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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Coronavirus

The Spoon team is working hard to bring you the latest on the impact of COVID-19. Bookmark this page for our full archive on the pandemic and how the food industry is embracing innovation to fight back.

On April 6th, The Spoon had a full day virtual summit on COVID-19 strategies for food & restaurants. You can watch all the sessions from our virtual strategy summit here.

You can also check out this COVID-19 resource page for food and restaurant industry.

Paytronix Raises $10M for Its Restaurant Guest Management Platform

Restaurant guest management platform Paytronix Systems announced today it had raised a $10 million round of fresh funding. The round was led by Great Hill Partners and Paytronix cofounders Matt d’Arbeloff and Andrew Robbins, according to a press release sent to The Spoon. This brings Paytronix’ total funding to $75 million.

The company said the funding is “designed to ensure that Paytronix is on sound financial footing and will continue to provide its restaurant, convenience-store, grocery, and retail clients with the communications tools necessary during this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.” 

The Paytronix platform offers a number of different solutions restaurants can add to their tech stacks, including loyalty program capabilities, custom mobile apps, messaging, and data analytics. Its software integrates with most of the major POS systems, and the company counts California Pizza Kitchen, Bloomin’ Brands, and restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You among its clients. 

Many of those brands, not to mention independent restaurants, are feeling the strain imposed by COVID-19 and the accompanying dining room shutdowns. And while we’ve called into question the value of certain restaurant tech solutions at a time when businesses need to cut back to necessary tools only, what we can count on is that some tech will be necessary for restaurants to both survive the pandemic and function once the world settles into its new normal.

Paytronix — whose website actually reads “slim down your tech stack — recently released a number of features that seem geared towards that particular approach to restaurant tech. The company now offers an online ordering platform that integrates with both POS systems and third-party delivery platforms. Even more important in these pandemic times, restaurants can now set up touchless payments through Google Wallet and Apple Pay integrations. 

Contactless payments, in particular, will be an important technology for restaurants of all sizes going forward. Bo Peabody, who sits on the task force that created the reopening guidelines for the state of Georgia’s restaurants, recently told me that it’s one of the most important pieces of tech a restaurant should consider right now. He went as far as to say that by the end of next year, “putting your credit card down will be a thing of the past.”  

Whether or not that will actually happen, we’re likely going to see many more guidelines around restaurant reopenings for the rest of the year, some of them focused on the most useful technology businesses can implement in this weird, uncertain time. Patyronix, with this new round, looks to be positioning itself as close to the center of that usefulness as it can get.

California Launches Meal Delivery Program to Feed Seniors and Aid Restaurants

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Friday the “Restaurants Deliver: Home Meals for Seniors” program, aimed at feeding vulnerable senior citizens while simultaneously giving more business to restaurants and their workers.

The meal delivery program, which is in partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has two purposes, according to the state of California website:

  1. Help older and other adults at high risk from COVID-19 to stay home and stay healthy by delivering three nutritious meals a day, and
  2. Provide essential economic stimulus to local businesses and workers struggling to stay afloat during the COVID crisis.

The program is effective immediately. It will reimburse participating restaurants for three meals per day: up to $16 for breakfast, $17 for lunch, and $28 for dinner.  

Gov. Newsom noted in a press conference at the end of last week that the program is aimed specifically at independent restaurants that are struggling or that have been forced to close because of the pandemic. “We want to get a lot of independent restaurants up and running again,” he said.

Participating restaurants will be selected by local governments. Their meals must adhere to certain nutritional guidelines and, ideally, use locally sourced ingredients.

Across the U.S. restaurant transactions are down and at least 3 percent of restaurants have permanently closed their doors. Those that remain open are exploring other lines of business in order to survive and keep at least some staff employed. Some restaurants are selling groceries. Others have pivoted entirely away from food and are paying employees to sew masks.

The program is the first in the U.S. dedicated specifically to senior citizens impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. World Central Kitchen has a similar initiative in place in the U.S. and is working with restaurants to deliver meals to both seniors and communities in need.

California’s program will serve millions of seniors living in isolation at this time. Those interested can enter their location at 211.org to see if they qualify.

