The H. Wood Group, Los Angeles — Mama’s Guy, Ela Ela, and Lilah’s
Like many virtual dining pioneers, Los Angeles-based, 17-unit hospitality group H. Wood Group’s founders John Terzian and Brian Toll were already considering a foray into ghost kitchens. When the pandemic hit and their venues all had to pivot to delivery-only, that was the final push they needed.
Since April, H. Wood Group has come up with three virtual concepts for the Los Angeles area: Mama’s Guy (an offshoot of their restaurant, The Nice Guy, serving up delivery-friendly pastas, sandwiches and salads, which opened in June), Ela Ela (delivering Mediterranean-style meals like kebabs and falafels), and the All-American Lilah’s (a spinoff of their full-service restaurant, Delilah, serving chicken tenders and burgers). They also have a virtual vegan concept called Beautiful Foods and chicken tenders-centric concept called Tender Fest coming down the pipeline, also in the Los Angeles area.
Although right now all of their concepts are Los Angeles-focused, H. Wood is expanding their reach to areas in LA that are deprived of great takeout options. They’re not opposed, however, to expanding nationwide eventually.
But even though much of their company’s growth these days has been virtual, it has not been an easy road.
“You’d think it would be easier or simpler [to open a virtual restaurant] but just like a brick-and-mortar restaurant, you need to establish a brand, logo, and story behind it,” Toll said. “Then on top of that you need to do things a restaurant would not.”
For their pandemic-era virtual concepts, that means having items on the menu like the take-and-bake lasagna for two, which is available at Mama’s Guy, and making sure that the virtual dining experiences, such as they are, are on point: Each brand has unique, colorful packaging and Lilah’s even launched by delivering food to customers in their parking lot, emulating a vintage drive-thru.
Efficiency is another secret to their success right out the ghost kitchen gate. By creating delivery-only spinoffs of their brick-and-mortar concepts, H. Wood is able to operate both Mama’s Guy and Lilah’s out of their sister restaurant kitchens, and they already have a built-in fanbase.
“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel; we’re just looking at niches in the market we can fill,” Toll said.