Local Students Serve Up Late Night Eats
Ghost Kitchens— No, they are not kitchens being haunted. Although the name may conjure up images of ghosts, rather, it is a pseudonym for a restaurant that operates solely as a food prep operation with no storefront. Essentially, it allows small food operators to get a foothold in the market and test their products on a public audience to determine if their venture can be profitable long term and eliminate many overhead costs associated with starting a physical restaurant.
You may be thinking to yourself after reading that, “wow, what an ingenious concept, I wonder why no one has implemented that in Thunder Bay”. Well, Argus readers, I present to you, The Outsiders, Thunder Bay’s newest weekend late night food establishment that operates solely as a ghost kitchen.
The creative minds behind this feat are none other than current and alumni Lakehead and Confederation College business students: Abu Hena Mostofa Kamal, Souvik Mukherjee and Mohammad Faisal. Mukherjee hails from India while Kamal and Faisal are from Bangladesh but due to the fact that they speak the same language it made it easier for them to collaborate. In fact, that commonality facilitated their meeting through an event at the Thunder Bay Public Library for International Language day. From there the trio were fast friends turned roommates and quickly became business partners.
When they moved to Canada from their respective countries in 2019 none of them were able to cook whatsoever, explains Mukherjee. “ We couldn’t even make instant noodles, so after Covid-19 hit we had more time on our hands and began experimenting and it was a fun experience and so we wanted to extrapolate the experience to the wider community”, says Kamal.
From there, ‘The Outsiders’ became a reality. Operating out of the kitchen of Apple Chipotle's, taking it over on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, these students turned night owls normally find themselves heading to bed at 4 am after working to supply food to the after hours crowd through takeout and SkipTheDishes. This opportunity to use Apple Chipotle’s presented itself as the owners of the restaurant are supportive friends of Kamal and Faisal.
It is admirable to see busy students give up their weekends to make a go out of a business and give back to the community in the process. Mukherjee explains that all of the ingredients for their food is sourced locally as much as possible, including buns for their hamburgers from Roma Bakery, meat from George’s Market and everything in between including hot sauce from Heartbeat and Hooligan’s. They are currently in talks with Belluz Farms for a partnership with them for the summer when fresh produce is readily available.
Now if you are like me, you might have thought that ‘The Outsiders’ would be serving up East Indian and Bangladeshi food, but you would be very mistaken. With a grin on his face, Mukherjee explained to me that “we serve your food!” referring to North American cuisine and they specialize in American-fusion. Their best seller by far is the Juicy Lucy burger, which is wildly popular in Minneapolis and the US but relatively unheard of in Canada. It is a burger with pure cheesy goodness with cheese melted between two patties. It is evident that their hard work is paying off, in just four hours on a Saturday night ‘The Outsiders’ had well over twenty orders as their popularity keeps growing!
Looking towards the future, ‘The Outsiders’ envision opening a restaurant with a storefront but are content on learning how to operate effectively as a business in a ghost kitchen format for the foreseeable future. Mukherjee explains that, “the idea of ‘The Outsiders' is that because we are not from Canada we hope to become ‘insiders’ and can see ourselves doing that through food. What I love about Thunder Bay is that it is a very inclusive city and the longer we’ve been here the less we feel that way. In some capacity, everyone is an outsider and so we hope that our message and story shows people that they are not alone and can make a difference regardless of their background and feel included.”
You can find ‘The Outsiders’ on SkiptheDishes and on Facebook
@TheOutsidersThunderBay or on WhatsApp (807) 357-7300. Special thanks to Abu Hena Mostofa Kamal, Souvik Mukherjee and Mohammad Faisal for their contributions to this article.