A Peek Into the Tech That Could Power Next Week’s Restaurant Re-openings

As you’ve already heard by now, some U.S. states — notably Georgia and South Carolina — are set to relax their quarantine rules and allow certain non-essential businesses to reopen next week. That includes restaurant dining rooms. We’ve already made some predictions about what those dining rooms will look like, and this week, I got some more intel from tech entrepreneur Bo Peabody, who is on the task force that helped create the reopening guidelines for Georgia restaurants. 

Peabody is also the co-founder and chairman of Seated as well as a board member of Boqueria Restaurants and a longtime industry vet. Over the phone this week, he talked through many of the guidelines created by the Georgia task force, which also had involvement from The National Restaurant Association. (You can read The Association’s full guidelines here.)

While many of those guidelines are around implementing social distancing and stricter health practices, Peabody suggested technology also plays a key role. That includes everything from using a text to let people know when their table is ready to implementing digital menus and contactless payment systems. 

“We suggest embracing technology wherever you can,” says Peabody, though he admits tech is “a tough one” in terms of a task for restaurants. In particular, contactless payments will prove challenging for many operators. “We suggested contactless payments if you have that in your restaurant. But most restaurants don’t have that technology,” he said.

Contactless payments take many forms. They can happen through an order-ahead system, at a tabletop kiosk, or with a handheld device a la Starbucks. The common denominator in all these technologies is that they eliminate the need for a customer to hand a credit card to a server and vice versa.

‘We’ve been behind in this country at pay at the table,” said Peabody. And to implement any new technology, restaurants need time and money, two things in short supply these days. While restaurant tech companies have been waiving and reducing some costs, restaurants large and small are just busy trying to keep the lights on right now.

One solution could be QR codes. Peabody describes this as every POS company adding the ability for restaurants to include a QR code on the check. When the server brings the bill, the customer can simply scan the QR code with their own phone to pay for their meal. Ideally, the server would be able to split a check multiple ways, just as they can with credit card payments. 

He says that Toast is currently rolling out such a system, and that others may do the same soon. In fact, he goes as far as to suggest that by the end of next year, “putting your credit card down will be a thing of the past.”

And while contactless payments will be a challenge until that day, mobile ordering might be even trickier for many restaurants to implement. While we’re quick to praise the efficiency of mobile order systems offered by massive chains like Chipotle and Starbucks, the reality is that those apps cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop.

Peabody recommends solving the contactless payments issue before trying to tackle mobile ordering.

Even for those that do look to mobile ordering, developing an expensive in-house solution won’t make sense for most restaurants. A more likely scenario, he says, is that customers will start using apps provided by POS vendors, reservations companies, or even credit card companies to pay for meals. 

Before any of that happens, though, we have to actually reopen restaurants. Georgia’s plan for next week will give us some clues. For example, the success or failure of the reopening may give intel into whether we’re putting enough emphasis on basic safety precautions.

It’s also important to note that not every restaurant in Georgia is going to open next week. “For the most part the bigger operators in Atlanta are not going to open on Monday,” says Peabody. “Outside of Atlanta I think you’re going to see a lot more opening. The pressure to open will mount on everybody in Georgia as the days go on.”

Even so, Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A has already said it will “take additional time” before reopening. Nationwide, Starbucks said its re-openings will be “gradual” and that some stores may just continue as off-premises-focused locations. TGI Fridays has also said it will sit out on this initial reopening phase. 

Finally, let’s not forget that experts have warned it is too soon to relax shelter-in-place measures, so it’s entirely possible restaurants that choose to open will face some massive health risks for their workers. If that’s the case, tech may need to take a seat even further in the back.

Peabody believes that long term, more good than not will come in terms of the new developments restaurants have been forced to adopt during this time, technology and otherwise. In the meantime, as Peabody says, “What’s going to happen in Georgia is a dress rehearsal for the country.”

Bear Robotics CEO on the Role of Restaurant Server Robots in a COVID (and Beyond) World

For the past couple of years, robots were the shiny new object for restaurants. They could automate cooking, serving and delivering food, and even wash the dishes when all was said and done. But last year’s robots were still first generation tech and more of a novelty as the restaurant industry figured out the cultural and economic costs and benefits of automation.

Then COVID-19 came along and the world turned upside down. Restaurants that haven’t shut down permanently are looking to see what socially distant changes will be mandated in order for them to reopen. With their inability to get sick, robots could move from a novelty in restaurants to a necessity.

