Thirsty Lion Gastropub, a division of Concept Entertainment Group (CEG) have launched Central Kitchen, an online food hall operating out of the Chandler Thirsty Lion location, to provide guests with diverse cuisine options from one central kitchen. Four new restaurant concepts were developed for Central Kitchen, each featuring unique culinary directions and scratch-made food available for takeout and delivery from the one central website. The online food hall launched in Oregon last fall with great success and quickly expanded to Thirsty Lion kitchens in Colorado, Texas and now Arizona.
“We’ve been fostering the idea of a kitchen focused on takeout and delivery for the last year,” says John Plew, president and CEO of Thirsty Lion Gastropub. “The pandemic put the process into hyper speed, and we saw this as the perfect opportunity to pivot with the climate and launch an idea that aligns with current consumer demands. Central Kitchen fills a need in the restaurant space by providing multiple culinary offerings from one hub. Guests can order the food that everyone in their home is craving under one ticket.”
The Central Kitchen website has a food hall appearance with five, including Thirsty Lion, differently branded restaurants and an advanced point of sale system that communicates the orders to the kitchen based on predetermined measurements of cook time for each dish. This results in precise preparation time, no matter which restaurant is included in an order. The Chandler Thirsty Lion kitchen will offer takeout and delivery from five total concepts, which include Soy Joy, Southern Jewel, Killer Wings, and Pizza and Spice. All menus have been designed under the direction of Keith Castro, CEG’s VP of Food and Beverage Executive Chef.
Soy Joy Kitchen specializes in rice bowls, sushi, ramen and other Asian favorites. Southern Jewel offers Southern fried chicken, Nashville hot chicken, sliders and Southern specialties. Killer Wings serves boneless and traditional wings with a variety of house made sauces. Pizza and Spice has a large selection of gourmet specialty pizzas and salads. These four restaurants will be anchored by Thirsty Lion Gastropub, which features starters, burgers, sandwiches, salads and specialty entrees. Nearly every restaurant offers vegetarian options. Central Kitchen will offer a Takeout Tuesday deal for 25 percent off each to-go order placed through the hub website starting January 26.
