White Castle ghost kitchen shuts down

Facing overwhelming demand, White Castle shut down its Orlando ghost kitchen Thursday until the burger chain’s full restaurant opens near Disney World this spring.

It was like “having a dinner party for eight and 800 people showed up,” White Castle vice president Jamie Richardson said.

He offered a “heartfelt apology to anyone who was hoping to be able to enjoy White Castle sooner.”

The White Castle ghost kitchen at 18 N. Dollins Ave. opened Tuesday and sold out within a few hours. It shut down Wednesday and reopened briefly Thursday but had to stop orders within the first half-hour because of the demand, Richardson said.

John Hoshstrasser, 55, of Orlando, said he had to park about a block and a half away from the kitchen to get his order Thursday.

“Everybody was just milling about in the parking lot out front,” he said.

He got on White Castle’s app at 10 a.m. Thursday and placed an order for 10:30 a.m. pickup. He said it was ready by about 11 a.m.

From California, Hoshstrasser said he had never been to White Castle before

but had tried their frozen grocery store sliders and heard about the hype.

He ordered to share with his wife 10 cheeseburger sliders along with french fries, chicken rings (a variation on onion rings with chicken), mozzarella cheese sticks, cheesecake and a brownie.

“It was a lot of hoops to go through to get it,” he said. “I understand; it’s nostalgia.”

The operation at the Dollins Avenue kitchen, which does not have a dining room, won’t come back online until the largest free-standing White Castle opens this spring in the O-Town West development on Daryl Carter Parkway near Disney, Richardson said.

The 4,567-square-foot restaurant will be the first White Castle in Florida since the 1960s and will feature two drive-through lanes along with indoor and outdoor seating.

“We are so glad we chose Orlando,” Richardson said. “We’re so glad we chose Central Florida . ... We’re just not used to that many people in a virtual kitchen situation using that resource.”

Twenty-one people worked at the restaurant, Richardson said.

Three are in manager roles and will be trained elsewhere, he said. The remaining employees will be offered the chance to draw pay from White Castle as they work for a local charity as the Orlando restaurants come back, but the details are still being determined, Richardson said.

Ghost kitchens do not have dining rooms and typically offer only delivery and takeout. The facility on Dollins Avenue has space for multiple restaurants and the Orlando Sentinel reported last year it was linked to Uber founder Travis Kalanick’s ghost kitchen business.