To see if there’s been a increase in robot interest from the restaurant industry, I checked in with John Ha, Founder and CEO of Bear Robotics. Bear is the company behind Penny, the autonomous front of house robot that can bring food to tables and carry empty plates back to be cleaned.

“Interest is going up a lot,” Ha said about incoming inquiries of his robot. “Before COVID, [restaurant] operators loved our robots, but employees were fifty-fifty, and customers didn’t really care. Now the changes that I see are on the customer side.”

The changes he’s talking about are what concerns customers now have. Before they didn’t care about the robot because they were most interested in the food. But in a pandemic world, customers now want to know who has touched their food and the cleanliness of those hands.

“People come back for the food before, now people are going to pick the restaurant they can trust,” Ha said. “People want less contact in the restaurant.”

Robots are a way of providing one less point of human contact. Kitchen staff can load up the robot tray and the robot then drives itself to its table destination to bring people their order. But then it actually gets a little complicated. When it comes to moving the food off the robot and onto the table, as Ha explained. “Should we allow customers to pick up the food? There’s danger involved with that as well.” It’s not hard to imagine, for example, a customer dropping a bowl of scalding soup as they lifted it off the robot.

“But would you want the servers to touch the food?” Ha continued. “They can’t wash their hands every minute, and even if they could, how do you know?”

One thing Ha does know is that the next version of Penny will be easier to clean. “The next version much easier to clean and food contact safe,” said Ha, “From the materials to design.”

Sterilization is going to play an increasingly important role in food robotics, and could become one of its biggest selling points. It’s much easier to wipe down a robot than it is to constantly monitor all your employees for any sign of illness.

Then there is the question of what do restaurant customers want to interact with? Restaurants in California will reportedly need to have servers wear gloves and masks. Which is less threatening to a customer, a masked human or a robot?

I don’t know. We’re all figuring this out in real time, and robots may not be the answer for every restaurant. “Adopting a robot is an intrusive change for the restaurant,” Ha said. “They have to redefine the workflow for expediters, servers, bussers.”

Despite all that, in a world wary of human contact, robotics could solve at least part of the meal journey puzzle. As Ha noted “Now it’s something everyone will consider.”

Waste Free! Loop Expands Reusable Packaging Program Throughout the U.S.

With the coronavirus pandemic forcing me to order more things than ever online — from groceries to toiletries to fancy dried beans — I’m accruing quite a lot of single-use packaging at my house. And I feel bad about it.

Maybe I’ll soon be able to assuage some of that guilt when Loop, the reusable packaging service, expands nationwide over the next few months (tip via Fast Company). Loop, an initiative from recycling company Terracycle, sells name-brand CPG products directly to consumers that are packaged in reusable containers made from metal and glass. After the consumers use them up, they put the empty containers back in the tote they came in and Loop picks them up to be sterilized and refilled.

Loop launched in the U.S. last May with a pilot program in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. According to an Instagram post from the company, Loop will roll out its reusable-container service across the contiguous U.S. sometime this summer. Globally, Loop is available in Paris and has plans to head to Canada, Germany, Japan, and the U.K. this year.

At launch Loop already had a roster of big-name partners like Kroger, Pepsi, Nestlé, and Walgreens. The platform has expanded to include roughly 200 products, including plant-based burgers and ice cream from Häagen-Dazs (my personal favorite).

I know what you’re thinking — during a pandemic when we’re all anxious about contamination, are we really going to be okay with receiving groceries packed in containers that someone else has already used? Especially since bring-your-own mugs and reusable totes in retailers are becoming a thing of the past?

Loop’s CEO certainly thinks so. He told Fast Company that Loop has seen evidence that “consumers are comfortable with reuse during COVID.” Since Loop has a reuse protocol in place — with stringent cleaning measures and pre-established health and safety checklists — he’s confident that they’ll be able to continue their closed-loop packaging practice without putting users at risk.

If users are comfortable with this, Loop’s extended platform could be a real help to cut down on our persistent packaging problem. Even if your delivery boxes are technically recyclable, COVID-19 is causing challenges for the waste management industry as a whole. Many packaging elements — like styrofoam and ice packs — aren’t recyclable anyway. Considering that the EPA reported that over 32 million tons of packaging and containers went into landfills in 2017 — almost a quarter of the total waste from the entire year — this is an issue we need to take seriously.

