Robot restaurants put a new spin on fast casual
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They're not our overlords as of this time. At these restaurants, the robots are here to serve you.
When someone says "robot restaurant, " I first think of an LED and laser show at a Tokyo venue where remote-controlled robots dance with bikini-clad girls in a sensory show that accompanies meal.
But the reality of robot restaurants is generally far more pedestrian and low-class.
An example is Eatsa, the San Francisco-based restaurant company that takes orders through iPads and dispenses meals through automated machines. Until now, Eatsa has been using this tech to serve up quinoa bowls to health-food fans in the own restaurants. But the company announced Friday that it's expanding its robotic platform to the fast-casual restaurant chain Wow Bao next month.
Tap on your cubby to get your food
At Chicago-based Wow Bao, you can already order your steamed buns via its software or an on-site kiosk. Good results . Eatsa's tech, you'll also be able to acquire your meal from an LED-lit cubbyhole displaying your name. Text appearing on the front of the cubby, one among a larger array, will tell you once your order is cooking and when you can double-tap on the box to gather your meal.
It's a quick turn-around for Eatsa, which only a couple weeks back announced the closing of five of its seven restaurants across the country. The company has changed its focus to offering automated tech as a platform to other restaurants such as Wow Bao.
A blend of man-made intelligence, personal screens, robotics and -- perhaps most crucially -- the readiness of hungry customers to skip human interaction is coming at the moment to make Eatsa's shift possible. It's part of any slow creep of technology which transforming our experience of dining out, and even dining in, thanks to advances in delivery technology.
Eatsa's concept might seem to be exotic today, but Neil Stern, senior partner at retail consulting firm McMillan Doolittle, said we can expect to see more of this kind of tech popping up. "Does it make sense to cover assembly of orders and deliver via an office? " he said. "Maybe not. But Eatsa will present a vision of the future that will be duplicated or enhanced. "
Robot restaurants-Robot Restaurant contiki
The first Eatsa-equipped Wow Bao will open in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago on Dec. one particular. Using the technology, Incredible Bao plans to double its sites in 2018. It currently has seven company-owned locations, plus air-port, university campus, hotel and stadium franchises.
"When I actually first heard about Eatsa opening in San Francisco, I jumped on a plane to come see it, " Wow Bao President Geoff Alexander said in a statement. Alexander praised the technology as both entertaining and successful. "I knew instantly that Eatsa would be the perfect technology to include into our future locations. "
Do robots belong in the kitchen?
At Eatsa and soon at Wow Bao, the automatic technology is front and center in the restaurant, serving customers and providing associated with an experience to go along with their takeout. In other restaurants, robots are still strictly consigned to the kitchen.
At Coffeehouse X and Zume, both based in San Francisco, automated programs make lattes and pizza, respectively. California startup Miso Robotics has built a kitchen assistant robot called Flippy, which from early 2018 is expected to be grilling burgers in CaliBurger restaurants.
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