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Restaurants Are ‘Always Blamed’ When It Comes to Bad Delivery. Here’s How Tech Can Help

Who is responsible when something goes wrong with delivery?

A succinct-yet-apt answer to that question recently came from fast casual chain Wow Bao’s President and CEO Geoff Alexander, who spoke at The Spoon’s Restaurant Tech Summit this week: “As the restaurant brand, you are always blamed.”

If you’ve ordered via third-party delivery with any frequency, you’ve likely dealt with the following scenario: The order is late or does not arrive. The customer calls the delivery service and gets an automated response. The customer calls the restaurant itself, who may not know where the food is because it left the the building ages ago. If and when the meal finally arrives at the consumer’s door, it will be cold, soggy, dry, or all of the above. It’s usually not DoorDash, Uber Eats, or any other delivery service that gets blamed for these problems. 

By way of example during the event, Alexander brought up Fargo, North Dakota, where Wow Bao operates one of its dark kitchen locations. For these kitchens, other restaurants cook some of the Wow Bao brand’s signature items and sell them on the usual third-party delivery channels as a way to make incremental revenue. Wow Bao has about 350 dark kitchen locations around the country right now, with a “moonshot goal” of reaching 1,000 by the end of the year. 

Brand integrity is always something to watch for with these kitchens. “When an issue happens there, it’s not Wow Bao,” Alexander explained at the event. “It’s somebody running one of our dark kitchens. And [the food is] delivered via one of three or four delivery platforms. I get the phone call. Wow Bao corporate gets the phone call, we get hit on Instagram or social or Google Reviews. That whole brand transfer hast to be the most guarded and respected piece by the brand itself and by the operator to work together. At the end of the day, the way that guest is handled is what’s going to decide if the guest is going to come back and who they’re gonna tell.”

As to how tech can help restaurants guard this brand transfer, the other panelists pointed to tools that can optimize operations. Ava Ghaiumy, Delivery Hero’s regional director for global foodservice operations, pointed out that there is “almost no bigger KPI than speed.” Her company, which is investing heavily in various tech initiatives, is working on things like improved dispatching and rider-tracking features that can help with speed of service when it comes to delivery.  

Olo’s Marty Hahnfeld, who was also on the panel, said it’s all about “precision in operations.” That includes improving order accuracy, making sure menus are up to date across all ordering channels at all times, and that pricing is correct on those channels as well. Olo offers its Dispatch service that allows restaurants to order directly from a restaurant’s own website or mobile app. Though in most cases, there is still a reliance on third-party delivery to handle the last mile.

At the end of the day. the most important technology to keeping brand integrity intact may be one that’s been around for quite some time: the POS integration.

Such an integration connects, among other things a restaurant’s main POS system with the many different channels through which customers buy meals nowadays, including third-party delivery. Whereas in the old days (two years ago), delivery services provided an external tablet and restaurant staff manually key’d in orders to the main POS system, more restaurants are now directly connecting delivery to that main system. Panelists were unanimous in their belief that this is an extremely important technology when it comes to improving order accuracy, timing, and a generally smoother experience for everyone.  

Apeel Raises $250 Million to Accelerate Its Fight Against Food Waste

Apeel, best known for its shelf-life-extension technology for produce, has raised a $250 million Series E round of funding led by Temasek.

Additional participants include Mirae Asset Global Investments, GIC, Viking Global Investors, Disruptive, Andreessen Horowitz, Tenere Capital, Sweetwater Private Equity, Tao Capital Partners, K3 Ventures, David Barber of Almanac Insights, Michael Ovitz of Creative Artists Agency, Anne Wojcicki of 23andMe, Susan Wojcicki of YouTube, and Katy Perry. The round brings Apeel’s total funding to date to over $635 million, according to a press release sent to The Spoon. 

The company’s food-safe powder coating was developed to cover pieces of produce, such as avocados, and act as a barrier against water and oxygen, which are major contributors to rot. Apeel will use the new funding in part to expand the availability of its coating product to additional parts of the U.S., U.K., and Europe. The company currently works with 40 retailers and 30 suppliers throughout eight different countries.

Earlier this year, Apeel acquired hyperspectral imaging company ImpactVision to add another layer of information about plant ripeness to its process. The advanced imaging technology can essentially look inside each piece of fruit and gather information about maturity, freshness, and phytonutrient content. With this information, suppliers and distributors can decide where each piece of produce can then go. For example, a more mature piece can go to a retailer closer by, so it can reach the store shelf sooner.

Apeel said today it will also use the new funds to advance such data and imaging capabilities and integrate those capabilities deeper into its system. The company suggested there could be more acquisitions in this area in the future. 

In the U.S. alone, 35 percent of all food produced goes to waste, equalling about $408 billion annually and 4 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gases. At the same time, more than 40 million Americans are considered food insecure. Recent data from Project Drawdown found reducing food waste to be first of 76 solutions meant to reverse climate change, ahead of plant-based diets and utility-scale solar projects. 