Today is Earth Day, so there’s no better time to take a moment and consider how we can help preserve our planet. Come this summer I know one small step that I’ll be taking cut down on the amount of packaging I’m tossing out. Bonus: I still get to enjoy my chocolate-fudge ice cream.

Indian Delivery Service Swiggy Will Cut Jobs and Scale Back Its Ghost Kitchen Division

Swiggy, one of India’s largest food delivery services, says it plans to cut about 1,000 jobs as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreck havoc on the global economy, according to Indian news outlet Entrackr. The layoffs are set to happen next month and will mostly impact the company’s ghost kitchen division.

The announcement comes just weeks after Swiggy announced a $43 million fundraise as part of an ongoing Series I round. The company is currently valued at $1.42 billion.

But unicorn status is no match for a pandemic, which has put India’s population of 1.3 billion on lockdown and gravely impacted businesses. Swiggy as well as its chief rival Zomato have both seen a drop in the number of daily orders they fulfill. Some cities in India — namely Telangana — have outright banned food delivery for the time in order to prevent further spread of the coronavirus. Entracker also noted that the Indian government is advising ghost kitchens to operate with half their workforce.

A Swiggy spokesperson said measures to deal with all these factors include renegotiating contracts with landlords, relocating some kitchens, and shutting down others. “As the lockdown gets further extended, we are evaluating various means to stay nimble and focused on growth and profitability across our kitchens.” 

Delivery services, restaurant tech companies, and restaurants themselves are all feeling the economic strain imposed by country-wide lockdowns, and layoffs are becoming more commonplace each week. In the last week alone, Yelp laid off 1,000 staff and furloughed others, Sweetgreen cut 10 percent of its HQ staff, and restaurants left and right have laid off or furloughed employees as dining rooms remain closed all over the world.

You would think ghost kitchens, which cater specifically to off-premises orders, would be a booming business right now. But Swiggy’s layoffs also underscore an important point: that ghost kitchens are superfluous to operations unless you have the customer demand to justify them. At last check, Swiggy had ghost kitchens in 14 cities across India.

The company is currently in the process of shutting down around half its ghost kitchens. Meanwhile, the company expects more layoffs — possibly up to 40 percent of staff — in this division to follow in the future.

New Data Tells Us What We Already Knew: Delivery Won’t Save Independent Restaurants

Only 1 in 5 restaurant owners believe with certainty that they’ll survive the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new survey data from the James Beard Foundation and the Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC). 

Since the pandemic broke out and states mandated dining room shutdowns, IRC and the James Beard Foundation have been polling chefs and restaurant owners. A total of 1,4000 owners from mostly small and/or independent restaurants responded to the latest survey, which closed last week on April 13.

“The data is clear: The Paycheck Protection Program isn’t working as designed for restaurants and Congress needs to fix it,” Clare Reichenbach, CEO of the James Beard Foundation, said in the survey announcement. 

Some of that data includes:

  • Nearly 80 percent of independent restaurant owners said that government stimulus assistance won’t save businesses from shuttering permanently.
  • Over 38 percent of respondents said they have closed temporarily or “potentially permanently.”
  • Over 77 percent said they have seen at least a 50 percent reduction in sales. 
  • More than 5 in 10 restaurant owners estimated needing $100,000 or less over the next quarter to remain viable to reopening.

Some argue that delivery and off-premises orders are vital to restaurants’ survival during this time and indeed one of the only lifelines businesses have while dining rooms remain shuttered. None of that is untrue. It’s just that said lifeline provided by delivery and takeout isn’t as helpful as some folks — usually delivery companies and delivery integrators — make it out to be. 

Case in point: two-thirds of restaurants surveyed by the IRC and James Beard are “uncertain” that off-premises can sustain their business until they reopen. 

“Staying open is going to require a rethinking of our business models,” said IRC founding member Kwame Onwuachi.

Rethinking business models so that they’re geared towards delivery and takeout models means not just having the cash to pay the commission fees third-party delivery services charge (which only some services are currently waiving). It also requires an operational overhaul and retraining of staff, while simultaneously trying to keep everyone safe and maintain high cleaning standards.

Some restaurants are visibly struggling to even offer takeout meals efficiently. Others have closed up shop entirely for the time being, citing concerns over workers’ health. And, to beat a dead horse for the hundredth time this month, the fees lobbed at restaurants by third-party delivery services can go as high as 40 percent per transaction. As one restaurant owner told me, delivery doesn’t make money, at least not for the bulk of independent restaurants. 

