San Francisco Restaurant Claims To Be First To Run Entirely By Robots (eater.com) 73
Mezli isn't the first automated restaurant to roll out in San Francisco, but, at least according to its three co-founders, it's the first to remove humans entirely from the on-site operation equation. Eater SF reports: About two years and a few million dollars later, Mezli co-founders Alex Kolchinski, Alex Gruebele, and Max Perham are days away from firing up the touch screens at what they believe to be the world's first fully robotic restaurant. To be clear, Mezli isn't a restaurant in the traditional sense. As in, you won't be able to pull up a seat and have a friendly server -- human, robot, or otherwise -- take your order and deliver your food. Instead, Mezli works more like if a vending machine and a restaurant had a robot baby, Kolchinski describes. It's a way to get fresh food to a lot of people, really fast (the box can pump out about 75 meals an hour), and, importantly, at a lower price; the cheapest Mezli bowl starts at $6.99.
On its face, the concept actually sounds pretty simple. The co-founders built what's essentially a big, refrigerated shipping container and stuffed it with machines capable of portioning out ingredients, putting those ingredients into bowls, heating the food up, and then moving it to a place where diners can get to it. But in a technical sense, the co-founders say it was quite difficult to work out. Most automated restaurants still require humans in some capacity; maybe people take orders while robots make the food or, vice versa, with automated ordering and humans prepping food behind the scenes. But Mezli can run on its own, serving hundreds of meals without any human staff.
The food does get prepped and pre-cooked off-site by good old-fashioned carbon-based beings. Mezli founding chef Eric Minnich, who previously worked at Traci Des Jardins's the Commissary and at Michelin-starred Madera at Rosewood Sand Hill hotel, says he and a lean team of just two other people can handle all the chopping, mixing, cooking, and portioning at a commissary kitchen. Then, once a day, they load all the menu components into the big blue-and-white Mezli box. Inside the box, there's an oven that either brings the ingredients up to temp or finishes up the last of the cooking. Cutting down on labor marks a key cost-saving measure in the Mezli business model; with just a fraction of the staff, as in less than a half dozen workers, Mezli can serve hundreds of meals. "The fully robot-run restaurant begins taking orders and sliding out Mediterranean grain bowls by the end of this week with plans to celebrate a grand opening on August 28 at Spark Social," notes Eater.
On its face, the concept actually sounds pretty simple. The co-founders built what's essentially a big, refrigerated shipping container and stuffed it with machines capable of portioning out ingredients, putting those ingredients into bowls, heating the food up, and then moving it to a place where diners can get to it. But in a technical sense, the co-founders say it was quite difficult to work out. Most automated restaurants still require humans in some capacity; maybe people take orders while robots make the food or, vice versa, with automated ordering and humans prepping food behind the scenes. But Mezli can run on its own, serving hundreds of meals without any human staff.
The food does get prepped and pre-cooked off-site by good old-fashioned carbon-based beings. Mezli founding chef Eric Minnich, who previously worked at Traci Des Jardins's the Commissary and at Michelin-starred Madera at Rosewood Sand Hill hotel, says he and a lean team of just two other people can handle all the chopping, mixing, cooking, and portioning at a commissary kitchen. Then, once a day, they load all the menu components into the big blue-and-white Mezli box. Inside the box, there's an oven that either brings the ingredients up to temp or finishes up the last of the cooking. Cutting down on labor marks a key cost-saving measure in the Mezli business model; with just a fraction of the staff, as in less than a half dozen workers, Mezli can serve hundreds of meals. "The fully robot-run restaurant begins taking orders and sliding out Mediterranean grain bowls by the end of this week with plans to celebrate a grand opening on August 28 at Spark Social," notes Eater.
What happens... (Score:1)
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About two years and a few million dollars later ...
Restaurant employees are among the lowest paid jobs. So why would you spend millions of dollars to replace them with robots? That's just fucking stupid.
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Sociopaths
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If you think their plans for it stop there, then, yes - that would be stupid. But it's a proof of concept. They're going to want to sell it to others.
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Yes, at more than a few million dollars.
Those people being sold to would seem to have the same problem as noted in the GP post.
Unless your solution is that *they* should also sell it to someone else?
Re: What happens... (Score:2)
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Can't get enough people to work in some restaurants. San Fran is a particularly awful place to work for bottom-tier wages when cost of living is so high.