Apeel’s edible coating is one method of fighting food waste. Others include Hazel Technology’s sachet that extends produce shelf life and Ryp Labs (née StixFresh), which makes a sticker that does much the same thing.

“Suppliers have a clock that’s ticking,” Apeel CEO James Rogers explained last year at a Spoon event. At the end of the day, he said, “we have to make the most environmentally beneficially solution the cheapest, easiest solution.”

Singapore-based Shandi Raises $700,000 Seed Round

Shandi, an alternative protein company based in Singapore, announced this week in a press release sent to The Spoon that it has raised $700,000 USD in a second seed round. The round was led by Tolaram, and also saw participation from SparkLabs Cultiv8 and other private investors.

This new influx of capital will allow Shandi to build out a production facility in Singapore, as well as scale and commercialize its alternative protein products. Additionally, the company will focus on innovating new products and developing partnerships in the food sector.

Shandi’s offerings include various chicken analogs, including shreds, pieces, strips, and drumsticks. All of the products are made with a combination of non-GMO chickpeas, pea protein, quinoa, flax seeds, brown rice, and coconut oil. The company has not disclosed much about its production process, but it does have a pending patent for its technology involving the extraction of amino acids from various plants. This process is used to replicate the amino acid profile found in chicken to provide a similar nutritional composition and flavor.

Alternative chicken has popped up nonstop in the news during the past few months. Chicken is one of the most consumed meats in the world, and recently, there have been global supply chain shortages of it. Plant-based chicken could offer a solution for filling in these shortages. Shandi is another example of an alternative protein company opening a production facility in Singapore. Avant Meats, Perfect Day, and Next Gen are just a few other alternative protein start-ups that have built out production facilities in the city-state.

Shandi aims to launch a range of products during the first quarter of 2022 in foodservice channels. After this, it plans on releasing a B2C product.

Nowadays’ Alternative Chicken Nuggets Taste Like the Real Thing

If you keep up with news in the plant-based space, then you might be aware that there’s somewhat of a “chicken war” going on. Big players like Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, and others have now turned their attention to bringing alternative chicken products to market. A new company called Nowadays recently joined the alternative chicken space with its first product: plant-based chicken nuggets.

Nowadays raised $2 million in a pre-seed round several months ago, which is being used for the rollout of its first product. Due to the buzz around alternative chicken products, I was excited when Nowadays sent me samples of its nuggets to taste test.

Upon opening the box and inspecting the product, the nuggets passed the first test; they definitely looked like real chicken nuggets. The company recommended that I throw the nuggets in an air fryer for seven to nine minutes at 370 degrees. For those who don’t have an air fryer, the product can also be cooked in an oven, on a skillet; however, a microwave is not recommended.

I pulled the nuggets out of the air fryer and they were golden brown and crackling. I served them with a side of vegan ranch and took my first bite. Right away, I loved the crispy breading on the nuggets. They did not taste like a fried fast-food chicken nugget, but more of a healthy, baked chicken nugget (which is a good thing).

The inside of the nugget was moist and fatty, and there was the familiar chewiness that you would find in your standard chicken nuggets. The texture was also spot-on. Although I could tell that the product was not actually chicken, I found it to be a great alternative to real chicken nuggets.

Nowadays boasts of its minimal ingredient list, which consists of only water, organic yellow pea protein, whole wheat flour, sunflower oil, yeast extract, maple fiber, and mushroom extract. I’m definitely used to seeing longer lists on alternative protein products, so it’s impressive to see what can be done with so few ingredients.

Multiple companies have brought plant-based chicken nuggets and tenders to market already, including Rebellyous, NUGGS, Beyond Meat, Target’s Good & Gather, and Tyson’s Raised & Rooted. Max Elder, the founder of Nowadays, previously shared with The Spoon that he doesn’t necessarily consider these other companies as competition. This is because, according to him, Nowadays’ the nuggets ingredient list is cleaner and simpler than those from other companies.

If you’re interested in trying Nowadays’ alternative chicken nuggets for yourself, the product is currently only available on the company’s website. One box of 50 nuggets costs $39.99, and two boxes cost $49.99.

Cox Enterprises Acquires High-Tech Greenhouse Grower BrightFarms

Cox Enterprises has acquired indoor farming company BrightFarms, the two companies announced today via press release. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The companies noted that the acquisition will be key to helping Cox Enterprises build out a “multibillion cleantech business” by 2030. 

Multi-industry conglomerate Cox is in the midst of expanding from its core lines of business (communications and automotive), hence its goals related to cleantech innovation. The company says it is currently investing in and/or acquiring “clean resource efficient businesses that provide sustainable energy, food, and water for the rapidly growing global population.”

Cox nabbed a majority stake in BrightFarms in 2020, though the two companies’ relationship goes back to 2018. Speaking in today’s press release, Steve Bradley, vice president of cleantech for Cox Enterprises, noted, “Over the years, our enthusiasm for BrightFarms and the opportunity to transform the industry has increased tremendously, which led us to want to play a larger role in what they’re doing.”  

