A Redditor discovered that a San Francisco pizzeria operates over 70 brands on DoorDash from its kitchen, selling pasta, wings, desserts, and halal food

• A San Francisco pizzeria appears to operate more than 70 virtual brands on DoorDash selling falafel, pasta, and wings.
• A Reddit user noticed that dozens of DoorDash storefronts were listed to the same address.

A pizzeria in San Francisco appears to operate more than 70 different virtual brands on DoorDash.

A Reddit user posted in the subreddit r/sanfrancisco that they had aggregated the addresses for all DoorDash storefronts in San Francisco and found that dozens of the eateries listed on the delivery app were all registered to the same address: 1338 Polk Street, just off Route 101.

Business Insider found 76 DoorDash storefronts listed at that address, including some for national brands like Dickey's Barbecue Pit.

The brands operating from 1338 Polk Street sell a variety of food, from burgers at 21 Burger Avenue and Wild Burger Joint to pizza at Pizza Pilgrims and Polk Street Pizza and desserts at Cake Slice Co. and Sweet N'Sert. Others specialize in pasta, chicken wings, calzones, cheesesteaks, shawarma, and sandwiches.

Some claim to cater to specific dietary requirements, such as Godfather's Gluten-Free Pizza, Halal Pasta Lounge, and Celebrity Vegan Burger.

Many of the storefronts have DoorDash ratings of four stars or higher. Some of the brands are also listed on Uber Eats and Grubhub.

Some, like Pasta Glory by Fresco Inc, are listed as "temporarily closed on DoorDash."

As well as dozens of virtual brands, the address, 1338 Polk Street, also has a sit-down restaurant that offers delivery and collection: Fresco Pizza - Shawarma & Ice Cream. It has a 3.7-star rating on Google. Its menu features a large assortment of items, many of which are sold by the virtual brands listed at the address: Pizza, falafel, pasta, shawarma, wings, and more.

Hoodline first reported on the Redditor's list.

"As we have for years, we continue to partner closely with restaurants and select virtual brand companies to highlight best practices for operating virtual restaurants online – most recently by implementing Virtual Brand Quality Guidelines," a DoorDash spokesperson told BI.

"These guidelines are meant to help set partners up for success and provide customers with high-quality restaurant selection," the spokesperson continued. "We're committed to upholding these guidelines and are looking forward to connecting with Fresco Pizza directly in the next few days."

DoorDash noted that it didn't have a limit for how many virtual brands each kitchen could operate, but that it would take appropriate action if it found that the virtual brands operating from 1338 Polk Street didn't meet its guidelines.

Delivery aggregators are slashing some of the virtual brands cluttering their apps

Virtual brands — those that don't have physical restaurants where customers can dine in and are instead only available for delivery and sometimes collection — boomed in popularity during the pandemic amid waves of lockdown.

They're sometimes prepared at dedicated ghost kitchens, which cook food just for delivery and collection and often make multiple brands. But they're sometimes made at dine-in restaurants that have surplus kitchen capacity and want to utilize this for profit. Restaurants sometimes design their own virtual brands, but they can also host other virtual brands.

In many cases, brands are able to operate from the same kitchen because they sell dishes that share ingredients and cooking equipment. "Virtual brands help restaurants boost sales and reach new customers without increasing operational costs," DoorDash tells its merchants.

DoorDash says virtual brands must be at least 50% different from the restaurant's primary concept. Low-quality virtual brands are "duplicative" to the physical or other virtual brands operating from the same kitchen, offering the same menu items but using different photos, dish names, and prices, DoorDash says. Uber Eats says that merchants can only launch one virtual brand every four weeks and that at least 60% of the items on its menu must be different from both the parent restaurant and any other virtual brands it operates.

But often it's hard for diners to spot whether a storefront listed on a delivery aggregator is a virtual brand. Some have complained that food they've ordered from what they think is a small neighborhood joint actually comes from a larger chain.

Delivery sites are removing some of the virtual brands cluttering their sites. Uber Eats removed 8,000 last spring and summer and DoorDash says it will remove brands that virtual brands quality requirements.

Some of the virtual brands operating from 1338 Polk Street are licensed by other companies, like Dickey's. Cupid's Wings and Philly Fresh Cheesesteaks, for example, are available in dozens of other cities.

Reddit users didn't seem surprised to discover that the Polk Street address operates a network of virtual brands.

"I know this address from MEMORY based on seeing it under so many different names on UberEats," one Redditor wrote. "I eventually learned to just not order anything from here, regardless of whether it looks good."

"I knew it was 1338 Polk the second I saw the title," another Redditor wrote. "It took me 3 orders before I realized what was going on. I remember I hated their fries, and somehow kept getting the crappy fries in the pizza box when I would order from other restaurants."

One Reddit user pointed out that if you search for "calzone" in the proximity of 1338 Polk Street on DoorDash, the first three results are all brands listed at that address, crowding out the competition.

Other commenters said that practices like this are why they only order delivery from restaurants they have personally dined in at, or collected from.