So what do we do?

Average consumers can jump online and contribute to relief funds and charities for restaurants, and order directly from restaurants for pickup. Really, though, this is one problem tech can’t solve. As IRC and James Beard note, the industry, and especially independent businesses, need adjustments made to the PPP loan program and probably much more. 

Amazon Gets Approval for Its Deliveroo Investment Thanks to the Pandemic

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) provisionally approved Amazon’s investment in Deliveroo over the weekend after Deliveroo warned its business could collapse without the funds. The third-party delivery service cited the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced many restaurants worldwide to close, as the reason for “significant decline in revenues,” according to a statement from the CMA.

Deliveroo announced a $575 million Series G funding round in May of 2019 — of which Amazon was set to be the largest investor. In July of that year, the CMA put Amazon’s involvement under scrutiny, saying there were “reasonable grounds” the two companies would “cease to be distinct” with the investment.

As I wrote in December, when the investigation entered Phase 2:

As regulators have stressed, the Deliveroo investment would give Amazon a path back into the market and immediate access to Deliveroo’s existing customer base. That in turn would undercut competition from other food delivery services in the UK such as Uber Eats and Just Eat. 

The ongoing pandemic coupled with the restaurant industry fallout has changed that. Many of the restaurants Deliveroo previously worked with have closed. That includes major QSR chains like McDonald’s and Burger King, have stopped all operations including delivery and takeout, in the UK.

In its announcement, the CMA said “it has become clear that the coronavirus pandemic is having a significant negative impact on Deliveroo’s business” and has “provisionally concluded that Deliveroo’s exit from the market would be inevitable without access to significant additional funding, which the CMA considers that only Amazon would be willing and able to provide at this time.”

The CMA is currently taking views on its findings until May 11 2020, and has until June 11 2020 to make a final decision. 

Should All Grocery Stores Shift to Delivery and Pickup Only?

It’s been nice to see public sentiment towards grocery workers catch up to the reality of their situation. Grocery workers are on the frontlines of this pandemic, putting themselves at risk to stock shelves, work cash registers and bag groceries to keep stores open and people fed.

But despite new measures like social distancing, limiting the number of customers in-store, and plexiglass shields at checkout, at least 30 grocery store workers have died from COVID-19, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW). Another 3,000 have called in sick with coronavirus-like symptoms. As the virus continues to wreak havoc in the U.S., both Grocery Dive and more recently CNN have written pieces asking whether it’s time to close grocery stores to the public and shift them all to delivery and pickup only.

Some stores are already doing this. Whole Foods is converting some of its locations to e-commerce fulfillment only. Amazon was supposed to debut its first full-on grocery store in Woodland Hills, CA last month, but has instead opened it only for online grocery and fulfillment. Kroger has done the same with at least one of its locations in Cincinnati.

Closing grocery stores would definitely help protect grocery workers by limiting their interaction with the public. And as we’ve written about before, warehouse type stores can also benefit shoppers because only grocery store workers, not other people, would interact with the food items.

But closing grocery stores to in-store shoppers on a massive scale just isn’t realistic right now. Grocery retailers are having a hard enough time dealing with the sudden rush in e-commerce, struggling to keep up with demand for delivery and curbside pickup. My local grocery chain doesn’t even have e-commerce, and has been working furiously to build that offering. Even the biggest retailers like Amazon are waitlisting new grocery shoppers, while ShopRite creates virtual waiting rooms before people can actually buy items.

Then there is also the question of who has access to online shopping. Just like the debate around cashierless checkout, the idea of moving everyone over to e-commerce seems to gloss over the large populations of people who are underbanked or don’t have consistently reliable online access. How would they shop?

We are living in complicated and scary times and there are no easy answers, especially as it relates to getting our food. We should be doing all we can to protect grocery store workers, and converting stores to online only would certainly help do that. But from a technological or even logistical standpoint, that just doesn’t seem possible right now.

Curbside Bots and Contactless Everything: What the Post-Pandemic Restaurant Will Look Like

Even an introverted work-from-home veteran like me is starting to get kind of daffy during this here quarantine. But I will say that being stuck at home has given me a lot of time to think (and write) about the state of the restaurant industry, and I catch myself imagining what eating out will be like once we’re past this pandemic. So when Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson posted a letter this week to employees about the chain’s future, it caught my attention.