BrightFarms operates a network of greenhouses that use hydroponics, natural sunlight, and a proprietary software system to grow leafy greens. The company announced its fifth greenhouse earlier this year and more recently said it would open an “innovation and research hub.” Ten percent of the company is now dedicated to developing “patented growing solutions to be used across BrightFarms entire network to improve crop yield, flavor, and other factors. The company says that by the end of the year, its leafy greens will be available at over 3,500 stores.

BrightFarms said joining Cox will allow it to scale more rapidly. As part of the acquisition, BrightFarms will grow its physical footprint from 15 acres of crop today to more than 140 by 2025. This growth will, the company says, let it reach roughly two-thirds of all U.S. consumers. Additionally, BrightFarms will build out multiple 30-acre greenhouses and increase the number of stores, restaurants, and food distributors it serves.

Q&A: The Future of Restaurant Delivery Bots, According to Serve Robotics’ Ali Kashani

If Serve Robotics CEO Ali Kashani has his way, more restaurants in the near-term future will offload the last mile of their deliveries not to human couriers but to wheeled rover bots that can autonomously traverse the streets en route to hand over your food.

Serve started life as a part of Postmates, eventually spinning out into its own company when the latter was bought by Uber. The wheeled Serve bots are all-electric, autonomous sidewalk rovers that require minimal human supervision to deliver burritos, sandwiches, and other food items to customers. They’re also, according to Kashani, way better for the planet and the restaurant industry.

Ahead of our upcoming upcoming Restaurant Tech Summit on August 17 (that’s tomorrow!), we caught up briefly with Kashani to get his thoughts on how robots help the restaurant biz and what role they’ll play in the future. Read our full Q&A with her below, and if you haven’t already, grab a ticket to the virtual show here.

This Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity.

The Spoon: What problem does Serve Robotics solve for restaurants/the restaurant industry?

Ali Kashani: Moving a two-pound burrito in a two-ton car doesn’t make a lot of sense. Yet it’s what we do 10 to 20 million times a day in the United States alone. It’s resulting in carbon emissions, traffic congestion, and accidents. Beyond that, it’s also expensive. Restaurants are paying 20-30% of their revenue to fulfill their customers’ delivery demands. 

Serve Robotics is creating a fleet of all-electric, autonomous sidewalk robots that require minimal human supervision. They don’t cause congested roads or emit CO2. They also don’t cause safety risks — it takes 3,000 sidewalk robots to have the same kinetic energy of a single street car. And finally, they make delivery affordable for restaurants and local businesses by significantly reducing the underlying costs. This is a win-win-win, for restaurants, for customers, and for cities. 

Starting with sidewalks, autonomous deliveries will reduce the cost burden that’s carried by restaurants today, while enabling more customers to shop locally — whether it’s from a nearby restaurant, a convenience store, or a local mall. And cities win too. If we take 5% of restaurant deliveries off the road in five years, which is our goal, we’d be removing 80,000 vehicles off the roads in the U.S., which translates to over 1 billion fewer miles traveled by cars.

By the way, robotic delivery will also be better for employment, as it helps local SMBs, the backbone of our economy, be better positioned to sell to local customers and compete effectively against larger e-commerce players. 

What is the biggest change in terms of the restaurant industry’s approach towards technology as a result of the pandemic?

Some impact was very visible to everyone, such as the adoption of digital menus almost overnight. Some other changes were uniquely visible to us. For example, robotic delivery as a whole was validated as a necessary tool, a part of city infrastructure, rather than a science project. Before the pandemic passersby would often wonder what a delivery robot was doing, but after the pandemic, everyone immediately recognized what they were seeing was a contactless delivery.

The impact of the pandemic has continued. Driver shortages have increased the importance of having several available delivery modes, creating significant inbound interest for us.

3. Where will we see the most deployments of delivery bots in the near-term future (e.g., major cities, campuses, etc.)?

We know from having access to food delivery data on major platforms that over half of all restaurant deliveries can be addressed on the sidewalk. Closed environments like campuses are a great place too. We decided to focus on cities instead because on campus basket sizes are smaller, so it’s a lower-margin space, and the demand is more peaky and seasonal. So all and all, the steady higher-value demand of cities made them a more interesting market.

Granted, cities are a harder problem to solve. We had to invest significantly in developing the right vehicle capable of navigating city sidewalks. But that’s a worthwhile investment that serves as a competitive barrier. With years and millions of dollars invested, we now have the most suitable robot for sidewalk delivery, with the largest cargo capacity, longest mileage range and battery life, and most capable drivetrain for handling the roughness of city sidewalks.

4. What are you most excited about when it comes to the impact of restaurant technology?

We’re excited by the experiences restaurants can potentially offer customers when delivery robots become a part of everyday life. There’s so much waste in how we deliver today — not just the car emissions mentioned earlier, but also in the packaging. Delivery is also not yet on-par with the experience of dining at the restaurant. 

Now imagine if the cost of last mile logistics was so low, that restaurants could send food in fine china and silverware. Similar to room service at a hotel, the robot would wait to return the dishes at the end of the meal. We could create new experiences that are similar or even better than dining in a restaurant, and do so at less cost and with less waste.