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About two years and a few million dollars later ...
Restaurant employees are among the lowest paid jobs. So why would you spend millions of dollars to replace them with robots? That's just fucking stupid.
Because labor can be the largest $$$ cost when you include the cost of managing it.
Re: What happens... (Score:4, Informative)
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...if I don't pay my bill? ...if I walk back into the kitchen and start swiping things from the frige? ...if I push a line cook bot over and make my own burger and casually walk out the door? ...if I harass other customers and take their food?
... if homeless people s**t on the food counter... this being SF and all.
Re:What happens... (Score:4, Funny)
...if I don't pay my bill? ...if I walk back into the kitchen and start swiping things from the frige? ...if I push a line cook bot over and make my own burger and casually walk out the door? ...if I harass other customers and take their food?
Robots goons come out and rough you up.
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Robots goons come out and rough you up.
On the streets of San Francisco? It’s robot fightin’ time.
Probably the same as at Amazon Fresh stores (Score:2)
A real live rather large human security guard who you didn't notice before because he was sitting in an office watching monitors comes to have a quiet "chat" with you.
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They send this after you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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I have a hard time believing the Department of Health would allow something like this to operate without at least one person paying attention to what it's doing.
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You can't tell by looking at a piece of food that it's spoiled (unless it's so far gone stuff is growing on it). You ensure that it isn't by following rules, and computers are better at following rules than humans.
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What else are food safety practices besides following rules? I've never worked in food service but I sure hope it doesn't involve eyeballing a piece of food to see if it looks good.
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OK interesting rant. I'll ask the question again since you didn't answer it. What else are food safety practices besides following rules?
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Since when do 'rules' cover every single gods-be-damned thing that can happen? Rhetorical question, they can't, and so-called 'AI' is garbage software, and if you're producing things that humans are going to ingest then you have to have a sentient being (aka a human) overseeing the process. Period.
If you still don't claim to understand that then you must either be an idiot or a troll, same difference really.
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Well I don't understand why you refuse to answer the question. It's really not a complicated one. But I guess if you don't want to do that, I don't see a productive way to continue the conversation, if you can call it that.
maybe a little click-baitey (Score:4, Informative)
Petty sure they mean to say "staffed" by robots, not RUN by robots. If the staff robots are actually being run by other robots, I promise I'll be very impressed.
I get it... (Score:1)
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Yeah was thinking there are vending machines in Japan that do that final heating too.
Clear that humans are still in no danger of being replaced by robots for restaurants; around me they're having to pay decent wages now after pandemic to get anyone back working.
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Even the wait staff?
Re: I get it... (Score:2)
starting pay at one of my local, rural restaurants is $20/hr in BFE Indiana
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Surprising to hear that. Most wait staff around here makes $2.17-$2.73 per hour plus tips. Same basic salary they've been getting since the 90s, if not the 80s. If tips plus wage don't exceed minimum wage, they make $7.25 per hour to compensate.
Tips are around 80% of their gross. Or more.
Exploits of a Chef (Score:2)
Reminds me of the vending machines they put in at my college. Piss poor design. The engineering students caught on when we noticed there was a 50% chance the bottles on the top shelf would break. There were at least a dozen low tech ways to exploit it.
Nobody cares (Score:3)
Don't say we weren't warned.... (Score:3)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Lol, what? (Score:3)
It's just a vending machine pavilion. We had automats in the 1950s.
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it's an old concept - (Score:4, Insightful)
Obviously all fast food joints automate wherever practical and they constantly search for new ways to cut human costs.
But this concept was best exemplified by the Automat, over 100 years ago. The restaurant had marble floors, tables and exotic architecture, but no visible servers. Customers walked up to a wall of little glass doors and examined the food inside. They would insert a nickel in a slot and turn a knob to open a door and take the food. They carried their food to a table to consume their meal and enjoy some social interaction.
The automat concept began in Europe, but soon the American version with a combination of inspiration and excellent engineering became the largest restaurant chain in the world, though centered mostly in New York City and Philadelphia. And while the food was very affordable, it was also delicious. Quality control was excellent and employees were treated very well. For many hungry immigrants it was a lifesaver during the Great Depression.
I'm in the midst of watching a documentary about the Automat over the internet, compliments of my public library and a service called Kanopy.com . It features remembrances from former customers, executives and employees including Mel Brookes, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and other interesting people. It's a documentary, not much excitement, but if you have trouble sleeping you might check it out.
