Restaurant problems shared are problems halved

I’m standing in a small hallway leading to the guest bathrooms at the back of a storefront in Raleigh’s Gateway Plaza. To my left, a door will take me into the dining room of Fiction Kitchen, a popular vegan restaurant that recently relocated to this address. But there’s another door to my right. If I walk through it, I’ll be in Mala Pata, a new Latin American restaurant.

Save for this corridor, you’d never have any inkling that the two restaurants are sharing a single space. 

Outwardly, the businesses look like two separate restaurants in the same section of a shopping plaza. There are two different entrances and two different kitchens. The two menus couldn’t be more different. Fiction Kitchen features vegan meatloaf and crab cakes made with hearts of palm while Mala Pata has pork carnitas and fish tacos bundled in homemade tortillas. The only hint that there might be something unique going on are those doors leading back to the dining rooms.

The two restaurants are what’s known as a “dual concept” space, meaning there are two businesses where one was originally intended. It’s an arrangement that industry analysts and food-and-beverage professionals alike anticipate will become more commonplace in the next several years. 

Brian Leary, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Highwoods Properties, a real estate investment trust with properties across nine cities, says his firm is “quite focused” on dual concept spaces. “There’s more reasons to come to that exact space and spend money,” he says. “I think it’s really smart.”

While both Gateway Plaza tenants maintain their own hot lines, they share a dish pit and a walk-in cooler. Fiction Kitchen gets the front half and Mala Pata the back, a layout devised out of respect for Fiction Kitchen vegan workers who don’t want to walk past raw meat. In the back of the house, the floors are painted different colors to clearly indicate which spaces are shared and which ones are exclusive to one restaurant.  

There’s a shared staff bathroom at the back of the kitchen and one utility bill that the businesses split based on square footage. Fiction Kitchen’s staff cleans the bathrooms before service because the restaurant opens slightly earlier, while Mala Pata’s crew is on deck for cleanup at the end of each night.

But customers see none of this. After all, the setup’s not for them. Even its biggest boosters aren’t promising to pass along cost savings to diners.

Earlier this year Dine Brands, parent company of Applebee’s, IHOP, and Fuzzy Tacos, announced it would open its first “dual branded” Applebee’s/IHOP concept in Seguin, Texas. Guests can choose to sit on the IHOP branded side of the restaurant or the Applebee’s side but can order from both menus no matter the time of the day. 

“The drive is not necessarily the consumer proposition,” Dine Brands CEO John Payton said in a 2024 earnings call. “It’s really the economics for our owners and our developers…in the sense that it’s got complimentary dayparts, a shared kitchen, a common menu, cross-train[ed] staff.”

In terms of economics, Marshall Davis, one of the co-owners of Mala Pata, estimates that sharing spaces and resources should reduce both restaurants’ operating costs by 20-30%. Beyond that, though, co-owner Angela Salamanca said the joint ownership format is a welcome counter to the pervasive feelings of isolation and uncertainty that took hold at the start of the pandemic.

“We have all come from a really traumatic COVID and have tried to reimagine how we can do business in a smarter way with people that are aligned with our values and the way that we do things,” she said.

Sharing a space isn’t as simple as perhaps it sounds, though. Moving in together is a big step in any relationship, and finding the right person to do it with can be challenging. 

The trio has its real estate broker to thank for bringing them together. He’d shown Morrison the space and while she loved it, she knew it was too big for her. When the broker suggested sharing the space with Salamanca and Davis, citing similarities in their ethos, work ethics, and decorating aesthetics (they both love bright colors), it seemed like a match. 

Since Davis and Salamanca already knew Morrison, they decided to take the plunge.  

Even then, figuring out how to create boundaries and workflows has posed challenges since the restaurants opened in May, most notably in the shared dish pit.

One of Morrison’s previous dishwashers quit on the first night of service. Although she’d had conversations with him about what the increase in dish volume would look like, he couldn’t adjust to the steady flow of things to wash, leaving them down a team member on a critical night. 

Davis says they’ll eventually start fresh with new dishwashers who won’t know anything other than washing two sets of dishes.

“We’re still defining what makes everybody comfortable,” Davis says. “And the good part is that we’re both willing to do that. Everybody wants the other business to be comfortable and to operate smoothly.”

Unlike traditional romantic marriages, in which it’s considered gauche by most to have several relationships at once, when a restaurant alliance is successful business owners are free to replicate the arrangement with as many willing partners as they can find.

On the heels of opening Mala Pata, Davis and Salamanca recently announced they’re getting hitched again, this time to Cheetie Kumar and Paul Siler of Ajja and Justin Pasfield of Locals Seafood. The fivesome are taking over a space in Raleigh’s Oakwood neighborhood that’s been plagued by turnover in recent years. While they declined to reveal what they have in mind for the venue, Davis describes the venture as “a side project to crack the code of a spot in our neighborhood.” 

 “We have no idea how this is going to work specifically,” Davis admits.

But he’s confident it’s going to work.

Elliott Harrell is a Raleigh, North Carolina-based freelance writer and parent of two little girls. Her work has been featured in Travel & Leisure, Wine Enthusiast, and Eater; her play includes mahjong.