5. What do you think the restaurant industry will look like in five years?

Our goal is to take at least 5% of restaurant deliveries off the road, and bring down the cost of delivery overall. The impact this can have on our cities is enormous. From congestion and emissions, to the increase in customer adoption of local delivery, to the increase in employment and commerce opportunities.

Think about the kind of impact Ford had when they introduced the first car. Our cities look different today because of it. This would take longer than five years, but new forms of mobility offered by Serve and other companies in this space have similar potential to reshape our cities into more liveable and green places.

Red Sea Farms Raises an Additional $6M to Grow Crops With Saltwater

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Farms has raised an additional $6 million in pre-Series A funding, bringing the total round to $16 million (h/t Wamda). Those leading the round include Aramco’s venture arm Wa’ed, the Saudi government-owned Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute, KAUST, Global Ventures, AppHarvest, and Bonaventure. The $6 million announced over the weekend follows an initial $10 million investment the company unveiled in June of this year.

Red Sea Farms, which is based out of King Abdullah University for Science & Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, is developing a grow system for crops that relies primarily on saltwater as the primary irrigation input. As company cofounder and CSO Prof. Mark Tester told The Spoon recently, the system works on both crops grown traditionally via land and those grown indoors using hydroponics. The idea is to provide more resource options for farmers in parts of the world where freshwater is less abundant. The company’s technology can use saltwater for evaporative cooling in greenhouses, which could potentially cut a facility’s carbon footprint.

Red Sea Farms currently has three grow sites, all in Saudi Arabia. The pre-Series A round of funding will help the company expand its operations in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Middle East, as well as explore opportunities in the U.S. “where growing conditions are harsh.”

A number of companies have announced crop innovations for the Middle East region this year, including iFarm’s partnership with Sadarah Partners in Qatar and AeroFarms’ developing a R&D hub in the UAE. Also in 2021, Estonian automated gardening company Natufia announced its relocation to Saudi Arabia. Most of these developments are in response to a rising urgency around global food security coupled with a need to reduce the planet’s over-reliance on traditional agriculture resources (e.g., freshwater, land).

Red Sea Farms says it can cut freshwater consumption of farming operations by by 85 to 90 percent through its grow system.

Meet The Spoon’s Restaurant Tech 10

The restaurant industry has changed drastically over the last 18 months when it comes to tech. What was once a sector slow to change and reticent to embrace digital is now practically at bursting point in terms of the many technological solutions available to restaurants. As food tech investor Brita Rosenheim recently wrote, “the past 18 months, technology solutions across the restaurant and hospitality industry evolved at such a fast pace that keeping up with changes proved challenging, even for those of us who work in the space. This rapid rate of adoption in the industry caused even the technophobes in hospitality to rapidly embrace tech solutions. “

Picking just 10 companies from the hundreds out there was a Herculean challenge when it came time to make this list. From virtual restaurants to maintenance management solutions to making better use of data, there’s no end of innovation in the restaurant tech sector these days. Our list is a tiny sliver of that innovation, showcasing what we believe are some of the most unique and intriguing companies shaking up and rethinking the restaurant business. Some of these companies will be at our upcoming Restaurant Tech Summit (make sure to get your ticket!), some we’ve written about recently, and some we are just getting to know.

It goes without saying, of course, that this isn’t an exhaustive list, and if you have a restaurant tech company you’d like to get on our radar, drop us a line anytime.

In no particular order, here are The Spoon’s Top 10 Restaurant Tech Companies:

Too Good to Go

When it comes to eliminating food waste, Too Good to Go was too good to not include on this list. The Denmark-based company partners with hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, and other businesses that have surplus food items at the end of each day and sells that food at a discount to consumers, who pick up the food at a designated time. Too Good to Go started in Europe, but raised $31 million and expanded into the U.S. this year. Businesses win because it turns leftover foods into revenue. Consumers win because they get good food at a discount. And the world at large wins because there is less food waste going into landfills. 

86 Repairs

You can’t run a restaurant without a fridge (or stove, or electricity), which means maintenance and repair management will always be relevant in the biz, no matter how many pandemics you throw at it. Chicago, Illinois-based 86 Repairs is leading a new generation of companies helping to make the management of maintenance and repair tasks a little less burdensome on restaurants. The platform digitizes information about all a restaurant’s equipment and coordinates troubleshooting, warranty checks, booking technicians, and other tasks. The idea is to give restaurants one central location at which to view all data about all maintenance, even for large, multi-unit chains with thousands of units.

Bite Ninja

The restaurant labor shortage will go down as one of the major issues — probably the major issue — restaurants faced in 2021. One of the most intriguing solutions to the issue comes from a company called Bite Ninja. In essence, the Bite Ninja platform lets restaurants outsource their staffing needs for the drive-thru lane to gig workers that take orders remotely. Drive-thru customers see a face on a screen and order as they would normally. They may not even know the person taking the order is probably sitting at their kitchen table instead of standing inside the restaurant. Bite Ninja’s founders say the platform can increase order accuracy and upsell rates for restaurants, while workers don’t actually have to report to a physical location to clock in. In the future, the tech will be available for more uses than just the drive-thru, including front-of-house kiosks, curbside pickup, and phone orders.

