Flavortown
Guy Fieri brings “ghost” chain restaurant to Colonie.
Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Kitchen, a delivery-only ghost restaurant operating out of existing brick-and-mortar chain locations, has been opening rapidly across the country in the past month or so, with about 120 now serving in 25 states and the District of Columbia.
Food for the local Flavortown Kitchen comes out of Buca di Beppo, at 44 Wolf Road. Buca is also home to another fast-launching ghost concept, Mrbeast Burger, which in December arrived in the Capital Region (among about 300 locations locations nationwide simultaneously). The partner in the venture is a company called Virtual Dining Concepts, which has more than a dozen such ghost-kitchen restaurants and counting; besides Fieri and Mrbeast’s founder, the Youtube star Jimmy Donaldson, Virtual Dining Concepts’ other celebrity partners include singer Mariah Carey (cookies), actor Mario Lopez (Mexican) and “Jersey Shore” cast member Pauly D (Italian subs).
The Flavortown Kitchen menu has 16 items, including three shareable-size apps (i.e., bacon-wrapped japalenos stuffed with pimento cream cheese and andouille), two salads, five sandwiches (two beef and one veggie burger, fried chicken, Cuban), two entrees (including Chicken Parm-eroni), two sides (mac-ncheese, fried pickles) and two desserts. For beverages, canned soda and bottled water.
Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. daily. Order via the website, guysflavortownkitchen.com, or Doordash, Grubhub and Uber Eats.
Fieri opened his first restaurant in California in 1996; won the second season of “The Next Food Network Star” a decade later, which led to hosting or otherwise being associated with more than 10 series on Food Network including his biggest, “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives”; and, as near as I can tell, now owns or co-owns three restaurants and licenses his name to more than a dozen others.