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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Restaurant Tech

Sweetgreen: We’re Going Full Robot

Sweetgreen CEO Jonathan Neman told investors this week at William Blair’s Growth Stock conference that the company plans to have its Infinite Kitchen robotic makeline installed at all new locations within a five-year timeframe. The proclamation marks the first time the fast-casual salad chain has indicated they plan to deploy automation across all of its new locations.

According to the analyst’s note about Neman’s disclosures at the conference, the early results from the Infinite Kitchen have been extremely positive:

Sweetgreen’s first Infinite Kitchen (robotic assembly makeline) has proven that the technology works, with zero downtime so far and significant benefits related to faster throughput and improved portioning and order accuracy (order portioning and accuracy have historically been the company’s weakest links in NPS). With less labor intensity and greater job satisfaction so far, we believe the Infinite Kitchen has the potential to structurally change sweetgreen’s labor model, as roughly half of variable labor stems from assembly.

Another interesting disclosure from the conference was the success of the company’s membership program. According to William Blair, Sweetgreen’s sweetpass and sweetpass+ “are yielding incremental guest frequency, with gamified and personalized challenges yielding a 15% frequency lift while sweetpass+ ($10 monthly membership offering a $3 daily discount) is exceeding expectations with a significant lift in frequency (management indicated it would be happy with an incremental two visits per member per month) and low churn.”

These results show the company has improved food production, customer experience, and loyalty by deploying new technology. The result is a stronger bottom line, as Blair predicts the company will continue its fairly impressive 20%+ EBITDA margins in established locations and new build locations in the coming years. For a company that has long stated it’s as much a technology company as a restaurant company, it looks like its approach has continued to yield dividends and keep Sweetgreen one of the most interesting chains in the restaurant business.

Robot Restaurant Concepts Have Struggled. Will Kernel Buck The Trend?

Last month, the NY Post revealed that Chipotle founder Steve Ells is plotting a comeback with an automation-heavy restaurant concept called Kernel.

According to the Post, who viewed the startup’s pitch deck, Ells plans to build a chain of restaurants that makes the food centrally in a ghost kitchen and finishes the food in small-footprint retail storefronts. The centralized production facility and the restaurants will feature a significant amount of robotics and automation to produce the food and keep the overall employee count down. According to materials reviewed by the Post, the company states that they believe “a 3-person labor model can work.”

The company has already started building its production facility in NY and plans to launch its first restaurant in NYC in the fall of 2023. Ells is funding the company for now but is looking for investors (hence the investor deck).

As I wrote yesterday, robot-restaurant concepts have often struggled. But given Ells’ experience building a hugely successful restaurant chain, it’s worth asking: Will Kernel buck the trend?

I think they just might. Here are a few reasons Kernel might have a chance at succeeding where others have failed:

Ells is a Proven Restaurant Operator

Unlike the founders of Eatsa, Spyce and Zume, Ells is a restaurant operator with a proven track record of building a restaurant brand from the ground up. During his tenure as the company’s CEO, Chipotle pioneered the fast-casual concept and had one of the most successful IPOs ever for a restaurant chain. Clearly, he knows something about building restaurant concepts.

Ells Has An Intuitive Understanding of Food Unit Economics

During the early days of Chipotle, Ells focused heavily on the unit economics of the burrito business, calculating just how many he needed to sell daily to make a profit. It’s that kind of focus on the different cost-levers that is required when forecasting the cost of building an automation-centric restaurant business that will have higher up-front capex costs but, over time, should ultimately create more efficient restaurants with lower daily operating costs, and isn’t susceptible to the high employee turnover of employees.

The Hub & Spoke Model Can Work If Done Right

Some ghost kitchens have struggled for various reasons ranging from low-quality and high costs. However, fast casual brands have shown to be a logical pairing with centralized commissary kitchens, especially in high-rent markets like NYC (where Kernel plans to open multiple locations). Chains like Fresh&Co have grown fresh-forward concepts across metro areas like NYC through centralized batch cooking of ingredients and doing final-prep in smaller footprint storefronts. If Ells can leverage automation to take on the majority of food prep and save capital to invest in a greater number of smaller stores, he might prove this model as a recipe for the future.