ConverseNow

ConverseNow currently creates conversational AI assistants for restaurant drive-thrus. In use at 750 restaurant locations in the U.S, ConverseNow says its AI achieves 85 percent order accruacy and bumps check sizes up by 25 percent. But ConverseNow is about so much more than just helping automate the drive-thru. The company wants its software to be the virtual plumbing for all of a restaurant’s digital ordering, connecting the drive-thru, mobile ordering, phones, kiosks and more. If it can achieve this, ConverseNow will convert many restaurant operators over to AI. 

Crave Collective

When The Spoon got a virtual tour last year of the Crave facility in Boise, Idaho that serves 16 virtual restaurant concepts, it felt like a look into the future of what restaurant/food delivery design could look in Metro areas. Not only were the physical attributes like a conveyor belt system that shuttled meals towards the front for delivery and a customer pick up area interesting, but Crave’s custom-built tech stack and in-house delivery drivers were indications that the company had built a facility and business model tailored towards the virtual brand era. The company wants to take it’s concept to four additional locations this year, and 10 by 2022.

Slice

While it’s easy to think most pizza restaurant shops are savvy at online ordering, the reality is that the typical independent sees only about one in five pizzas ordered online compared with three out of four for Dominos. Slice saw this as an opportunity and created a consumer app to help put independent pizza shops (16,000 of them so far) on solid digital footing to compete with the 800 pound gorillas in Dominos and Little Caesar’s. But what helped Slice make this list was their acquisition of POS startup InStore. Before Instore, Slice helped indies enter into the world of online ordering. Now, Slice Register (the POS based on Instore) enables the small guys to level up to the big guys and create a true multichannel pizza business with loyalty programs and integrated online/offline marketing programs.

Qu POS

The past decade saw restaurant point of sale move into the cloud and adapt features like pay-at-table and integrated online ordering, but the virtual brand explosion may be the biggest test yet for these systems. Qu POS is betting big on a virtual restaurant future with their KitchenUP platform, which acts as a lightweight operating system for ghost kitchen/virtual brands with unified management of multichannel order management, reporting, third-party delivery integration and other features built into an API-first architecture. FranklinJunction is utilizing KitchenUp across its network of 500 “host kitchens” to help power virtual concepts for such brands as Nathan’s and Frisch’s Big Boy.

Ordermark/NextBite

An arguably bigger trend than ghost kitchens this year has been restaurants finding and leveraging underutilized kitchen space in which to run delivery-only restaurant concepts. NextBite, a company created by restaurant tech company Ordermark, helps restaurants find that space and launch those concepts. The platform operates a number of virtual/delivery-only brands restaurants can add to their existing business and in the process make some incremental revenue. The company raised a whopping $120 million for this concept at the end of 2020, and has since launched more than 15 virtual brands in thousands of kitchens around the country. 

Manna

Look! Up in the sky! It’s your latte! Drone food delivery seems like sci-fi, but Manna is making it a reality right now. Earlier this year, the company was doing 50 to 100 drone deliveries a day and it’s prepping to launch service in a second Irish city. Though there are still regulatory hurdles to overcome, drone delivery could be a boon for restaurants because it delivers meals in minutes without needing to put a full-sized delivery car on the road. Drones are starting to take flight around the world, and Manna is helping the industry take flight. 

Delivery Hero

Delivery is table stakes at this point for the restaurant industry, but we pub Delivery Hero on this list because of all the big-name services out there today, it has one of the more noteworthy approaches to the concept. In addition to operating restaurant food delivery services around the world (via a bunch of different subsidiary brands), the Berlin, Germany-based company has also launched its own VC fund to foster food tech innovation, opened an education program to teach coding to underserved individuals, and, most recently, kicked off a new initiative to provide its restaurant partners with sustainable packaging. All these efforts point towards the possibility of a food delivery industry that’s not only faster and more efficient, but also more inclusive and sustainable.

Food Tech News: Future Food Tour in Dubai and Beer-Infused Spices

Welcome to this week’s Food Tech News round-up! For this round, we’ve gathered news from CHEQ, a multi-sensory futuristic food tour, and new spices that make your food taste like beer.

If you didn’t sign up already, The Spoon’s virtual Restaurant Tech Summit will be next week on August 17, starting at 8:00 am PT. Tickets are still available on the event page.

Future Food Tour at Expo 2020 Dubai

The “Novacene” is a new era hypothesized by scientist James Lovelock where humans have made large-scale changes to our environment and robots and artificial intelligence rule the world. “The Future of Food: Epochal Banquet” has taken inspiration from this idea for its planned food exhibit at Expo 2020 Dubai.

The culinary tour is two hours long and it will specifically focus on how humans using artificial intelligence can find solutions for food waste, feed a growing population, and improve nutrition content. The immersive experience will be orchestrated by Bombas & Parr, a multi-sensory experience design studio in the UK. Based in the year 2320, the tour will feature food history from caveman to spaceman, replications of extinct foods, and 1,000 different flavors. The dining portion will include three courses paired with drinks. Edible concoctions that will be served include flavor-changing desserts, glow-in-the-dark food, rare ingredients, unique plants, and delicacies created from the technique that NASA uses to collect comet dust.

