurant. Better start saving every penny you can get your hands on, right?

Well, yes, but you might not need to save as much as you think. These days, it’s possible to open a critically acclaimed, commercially successful restaurant without bringing a single paying customer through the door.

In fact, you don’t need the door at all — or at least, not a door that’s yours and yours alone. You can share that entryway with dozens of other eateries following the same lean business model: operating out of a “ghost kitchen.”

A ghost kitchen is a communal facility that allows rising restaurateurs to prepare high-quality food for takeout or delivery using shared equipment. Basically, your “restaurant” pays rent to the kitchen operator and per-order fees to delivery providers to handle distribution, without the additional hassle that comes with running your own brick-and-mortar shop.

Is the ghost kitchen (aka virtual restaurant) model right for you? Read on for the details on five likely benefits from ghost kitchen experts like Lorenzo Bonfiglio, a seasoned retail and hospitality executive with deep experience in the fast-growing sector.

1. It’s Easier to Test a New Concept Quickly

“Virtual” restaurants are more nimble than full-service brick-and-mortar restaurants, which have many more staff members (servers, hosts, line cooks) who need to be briefed on menu changes, to say nothing of more drastic conceptual changes. Most virtual restaurants have only a few staff members and one key decision-maker, making it much simpler to change course on the fly.

2. You Don’t Have to Make Big Capital Investments Right Away

Virtual restaurants cost much less than traditional restaurants to launch and operate. With the latter, you need to buy (or finance, a problem if your credit is poor) cooking and refrigeration equipment, furniture, signage, and a host of other essential items. With the former, all you need is enough cash to secure a lease on a virtual restaurant space. You do the math.

3. You Can Plug Into Nationwide Delivery Networks

Virtual restaurants are viable today because of nationwide, app-based delivery networks like DoorDash and Grubhub. Sure, these apps aren’t perfect, and many have made a convincing case that they prey on small restaurants (both traditional and virtual). But let’s be clear: From a marketing standpoint, they do a lot of the heavy lifting on behalf of restaurant entrepreneurs, freeing up their time to focus on what they do best.

4. Licensing Is Easier In Some Places

Virtual restaurants must follow local food service laws and regulations, but they often have to navigate less red tape than traditional restaurants. This is especially true for sit-down restaurants that plan to serve alcohol, which involves another layer of licensing and additional expense for the operator.

5. Overhead Is Lower (And Less Risky)

On the subject of cost, virtual restaurants have lower financial overhead than traditional restaurants. They don’t have to pay rent on a physical unit in a sought-after location, they don’t need to carry the various insurance policies required of sit-down restaurants, they don’t have to pay for alcohol licensing — the list goes on. Plus, there’s much less that can go wrong in a restaurant that isn’t open to the general public, so the risk of a customer lawsuit is lower too. 

Nothing Ghostly About It

You’ve probably figured out by now that there’s nothing “ghostly” about running your restaurant concept out of a ghost kitchen. This increasingly popular business model is every bit as real — and has every bit the potential to be a smash hit — as the traditional brick-and-mortar restaurant model.

That doesn’t mean it’s right for you. But as you weigh the pros and cons of using a delivery-only model instead of a sit-down or fast-casual model, remember that some of the most exciting, nationally renowned restaurants to emerge since 2010 began as something other than brick-and-mortar operations. 

In other words, it can be done. And perhaps you’re next in line to do it.