Concepts cozy up to shipping containersConcepts cozy up to shipping containers

When sandwich specialist Subway decided to open a location at the One World Trade Center construction site in New York, chain officials knew a traditional brick-and-mortar unit wasn’t going to cut it. Construction workers would need something accessible that wouldn’t force them to waste an entire lunch break traveling up and down the massive structure. 

Subway opened a unit in a shipping container at the construction site of One World Trade Center.

Subway’s solution was to install the restaurant in a shipping container attached to a lift that could be vaulted hundreds of feet skyward.

Like a ground-level Subway, the location offered toasted and traditional subs and was supplied regularly with fresh food and beverages, said Alison Goldberg, a spokeswoman for the Milford, Conn.-based chain. 

“It’s pretty much the same as any Subway restaurant you’d find,” she said, “except that it’s 20, 30, 40 floors up.”

Housing restaurants in shipping containers is an idea that’s catching on — not just in extreme cases like Subway’s floating sandwich shop, but also for operators looking for other earthbound options than higher-cost brick-and-mortar locations or even food trucks. 

Operations as small as one-offs in Atlanta and Austin, Texas, and as large as coffee giant Starbucks have been experimenting with shipping containers and have found them to be inexpensive to acquire and customize, relatively easy to operate, mobile, flexible, environmentally friendly and, to a degree, even hip. 

Primarily used to transport cargo around the world, shipping containers also are plentiful. 

“For a restaurant, it’s great — especially for somebody who’s up and coming or somebody who’s looking to grow their market,” said Vinay Patel, a marketing associate at Boxman Studios, a shipping container company based in Charlotte, N.C.

Patel noted that while the containers have retail and housing applications, his company markets units that lend themselves specifically to foodservice needs.

Containers used for restaurants usually have reached the end of their first life cycle, Patel said, meaning that they have been discarded and no longer are employed for freighting products around the globe. 

“We’re able to take these, which would normally just sit and rot away, cut them up a little, add some paint and gloss on it, and they get a second use,” he said.

Environmentally conscious Starbucks combined four shipping containers to create a 450-square-foot drive-thru and walk-up restaurant in Tukwila, Wash., according to the Seattle-based company’s blog. The goal for Starbucks, in fact, was to take an active role in reducing the containers’ environmental footprint. Called the Reclamation Drive-Thru, the Tukwila unit was designed to LEED green building standards, the company said.

Shipping containers are used to transport Starbucks coffees and teas from around the world, the blog post said, “but many end up in scrap yards once they reach their average 20-year life span. Reclamation Drive-Thru was inspired by a desire to help keep items used throughout our supply chain ... out of the waste stream.”

Low cost of entry

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Picnik in Austin, Texas

Picnik, a restaurant in Austin, opened its first location in April after owner and chef Naomi Seifter acquired an already refurbished shipping container restaurant from the owners of La Boîte Café. The relatively low initial investment, she said, is one of the aspects that drew her to the shipping container concept — as well as its green, Earth-friendly halo.

For the trailer and the lot, Seifter said the venture required about $65,000 to $70,000. 

For the type of concept she was looking to open, a brick-and-mortar location would have required at least $500,000 in initial investments, she said. Picnik features coffees, shakes, salads and sweets, all of which are easy to sell on premises.

And, Seifter said, with the restaurant encompassing only 200 square feet of space, labor costs are low. 

“You can only have two employees at a time,” she said.

Dean Small, founding partner at Synergy Restaurant Consultants, said that when a restaurant is small, you’re forced to be frugal and thoughtful about everything from food to employees.

“Generally, [small size] makes for a well-run operation,” he said.

Yumbii, an Atlanta-based concept with two operating food trucks, plans to open its first shipping container location later this year. The company also hopes to open a brick-and-mortar location soon, said manager Rebecca Young.

Young said that for Yumbii, the investment was about the same as it was for the brand’s food trucks. However, she said the cost wasn’t the biggest factor when choosing to open a shipping container restaurant. 

“Innovation and the ‘cool’ factor and furthering the Yumbii brand” were more important, she said.

“It will be the first, and hopefully there will be more,” she said of the container location.

Operational challenges

Atlanta's Yumbii

Young said Yumbii plans to operate the location much as it does its food trucks, with some items prepared in a central commissary. While all menu items could be prepared in the shipping container, she said, the chief constraint is its lack of space. 

“We do a lot of prep work in the commissary,” she said. “Storage also is a factor.”

Nevertheless, she said the container is still larger than a food truck. 

“Our trucks only have one fryer; the container will have more cooking space,” she said. The trucks usually have three employees, but the shipping container will be operated by four or five.

At The Luxury, a shipping container restaurant in San Antonio, chef Tim Donovan said one of the concept’s biggest impediments is the heat. In the summer the temperature in the kitchen can rise to 120 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, even with the air conditioning blasting.

Nevertheless, The Luxury has found a following. 

“We designed our kitchen to feed about 120 to 150 people per day,” he said. “We’re doing numbers two to three times that.”

The menu includes seven sandwiches, four desserts and four salads. 

Licia Gliptis, vice president at Restaurant Consultants Inc., said one benefit of using a shipping container is that it allows for lots of creativity. The space can be anything the restaurateur envisions, she said.

“It can really be designed to take on the personality of the brand in a way that connects with people,” Gliptis said.

Small of Synergy agreed, noting that because they can be mounted on wheels and moved around, containers also offer flexibility in terms of location. 

Contact Erin Dostal at [email protected].
Follow her on Twitter: @erindostal.