CHEQ and Miami Marlins announce a multi-year partnership

CHEQ, a restaurant tech platform, announced in a press release sent to The Spoon that it has partnered with the baseball team Miami Marlins. The mobile payment app developed by CHEQ will be implemented at the Marlin’s home stadium, LoanDepot Park. The app will allow fans at the ballpark to order food and drinks from concession stands on their mobile devices from their seats. After this 2021 season, fans will have the ability to order from their seats and then have the food delivered to certain areas of the ballpark.

Infuse your food with beer flavor through Spiceologies’s blends

A chef-operated spice company call Spiceology shared with The Spoon in an email this week that it had launched a new line of beer-infused spices to encapsulate the unique flavors that different beers can contribute to the cooking process. The company has partnered with Derek Wolf and New Belgium Brewing to develop two beer spice products lines. The Derek Wolf line includes flavors like Imperial Coffee Stout, Honey Mustard IPA, and Hickory Peach Porter. The New Belgium line incorporates some of the brewery’s popular beers like the Voodoo Ranger Hazy IPA in the Citrus Ginger seasoning, while the Sweet & Sour uses the Sour IPA. A “six-pack” of the Derek Wolf blends cost $69.99 while a “four-pack” of the New Belgium blends cost $52.

Q&A: How BentoBox Helps Restaurants Take Back Their Customer Relationships Through Tech

Before the off-premises boom, there was no question of restaurants owning their relationships with customers. One pandemic and a whole lot of digital tools later, and that ownership is a little less certain, and restaurants often give up valuable customer data and feedback to bigger tech companies (e.g., third-party delivery services). Now, however, a number of tech companies are promising to change this by putting more digital interactions with customers back restaurants hands, so to speak.

A company called BentoBox does it by helping restaurants create and manage their own digital storefronts. The BentoBox platform facilitates a number different areas of running a restaurant in the digital age: online order management, website design, dine-in order and pay, digital gift cards, and event management, to name a few. These and other features promise to give restaurants a direct relationship to their customers, even when those interactions are entirely conducted through a website or mobile app.  

Ahead of The Spoon’s upcoming Restaurant Tech Summit on August 17, we caught up with Krystle Mobayeni, CEO and Founder of BentoBox, who will also be speaking at the event. Read our full Q&A with her below, and if you haven’t already, grab a ticket to the virtual show here.

This Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity.

1. What problem does BentoBox solve for restaurants/the restaurant industry?

BentoBox helps translate restaurants’ on-premise experience to their digital storefront in a way that matches their standards of hospitality. We do this through a full-service website, commerce, and marketing platform that helps operators cultivate stronger guest relationships — and drive high-margin revenue through their websites.

2. What is the biggest change in terms of the restaurant industry’s approach towards technology as a result of the pandemic?

Before the pandemic, restaurants and technology co-existed. Restaurants focused on their dining rooms and adopted piecemeal technology tools along the way. Restaurants also viewed the guest experience in the brick and mortar as separate from the guest experience online. The pandemic has shown that restaurants need to think about these as one holistic experience and embrace the right technology to connect the on-premise and off-premise experiences. 

With that, the pandemic has rapidly accelerated the shift to a single, modern restaurant experience where restaurants can connect with their guests across all channels. With the support of the right technology, restaurants can build direct relationships and more personal ones to stay resilient and thrive going forward. 

3. What are the most important first steps a restaurant should take when going online?

The most important first step is aligning with the right technology partner. Restaurant operators didn’t get into this industry to be marketers or technologists; they sought to create meaningful experiences with food.

Understanding restaurant operators don’t have the time or expertise to be restaurant website designers, my best advice is to seek out a technology partner who understands what the restaurant needs. While local designers or design agencies can be an effective means to get online, these solutions are often expensive and time-consuming. It is important for restaurants to find a partner that makes their website a reflection of their brand with elevated design, built-in marketing tools and the opportunity to drive revenue the same way they do in their brick and mortar. 

4. What is the biggest challenge for restaurants right now when it comes to digitization? 

As the world has evolved over the last year and a half, restaurants’ core purpose of providing a hospitable and memorable experience has remained constant. However, the technology that has been introduced to help them enter the digital world and make things easier, has in many cases proved far more complex and fragmented than it should be. 

Not surprisingly, this fragmentation and complexity has led to frustration and takes away from the restaurants ability to provide a seamless experience for their diners. It’s crucial for technology providers to be aware of this and work to provide end to end solutions to eliminate these breakage points. 

5. What are you most excited about when it comes to the impact of restaurant technology?

Restaurant technology has the power to help restaurant owners with their business and give diners an enhanced dining experience. When restaurants have the right technology partner, it changes the way diners interact with restaurants. They have more ways to experience a restaurant outside of the brick and mortar location. For restaurant owners, they have the opportunity to focus on better serving their communities and expanding their reach both locally and abroad. It also gives restaurants a more diversified stream of revenue, which helps them become stronger businesses.

