‘You gotta speak to no one’: Fort Lauderdale woman discovers a late-night ghost kitchen where customers order and pick up food alone

Finding a place to eat late at night can be difficult, but a spot in Fort Lauderdale is offering a different approach by removing human interaction from the process entirely. A TikTok user named @pickabill recently shared her experience at a place called FTL Food, showing her followers a fully automated, enclosed environment where customers can pick up a meal without speaking to anyone. The video has gathered 264,900 views on the platform.

When you walk into the building, a bare corridor leads into an empty room. The setup is very minimal, with only leather benches, a wall of lockers labeled with letters and numbers, and large tablets for placing orders. The menu includes options like New York grilled cheese, street food, tacos, and halal dishes.

After paying, customers wait for their food to appear in one of the lockers. The video’s creator pointed to a small door in the room, which is where employees appear to drop off the meals. “You get your food, you pick it up right here, you gotta speak to no one, you get your food and you go,” she said, calling the business model “so smart” and “absolutely amazing.”

Viewers compared the space to an emergency room and said they would never eat there, while others praised the ghost kitchen concept for small businesses

Not everyone who saw the video shared her reaction. Several viewers found the lack of human interaction and the enclosed location uncomfortable. One commenter wrote, “[Sticker] it looked like a emergency room…” while another said, “Nooooo thank you lol I need to see the pple.”

Others were just as blunt, with one person writing, “looks scary” and another adding, “What?.. I would never want to eat from a place like this 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅” Florida has seen its share of unsettling travel experiences, like a couple’s vacation turned into a nightmare at an Airbnb in the state.

Not all responses were negative, though. One commenter offered some context, writing, “In Atlanta, we call those ghost kitchens, which is a very very great concept for small businesses💜 great find.” FTL Food does appear to operate as a ghost kitchen, which is a business model where a facility is used specifically for preparing delivery or takeout orders. These kitchens allow businesses to lower costs because they do not need to maintain a traditional storefront or a dining area for customers.

According to the official website for FTL Food Hub, the business is “a restaurant co-op that’s modernizing the traditional food hall experience.” The company says it works with over 20 partner restaurants, including Loaded Halal, Naz’s Halal Food, and New York Grilled Cheese Express.

The setup is built for speed, allowing customers to receive their food and leave without any social interaction. Poor service experiences in other industries have drawn similar online attention, much like a flight crew’s dismissive response to passenger illness that sparked outrage among travelers. The ghost kitchen model reflects a broader shift in the food industry toward more automated, behind-the-scenes operations.

Whether customers find the concept convenient or off-putting, the ghost kitchen model has been growing as a cost-effective alternative to traditional restaurant setups, and FTL Food Hub appears to be one of the more visible local examples of that trend.