Kalypso’s Sports Tavern staff serve up meals for online concepts

Food apps are bringing changes to a Lake Anne Plaza anchor restaurant that’s catering to niches for pizza, pasta and more.

Kalypso’s Sports Tavern, which often draws crowds to its plaza patio and features Greek cuisine, is branching out with several online kitchen concepts.

The virtual kitchens, also called ghost kitchens, show up on delivery apps such as Grubhub and Uber Eats.

On DoorDash, customers can order deliveries or pickup for virtual brands belonging Kalypso’s that include FREAKING GOOD PIZZA, Grilled & Cheesy, Pasta Glory and Ranch Burger Co.

It comes through a business partnership with a California-based company called Future Foods that takes care of branding and splits the profits with the restaurant, Kalypso’s co-owner Vicky Hadjikyriakou said.

“They handle the marketing, and all we do is cook,” Hadjikyriakou told Reston Now.

The restaurant uses the same kitchen staff; addresses for the virtual brands list the same address as Kalypso’s. But the brands are geared toward food deliveries.

The concept isn’t new for the D.C. region, where the pandemic has further accelerated the rapidly growing food delivery business that’s doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Willie T’s Seafood Shack is just one of those benefiting from customers’ changing habits.

Kalypso’s had been considering launching the online outreach in March, but the favorable weather drew customers, so Hadjikyriakou postponed launching it until November. It’s the first such online initiative she’s done.

“As soon as I started it, I think it was like … Thanksgiving Eve, we started getting a good amount of orders,” she said.