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Obviously all fast food joints automate wherever practical and they constantly search for new ways to cut human costs.
But this concept was best exemplified by the Automat, over 100 years ago. The restaurant had marble floors, tables and exotic architecture, but no visible servers. Customers walked up to a wall of little glass doors and examined the food inside. They would insert a nickel in a slot and turn a knob to open a door and take the food. They carried their food to a table to consume their meal and enjoy some social interaction.
The automat concept began in Europe, but soon the American version with a combination of inspiration and excellent engineering became the largest restaurant chain in the world, though centered mostly in New York City and Philadelphia. And while the food was very affordable, it was also delicious. Quality control was excellent and employees were treated very well. For many hungry immigrants it was a lifesaver during the Great Depression.
I'm in the midst of watching a documentary about the Automat over the internet, compliments of my public library and a service called Kanopy.com . It features remembrances from former customers, executives and employees including Mel Brookes, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and other interesting people. It's a documentary, not much excitement, but if you have trouble sleeping you might check it out.
Basically you're describing what eventually became the vending machine.
I'd honestly never heard of it before your post and I really don't have to wonder why it died out. People tend to enjoy that bit of human interaction when going out to eat. I've been to restaurants that have a tablet at each table, you order your meal via the tablet, pay with the card machine at the table whilst your food is prepared and served by a human. Seen them once in a while for years but the concept hasn't caught on.
Even as
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"People tend to enjoy that bit of human interaction when going out to eat."
Perhaps you have never seen an old Hollywood movie. Scores of them feature the Automat and in most instances you can see that the experience was VERY social. The difference is significant: it's not about waiters hoping to get tips. It's about ordinary people eating and meeting and getting to know each other.
The Automat was egalitarian, an eating place for immigrants who don't speak English, for stockbrokers, for Broadway performers,
No need to tip then (Score:2)
Having attention for (Score:2)
Re:Having attention for (Score:4, Funny)
>But why should you avoid human contact with a waiter in a restaurant. He is not the enemy.
Ever been to France?
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why should you avoid human contact with a waiter in a restaurant. He is not the enemy.
The waiter isn't the problem, it's the cook. (I won't call them a "chef" automatically.) They are the enemy when they turn ingredients into... whatever they usually do with them. I almost never get better food out than what I can make myself any more. I can't remember the last time I got meat that was cooked correctly.
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why should you avoid human contact with a waiter in a restaurant. He is not the enemy.
The waiter isn't the problem, it's the cook. (I won't call them a "chef" automatically.) They are the enemy when they turn ingredients into... whatever they usually do with them. I almost never get better food out than what I can make myself any more. I can't remember the last time I got meat that was cooked correctly.
Reminds me of the time the wife and I were at a group holiday meal at a presumed upscale place.
She likes her steak cooked the whole way through, But we got a drone that insisted that he was the arbiter of how a steak must be cooked.
Three times it got sent back, finally I think he just took the Bernz-o-Matic torch they use to put the final touch on Baked Alaska, and charred the outside - but it was still red in the middle.
Time for a chat with the manager.
I fear I wasn't very nice. I made certain t
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"fear I wasn't very nice. I made certain that I could be heard by the other customers. I don't yell, but I asked her if that poor mutilated meat was an example of what their cuisine offerings were, and that if they wished, I could instruct their "line cook" in how to cook a steak so that it will be both well done and tender."
"Monsieur, I understand completely. Please - the door is right there. We would be very happy if you were to make use of it."
That, of course, would be the polite answer. Mine would be m
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"fear I wasn't very nice. I made certain that I could be heard by the other customers. I don't yell, but I asked her if that poor mutilated meat was an example of what their cuisine offerings were, and that if they wished, I could instruct their "line cook" in how to cook a steak so that it will be both well done and tender."
"Monsieur, I understand completely. Please - the door is right there. We would be very happy if you were to make use of it."
That, of course, would be the polite answer. Mine would be more like, "Your money doesn't give you the right to be a condescending jackass. Take your money and fuck off. Don't come back."
The western world could do with a lot less of, "The customer is always right."
And I never did go back back. And the groups I had charge or influence of of found different places to have group lunches and dinners. So it was indeed quite a bit of money they lost. But hey - those places don't need money as long as the can tell those uppity customers to fuck off. Well - perhaps not.