6. What do you think the restaurant industry will look like in five years?

The pandemic catapulted the digital transformation of the restaurant industry and in five years, I see restaurants having a direct-to-diner experience with their customers, much like the transformation of retail going direct-to-consumers. Through restaurant technology innovation, restaurants will have the tools and data to build strong brand affinity among diners and tailor their customers’ experiences to make every diner feel like a regular. 

I Tried NotCo’s A.I.-Generated Milk Alternative

NotCo, a Chile-based company, is sometimes referred to as the Impossible Foods/Beyond Meat of Latin America. The company produces various alternative products including plant-based mayo, burgers, ice cream, and milk. When they reached out to me recently offering to send samples of their products, I happily accepted.

NotCo uses its patented A.I. platform to determine what plant-based ingredients would best replicate properties found in animal-based ingredients. For example, in its alt-milk products, the two main ingredients are simply water and pea protein. However, there is a small amount of pineapple juice, cabbage juice, sunflower oil, and chicory root, among other natural flavors, added to the milk alternative to bolster its flavor and texture.

The Bezos-backed company sent me a half-gallon of its whole milk and 2 percent milk alternatives. I first poured a small glass of the whole milk and drank it straight up. At first sip, I was surprised by the sweetness of it. Surprisingly, there are only three grams of sugar in a single serving. It had a vanilla flavor with a light aftertaste of coconut. The two percent milk had the same flavor, but tasted a tad bit more watery than the whole milk.

Photo of the alternative whole and two percent milk that was sent to me

I heated some of the whole milk in a pot on the stove and attempted to produce foam with my handheld frother. I had no luck, and the milk was completely flat after frothing for about two minutes. In defense of NotCo, they do not make any claims about their milk’s ability to froth, and I do not have barista-grade equipment. It makes me wonder if the company has plans to develop a “barista version” of its milk that is meant to produce a thick froth for lattes, like many alternative milk companies have done.

NotCo’s whole milk after being heated and frothed

I haven’t had milk for about eight years, but for what it’s worth, NotCo’s NotMilk reminded me of real dairy milk. The sweetness of NotMilk was reminiscent of the sweetness that lactose provides in dairy milk. However, there was something about the NotMilk that still suggested it wasn’t actually dairy. While I couldn’t quite pinpoint the reason, it could very well be the slight aftertaste/mouthfeel of pea protein. Overall, though I would say that NotMilk is a pretty good milk alternative product.

Pea protein, meanwhile, is a popular ingredient in the plant-based space due to its neutral flavor, versatility, and high protein content. It is the second ingredient in NotMilk, and both the whole and 2 percent milk contain four grams of protein in a single serving (one cup). U.S.-based Ripple and Swedish-based Sproud are two other companies that both also produce alternative milk made from pea protein.

NotCo launched its milk in the U.S. last year, and it seems like Oatly will be one of its biggest competitors in the alternative dairy space. Oatly has steadily gained a cult-like following in the U.S. since launching in independent coffee shops in 2016. The Swedish-based company went public this March, and raised $1.4 billion USD through this.

In the U.S., NotCo’s milks are available in stores like Whole Foods, Sprouts, and some independent grocers and retailers. A half-gallon of the alternative whole or two percent milk normally retails for $4.99.

As the Ghost Kitchen Industry Matures, Here Are 5 Trends to Watch

This following a guest post from Warren Tseng, a long-time operator, investor and advisor in the restaurant and ghost kitchen industries (full bio below).

The food industry has managed to squeeze about 10 years of innovation into just 18 months thanks to the pandemic. This in turn has given rise to a variety of ghost kitchen models that have allowed restaurants and food brands to increase sales and reduce their operating costs. Now that restaurant operators have seen that online delivery may likely be the bulk of their sales going forward, we will continue to see them double down on delivery and find new ways to become more efficient and technology-driven in terms of menu development, supply chain efficiency, direct-to-consumer distribution solutions, and kitchen automation. Here are five trends that will continue to shape the rapidly evolving ghost kitchen industry beyond the pandemic.

  1. Leveraging data and AI to inform menu and product development

Data can provide invaluable insight to any customer-facing industry, and ghost kitchens are no exception. Ultimately, data regarding brand preferences, pricing strategy, ingredients, and the popularity of cuisine types in certain regions can inform everything from menu design to marketing strategy for delivery-only food brands. Examining customer ordering data can also inform restaurants where their particular cuisines may fill a gap on a hyper-local basis, and where they might want to offer their products via a ghost kitchen versus a bricks and mortar location.

For example, JustKitchen has partnered with two Michelin-rated restaurants, Orchid by Peng and 3 Coins, to create delivery-only menus. Their brick and mortar locations previously were situated in very high-density areas of Taipei. By partnering with us, they were able to test the demand for their food in other parts of Taiwan without having to invest in real estate first. By examining the customer ordering data on a trial basis, we were able to see that the demand for this fine-dining style of food was very strong throughout areas of Taiwan they previously weren’t serving.

