In addition to feeding you, the Brooklyn Dumpling Shop wants to create a “zero human interaction” experience. And as Restaurant Business reports today, the company is removing at least one human from its equation by bringing on Miso Robotics’ Flippy to work in its kitchen.
Brooklyn Dumpling Shop (BDS) co-founder Stratis Morfogen told Restaurant Business, “Miso is executing the full kitchen operation, which will be available in the third quarter 2021. Until then we will be using countertop portable versions in Q1 of 2021.”
What Morfogen seems to be referring to there is that eventually his company will install Flippy ROARs, which run on rails above the fry station. For now, his store will use the ground-based versions.
The Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, which is slated to open its first location in December (and, confusingly, in Manhattan), is bringing back the old Automat concept. Customers will order their meals via a kiosk or mobile app. Once ready, BDS stores each order in its own a temperature-controlled locker until the customer arrives to retrieve it.
The timing is certainly right when it come to having fewer humans involved in the preparation of your restaurant food. The COVID-19 pandemic is more widespread than ever and causing another round of restaurant dining room closures. Creating a restaurant where you don’t have to interact with another person helps reduce the vectors of human-to-human transmission of the virus.
Robots like Flippy are also finding accelerated interest from restaurants because they can work around the clock, don’t get sick and can create more social distance for employees inside a kitchen. White Castle recently announced it was adding ten more Flippys to its roster after an initial pilot earlier this year.
For BDS, the addition of Flippy plays into a bigger expansion plans for the company. As Restaurant Business wrote in today’s post, Brooklyn Dumpling Shop also signed a deal with Fransmart to franchise the brand with the possibility of adding 1,000 locations across North America.
Leave a Reply