What is unfortunate is that altogether too many people don't understand that a complaint is actually a gift. That would include yourself.
If I was the manager or owner of a restaurant, and a customer who was
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"What is unfortunate is that altogether too many people don't understand that a complaint is actually a gift. That would include yourself."
A constructive complaint is a gift. A jackass belittling people, making wild claims of "purposely destroying" the food, and deliberately making a scene is just a jackass, best ejected as soon as possible.
You clearly enjoy lording your position as possessor of the money over others. That's sad.
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"What is unfortunate is that altogether too many people don't understand that a complaint is actually a gift. That would include yourself."
A constructive complaint is a gift. A jackass belittling people, making wild claims of "purposely destroying" the food, and deliberately making a scene is just a jackass, best ejected as soon as possible.
You clearly enjoy lording your position as possessor of the money over others. That's sad.
You prove my position all over again. You can't even read properly. The last time the steak came out - after the third time, it was not edible. The outside was charcoal, while the inside was red. I wrote: "Three times it got sent back, finally I think he just took the Bernz-o-Matic torch they use to put the final touch on Baked Alaska, and charred the outside - but it was still red in the middle."
Your idea that I was just supposed to accept the "chef's" little revenge on the person who dared to complain
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Certain cuts of meat should never be "cooked the whole way through". My step-father orders a tender cut and demands it that way, when there is a cut on the menu right next to it that should be cooked that way. Then he bitches they under cook it. Order the correct cut for that cooking method and you'll get what you want. Some people are just idiots about meat. I love the people who cry when they see "blood". It isn't blood.
The only way to cook something guy just showed up.
I've seen this Ford versus Chevy attitude at work cookouts. Salt, do not salt, Pepper, never pepper. Crosshatch grid marks, never turn the steak more than once. Light sear on the outside, burn the outside, cold inside. Then they argue and claim that anyone who doesn't cook it their way is destroying the meat.
I laugh, and trim off a piece of raw steak and eat it. They look at me like I'm a vampire or something.
That's the thing. I've eaten steak over
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A waiter may not be the enemy. But these days it's quite possible they are not an ally or asset either. Lots of restaurants, it seems, have used COVID as an excuse to cut costs by drastically reducing their standards of customer service. At a restaurant this last weekend, I had to ask three times over the course of 20 minutes just to get our check so we could pay and leave. And that was just the *last* bit of rudeness and poor service there. I'd have LOVED to have one of those on-table terminals for ord
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But why should you avoid human contact with a waiter in a restaurant.
For cheaper food? If a meal is 7 bucks vs 13, and probably faster too, the only thing the restaurant is offering me is seating.
Which is it? (Score:1)
It's a way to get fresh food to a lot of people
The food does get prepped and pre-cooked off-site
How is this different from, or better than a microwaved meal from a convenience store?
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How is this different from, or better than a microwaved meal from a convenience store?
It's got millions and millions of venture capital dollars behind it.
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It's not microwaved.
Is this like that restaurant in The X-Files? (Score:2)
A complex vending machine (Score:3)
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Yes, but have you ordered ice cream from McDonalds?
Welcome (Score:2)
Tech needs tech support (Score:2)
Automat (Score:2)
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The Automat was a great thing. But as a child eating at one of these, I was very disappointed that on the other side of the wall of food compartments were a bunch of people making food and putting it into the coin-operated compartments. Nor automatic at all. What a ripoff!
A restaurant (Score:2)
I'd never patronize.
Of, by, and for (Score:2)
The first restaurant of, by, and for robots. The first robot customers complained that the salad dressing was 20W-40, when they had ordered 0W-20.
Not a full restaurant (Score:2)
According to the summary:
"The food does get prepped and pre-cooked off-site by good old-fashioned carbon-based beings."
So this thing has hoppers full of ingredients and puts them in a bowl, heats it and gives it to customers. Cost a couple of million? Hmm. Nope.
Minimum wage is a subsidy for robotics. (Score:1)
I would have focused on Pizza (Score:2)
Not New, Just a Scam (Score:2)
This isn't new. It's essentially a vending machine cafeteria of the type that were common in the 30s thru 50s. It's just been dressed up a bit so the founders can claim it's "Tech" so they can rake in VC $ before eventually doing a rugpull when it turns out to be both expensive to operate and low quality in food leading to an unprofitable level of sales. I'd love to check back in on this company in 36 months time.