When Dog Haus was founded 10 years ago in Pasadena, it was typical for a fast casual restaurant. It had cash registers, a dining room, food runners, everything that seems essential in 2010 and is being questioned in 2020.

This year, the company’s founders decided to take a leap into the digital age and did it in a tough time, days after the novel coronavirus pandemic brought about shelter-in-place measures.

On March 24, they announced a new venture called The Absolute Brands, five restaurant concepts that can only be found online.

Such operations are called ghost kitchens, virtual kitchens, or cloud kitchens. They are based on predictions that diners would rather have meals delivered to their homes than sit in restaurants.

Trend watchers have been predicting that ghost kitchens would become a thing for a few years, and national chains are experimenting with the concept. An early advocate was Famous Dave’s, which was looking at California locations last year. It recently opened its first ghost kitchen in Chicago.

So did P.F. Chang’s, which has two “To Go” locations in the Windy City.

But when the response to COVID-19 shut down dining rooms, it gave a boost to the concept of delivery-only outlets. It created something like a window of opportunity for businesses like The Absolute Brands.

“Because of what’s happened now, we decided to pull the trigger a little faster.” said André Vener, co-founder.

The Absolute Brands currently has four ghost kitchens, one in Pasadena, one in Hollywood, and two in Chicago.

They prepare the company’s new products for customers who live nearby, because third-party delivery services in urban areas usually have boundaries of a few miles.

The brands were created by Dog Haus chefs and are different from the Dog Haus menu of hot dogs and burgers, but compatible.

They are:

Bad-Ass Breakfast Burritos: Breakfast burritos all day filled with egg, tater tots and a variety of meats. Its logo is a donkey.

Bad Mutha Clucka: Chicken sandwiches, wings, fries, tots and onion rings.

Frei Burger: Beef patties on grilled King’s Hawaiian sweet rolls, fries, chili, and coleslaw.

Plant B: Vegetarian burgers and sausages.

Another breakfast concept, Huevos Dias, is coming soon, according to The Absolute Brands’ website.

The founders originally intended to launch The Absolute Brands this summer using ghost kitchens and then gradually begin to deploy its Dog Haus locations as ghost kitchens as well, Vener said in a phone interview.

“In Pasadena, Dog Haus opens at 11 a.m. every day. But from 6 a.m. to 11, the goal would be to be serving breakfast burritos, our breakfast concept, and have that be delivery only.

“Once again, the Absolute Brands would be only for delivery. You could never come into a Dog Haus location and get the breakfast burritos.”

That is the strategy that Wow Bao is pursuing. It has six brick-and-mortar restaurants in Chicago and six airport restaurants serving “noodles, rice, and hot Asian buns.” But it recently entered the California market using ghost kitchens.

Its strategy, according to Wow Bao President Geoff Alexander, is to make the food in the Midwest and ship it frozen to other states, where it can be easily heated.

“All you need is two or three pieces of equipment,” he said in a phone interview. “Most of it every restaurant has or we can get it to you at a very, very, very small cost.”

“Our thought was ice cream shops in the Midwest. When winter comes, nobody is buying ice cream. And now these ice cream shops who have labor built-in can now be selling Wow Bao.”

“We created it prior to COVID. But in this day and age, it’s allowed restaurants who are down on their sales, only able to do takeout and delivery, to add a new revenue stream by selling our product on the delivery platforms.”

Ghost kitchens began before the health crisis, and experts say they will outlast it. Demand will be fueled by the expansion of online delivery brands and “social media marketing that showcases menus, philosophies and chefs,” according to the National Restaurant Association’s report “Restaurant Industry 2030,” which looks at the next decade of dining.

Social media and online delivery websites have worked for The Absolute Brands, particularly Bad Mutha Clucka when sandwiches when they became available in Pasadena, according to Dog Haus’ Vener.

“People have been seeing them, and people have been ordering them.”