What the heck is this Mosey’s Southern BBQ in my DoorDash?

For years, I thought I was operating a ghost kitchen.

Nothing ever happened in it apart from occasional anguished wailing and some odd smells.

However, it turns out that’s not the actual definition. A ghost kitchen – also known as a virtual kitchen – is a food service business that serves people directly through delivery apps with no physical restaurant for you to go sit in, although they often use an existing restaurant’s kitchen.

Mosey’s Southern BBQ, which just appeared on Yellowknife apps like DoorDash, Skip and Uber Eats, is a perfect example.

You cannot go to a Mosey’s Southern BBQ and, if you tried to, you’d simply end up at Boston Pizza – because the two share a kitchen.

You can’t go to Boston Pizza and ask for food from the Mosey’s menu. They are kept completely apart. But the same kitchen produces both.

This much is confirmed in a section from Boston Pizza International Inc’s September 2024 quarterly report, which calls Mosey’s a new “virtual brand” introduced by Boston Pizza’s parent company in August 2023.

Testing of that brand in about 35 Boston Pizzas went well, so Mosey’s began rolling out in more places starting in October last year.

“Mosey’s features certain BBQ-style sandwiches, sides and accompaniments that are distinct from the core Boston Pizza menu and can only be ordered and delivered via third-party delivery apps,” Boston Pizza International told its investors.

“Mosey’s is designed to utilize surplus kitchen capacity at Boston Pizza restaurants and provide incremental sales.”

The result is an unusual approach to launching a food brand (at least by NWT standards) where it only turns up inside delivery apps. Mosey’s has no website of its own and while it does have Facebook and Instagram pages, they have barely any followers and haven’t been touched in months.

Yellowknife appears to be the latest Boston Pizza to start offering Mosey’s on the side. Residents reported noticing it for the first time last week and it carried a “newly added” label on DoorDash as of Wednesday night.

Its listed hours via DoorDash in the city are 11am-12:40am daily.