Additionally, brands that are interested in expanding into new countries can use a ghost kitchen to test out the popularity of the food on a trial basis before taking the leap and investing in the additional real estate and marketing that a global expansion normally requires. They can also test menu items on a trial basis and use ordering data to determine whether certain menu items are a fit for a new market — for example, a North American market versus an Asian market — before developing and rolling out a final concept and menu.

  1. Delivery-only food brands going direct-to-consumer

Whereas today many ghost kitchens and delivery-only brands rely solely on third-party food delivery platforms to connect with customers, in the future we are going to see more ghost kitchens and food brands going direct-to-consumer. Established food delivery platforms will more frequently be used as a test for brands to get initial exposure through the platform’s users. Once operators have found the right product-market fit, they will benefit from continuing to invest in the brand and building out new distribution channels, just as many startups first launch products on a platform like Shopify to test the market before building their own online sales portals and investing in marketing and distribution.

  1. Environmentally conscious initiatives to reduce packaging and food waste

Food waste is a growing global environmental and social issue, and restaurants are one of the world’s biggest contributors to it. In the U.S. alone, it’s estimated that restaurants account for 22-33 billion pounds of food waste each year. But ghost kitchens really do have an opportunity to be leaders in the restaurant industry in terms of reducing food waste. For example, using technology, ghost kitchen operators have the ability to more carefully track historical delivery data to better predict demand and thus more accurately plan supply, which can greatly reduce food waste. In addition, real estate players that host multiple ghost kitchen operators in a single facility, such as CloudKitchens, are able to leverage economies of scale with suppliers to boost efficiency and lower costs for operators. Similarly, ghost kitchen operators that offer grocery delivery in addition to meal delivery can take advantage of the FIFO (First In, First Out) rule: ingredients and supplies can be used in both meal preparation and grocery delivery services, reducing the chance of food going off before it’s used.

It’s no secret that the rising demand for online food delivery also means more packaging that gets tossed in the garbage. I believe that as the industry matures, more ghost kitchen operators will be held accountable for their packaging. At JustKitchen we use 100 percent recyclable or compostable packaging and paper straws instead of plastic straws. I believe, and hope, that we will see more ghost kitchen operators taking the initiative to replace single-use plastics with more environmentally friendly materials in future.

4.) Autonomous food delivery

A big challenge that ghost kitchens and online food delivery platforms alike experienced during the pandemic was a shortage of delivery drivers. As demand for online food delivery exploded during the pandemic, many third-party delivery platforms found themselves short of drivers. Additionally, many people were concerned about drivers handling food hygienically and following contact-free drop off protocols. In some cities, autonomous delivery robots have provided a viable solution to these issues, as they can bypass obstacles such as traffic and human-to-human contact during delivery. However, realistically delivery-by-robot only works in core downtown areas where the delivery destination is relatively near to where the food is prepared. Self-driving cars that can travel longer distances will likely provide a more viable autonomous delivery option in future, but we are not there quite yet.

5.) Modularized / container ghost kitchens

As the industry evolves and cooking technologies become more automated (check out Flippy, the burger-flipping robot), kitchens and everything from cooking to packaging and delivery will become more streamlined and less costly. In general, if care is taken to design menus and preparation methods that are highly efficient, delivery-only food brands will continue to evolve so that they need less space, less equipment, and perhaps even less staff to operate. When you need less space to operate in, you can invest in setting up a greater number of smaller kitchen facilities that occupy less real estate but cover more ground. Modular kitchens can be set up in spaces as small as a shipping container, can be deployed almost anywhere, and can still produce excellent quality products. Many ghost kitchens, such as Reef Technologies, are already implementing modular kitchens and although it can be a trial and error process at first, this is likely a trend we will see more of in the future.

At the end of the day, successful ghost kitchen operations are all about efficiency, and that can be thought of in two parts. On the restaurant side – implementing technology that enables a single ghost kitchen operator to handle multiple brands on multiple delivery platforms out of one kitchen will improve staffing efficiency and reduce food wastage. On the delivery side – having multiple restaurants and multiple brands concentrated in a small footprint, and technology that enables effective queuing and batching of orders – allows couriers and third-party logistics to batch multiple orders from one pick-up location to deliver to multiple destinations. This not only significantly boosts the efficiency of the logistics providers for the last mile, but most importantly, ensures the customer receives the highest quality product possible. Ultimately, ghost kitchens that can consistently deliver high-quality, on-brand products will be the winners in this increasingly competitive marketplace.

Warren Tseng is a strategic advisor to Taiwan-based cloud kitchen operator and delivery-only food brand developer, JustKitchen. Mr. Tseng is an early-stage business operator, advisor, and angel investor with extensive experience establishing and growing companies acrossSoutheast Asia and Greater China. He was an early entrant to the on-demand economy and the cloud kitchen industry from his previous roles as General Manager (Singapore) at Uber Technologies, and Regional General Manager (Asia Pacific) at CloudKitchens, where he established the companies in eight countries across the APAC region.