New ‘virtual restaurant’ offers chicken wings and deep-fried Oreos for delivery only

Brinker International has been rolling out a new “virtual kitchen” in its restaurants this summer.

It’s Just Wings offers chicken wings, curly fries and dessert — but for delivery-only through DoorDash.

The wings are prepared at its Chili’s and Maggiano’s Little Italy kitchens but are not on their menus.

Chili’s has area locations in Lee’s Summit, Merriam, Overland Park, the Northland and Kansas City, Kansas. There is a Maggiano’s in Overland Park.

The menu offers wings with a choice of 11 sauces including Buffalo, honey sriracha, truffle hot, Santa Fe, spicy pineapple teriyaki and mango habanero, and two rubs — ranch and Cajun spice.

Other items include curly fries and an Oreo County Fair Cookie — Oreo cookies battered and fried and served with chocolate drizzle sauce.

Brinker formed an innovation group two years ago to look at future growth ideas. That included ghost kitchens (with no retail spaces but a kitchen hub for delivery orders), food trucks, and the virtual concepts (operated out of a restaurant but offering different menu specifically for delivery only).

In a statement, Wyman Roberts, president and CEO of Brinker International, said virtual kitchens are an opportunity to leverage its assets.

As dining rooms limit capacity during the pandemic, more and more restaurants are ramping up their carry-out and delivery offerings.

According to Restaurant Business magazine, delivery services have found that consumers typically search for a particular menu product — wings or tacos — rather than for a specific restaurant. So a place with “wings” in its name tends to come up higher in the search results than a place that merely happens to have wings on its menu.

On the It’s Just Wings website it warns consumers that it is “no frills” — so it doesn’t put knives, forks or napkins in the bag.

This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.