In his letter, Johnson more or less said the chain is planning to reopen some of its locations and outlined a plan for doing so. To be clear: Johnson uses the words “open” and “reopen” several times in the text, but at no point promised that your local Starbucks will reopen overnight with the usual setup and operations that existed before the pandemic. 

Which is why I’m singling out Starbucks in the first place. As an international chain that has already dealt with this recovery process overseas, and as a leader in digital business and operations, Starbucks’ plans for reopening stores give us a good hint of what we can expect restaurants to look like once the process of opening the economy begins.

Pulling from Johnson’s letter as well as numerous statements and activities from other restaurants, tech companies, and governments, we put together some predictions for what the post-pandemic restaurant experience might entail.

Note that most of these predictions are around operations and the customer experience. There are a host of other issues, from labor to food waste, I’ll be unpacking those over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

More space, fewer tables. This is less prediction and more fact, with public figures like California Governor Gavin Newsom saying restaurants will have more space between tables and fewer seats, to ensure social distancing when eating out. Separately, the WSJ noted that restaurant chains may operate at half capacity going forward, and include things like plexiglass shields between booths. That could also spell the end of buffet-style dining and family-style seating. Golden Corral, that bastion of all buffet restaurants, has closed all units for the time being. Even before state-mandated shutdowns, other businesses were nixing community seating. And grocery stores are closing down hot bars.

Lots more mobile payments. Some restaurants are already pushing customers to use their mobile apps to order and pay for food, eliminating the need to touch a kiosk or swipe a credit card. Granted, you have to have a well-designed, easy-to-use app in order to do this, which means we’ll see a surge in smaller restaurant chains developing and/or improving their own mobile experiences for customers, whether in-house or through a third-party service. I expect we’ll also see an uptick in mobile-only locations (though it’ll vary based on state laws around cashless businesses).

Curbside delivery for all. Curbside pickup was once the territory of Sonic and the odd McDonald’s location. With dining rooms shuttered these last few weeks, restaurants have had to find other ways of bringing food out. And since not all of them have been equipped with drive-thru, curbside pickup has become the default option for many. This is one of the methods Starbucks has put into practice over the last few weeks, in some cases even taking it a step further to offer “entryway pickup” for locations without parking lots.

Contactless everything. “Contactless delivery” barely existed as a phrase before China implemented it during the peak of its fight against the novel coronavirus. Now, everyone from Instacart to Pizza Hut offers it, and I doubt we’ll revert back to the old way of handing goods off between courier and customer. For contactless to live up to its name, though, brands need to think about the technical logistics behind the operation. Restaurants’ online order systems need to have the option built right into the checkout process. They should consider providing additional features, such as push notifications to alert customers when and where their order is ready. Contactless will stick around permanently for delivery and curbside orders and, when companies figure out how, probably for in-store purchases, too.

More drive-thru lanes. Austin, TX-based chain Torchy’s Tacos explained to me recently that once the chain was forced to shut down dining rooms, it quickly opened drive-thru windows in locations that had always had the feature but had never utilized it. Many restaurants set up shop in locations that were once a Wendy’s or other fast-food chain. If they haven’t already, they could utilize that space to start offering drive-thru on the regular to customers.   

Gloves and face masks for workers. Restaurants I’ve spoken with over the last couple weeks are quick to emphasize the steps they are taking to protect both customers and workers when it comes to health. Gloves and face masks nearly always come up in that conversation. They’re also part of Gov. Newsom’s plan for restaurants, and will definitely make their way into other states’ frameworks for reopening business.

Robot staff.  Having said that, though, some might just opt for robots when it comes to who’s going to handle your food. My colleague Chris Albrecht recently pointed out that dining customers might prefer “the cold sterility of a robot” to a server wearing a face mask and gloves. Robots, of course, bring up the whole loss of human jobs angle. However, as Chris notes, with fears around the virus and human-to-human contact unlikely to subside for some time, for those restaurants that can afford it, robots might be an appetizing option, at least where city laws permit. Somehow I think they would come in especially handy for running curbside orders to cars.

Okay, wait a minute. Does all this mean my future restaurant experience will involve ordering food ahead of time via an app, then waiting at a plexiglass-encased table for a wheeled bot to roll up with my burger? That sounds lonelier than a month in quarantine.

I doubt it comes to that scenario, though. The COVID-19 situation changes daily, which mean so do expectations about what restaurants will look like when the economy reopens. Maybe all of these predictions will come true. Possibly none of them will. The most likely scenario is that a few of them, like curbside pickup and mobile payments, will become industry standards, and restaurants will use a mixture of the others based on time, money, and customer volume. As states begin discussions around reopening the economy and more chains like Starbucks start outlining their plans, we’ll get a clearer picture of what to expect in the the post-pandemic restaurant experience.

Thanks to Tech, Restaurant Employees Are Accessing Earnings Faster

One area that’s part of any good discussion about the future of the restaurant concerns employees — that is, the servers, baristas, drivers, managers, and others who make up the backbone of the industry.

How they get paid is something that’s fast changing as the industry grapples with dining room closures, mass layoffs, furloughs, and general economic tension. This week, we wrote about Domino’s teaming up with challenger bank Branch to offer employees instant access to their earnings via the Branch app.

Branch is one of a few apps out there that lets hourly workers — who often live paycheck to paycheck — get faster access to much-needed cashflow. DailyPay, which we’ve written about before, is another popular one.

I see an uptick in restaurants making it possible for employees to use these types of apps in future. As everything in the previous section of this newsletter suggests, the restaurant model is rapidly changing, and it’s hard to guess now which formats are most likely to be around next week, next month, or even next year. That means it’s also hard to predict how many people a restaurant will need on staff, and how many hours those individuals can work.

With so many questions up in the air, the least restaurants can do is integrate with one of these apps to get their employees paid faster.

Report: Sweetgreen Lays Off 10% of HQ Staff

It’s confirmed: The COVID-19 pandemic has forced tech-forward fresh food restaurant chain Sweetgreen to reduce headcount.

According to a report on LA-centric new site dot.LA, the company is laying off approximately 10% of its 350 person HQ staff.

The Spoon was the first to report of potential layoffs a couple of weeks ago when I got wind of some reductions-in-force whispers and had confirmed the departure of the company’s head of automation Derek Pietz and director of engineering Ken Cottle. With this news, Dot.LA was able to confirm that the layoffs were much broader than just the tech team and started in late March. From the report:

“Dozens of terminated workers were read a pre-written script at the end of last month and were then logged-out of their Slack and email accounts. “They blindsided us and they weren’t transparent,” said a former employee, who declined to be identified because Sweetgreen made him sign a nondisclosure agreement. “It was disappointing to have five years of the company end like that.”

It’s too soon to tell what things will look like on the other side of the pandemic. Sweetgreen, like many restaurants, has pivoted to help where they can, but also has had to halt parts of their normal operations. The company, which raised $150 million in fresh funding last fall, is likely paring back to lower its cash burn rate.

We’ll continue to keep an eye on this story as it unfolds.

As It Turns Out, Italians Are Making Lots More Bread (and Pasta) Too During Quarantine

Here in the States, there’s been lots of talk about how we’ve become a nation of bread bakers with the arrival of quarantine life.

As it turns out, bread baking is an international phenomenon. In a recent Medium post by the CookPad team, they analyze recipe usage data from their Italy team to show how interest in bread making has spiked in the Bel Paese an order of magnitude higher than before the pandemic.

According to the data, interest in the recipe for “pane di grano duro” (which translates to ‘durum wheat bread’ in English) jumped 12-fold, garnering more views during the lockdown than the entire top 10 recipe list did pre-lockdown.

Image Credit: CookPad

And also much like the States, Italians are also seeking comfort through food. Views for ice cream, torta, and fried rice balls were way up. And this being Italy, it should be of no surprise that pasta-making saw a huge increase: Fettuccine saw over a 700% jump in interest in during quarantine.

Italians are also sharing what they are making online too. According to Cookpad, “cooksnaps” (where cooks take photos of their creations) have jumped 3-fold in the app.

I guess it shouldn’t be any surprise that Italians (and Brits, Canadians and pretty much everyone else) are baking more bread and cooking more in general. The big question is what all this forced-home cooking will do to behavior in the long term and what it means for different participants in the food and cooking ecosystem. It will be a couple of years before we can gauge the staying power of new habits learned during this time, but my guess is all of this quarantine cooking is, at the very least, giving some of us skills that can better equip for life.