Don’t Build It, Rent It

While many of the early venture-funded robotic food restaurant concepts spent most of their capital building out proprietary platforms, nowadays, a restaurant builder can leverage any of the available platforms to deploy in their food production and food service workflows. One has to look no further than a small operator like Andrew Simmons to see that restaurants can be built by piecing together systems that use robotics-as-a-service payment structures, which lower the overall capex required and allows flexibility to create a workflow over time as needs change and lessons are learned. My guess is Ells is planning on leveraging systems where others have paid all the upfront cost of development, and he can be a customer who benefits from a service and maintenance agreement.

There are still many unknowns about the Kernel concept, including what automation platforms they plan to use (or create) and just what the consumer experience will be like. But if Ells shows the brand-building prowess from his Chipotle days wasn’t a fluke and can be flexible in architecting a production workflow that carries a lower upfront capex hit than early robot restaurant efforts, he may be on his way to building one of the first true robot-powered restaurant chains.

Wow Bao Launches the ‘Hot Buns Club’, a $99-a-Year Web3 Loyalty Program

Wow Bao, the digitally nimble Asian food startup that’s expanded nationwide in recent years through an asset-light virtual restaurant model, announced the launch of its NFT program last week. The new NFTs, called Digital CollectaBaos, will be proof of membership in a new super-fan tier called the Hot Buns Club within the company’s Bao Bucks loyalty program.

Wow Bao laid out a web3 vision last November that will eventually include such far-out concepts as metaverse vending machines, but before they take their steamed buns fully into the virtual realm, it’ll start onboarding dedicated customers through its NFT-powered subscription program for $99 bucks a year.

The initial benefits for Wow Bao NFT holders include 10% off delivery orders, double Bao Bucks points on purchases, 10% off merch orders, and contest giveaways.

The Wow Bao NFT program is built on the Polygon network, a Proof of Stake consensus algorithm blockchain that proponents say is more environmentally friendly than many other Ethereum-based digital currencies. Despite the blockchain underpinnings of its new loyalty supertier, Wow Bao is – at least for the time being – downplaying the crypto angle given all the bad press the technology has gotten over the past year, positioning it instead as a digital collectible with associated member benefits.

“We’re staying away from the NFT title,” Wow Bao CEO Geoff Alexander told Restaurant Dive. “The crypto space and NFTs have taken a negative connotation in the last 12 months. We like focusing on making a collectible, we want it to be something that you own.”

The company chose Devour, a Web3 restaurant platform startup, as its partner to power the new program’s web3 ordering. Devour’s DevourGO will enable the delivery of automated promotions for holders of the Wow Bao collectibles when ordering from Wow Bao restaurants in the DevourGO marketplace.

Wow Bao’s entry into web3 is on brand for a company that has seemingly embraced nearly every new technology to enter the restaurant space in recent years. The company was the first chain to sign on to use Eatsa’s automated kiosks (before Eatsa dropped the technology and pivoted to loyalty programs) and has been one of the most aggressive (and successful) companies leveraging expansion through virtual restaurants, opening up close to 700 locations across the US in recent years. The company has also embraced automated vending (of the non-metaverse variety) to dispense bao and dumplings.

Two Years After Buying Spyce, Sweetgreen Launches Infinite Kitchen Robotic Restaurant

Last week, Sweetgreen opened the company’s first robotic restaurant in Naperville, Ill, a suburb of Chicago.

The new automated restaurant, which the company calls Infinite Kitchen, comes almost two years after the company acquired Spyce Kitchen, a startup building automated robotic makelines.

The Infinite Kitchen name is not new; Spyce first used the name when it launched its second-generation robotic kitchen platform in November 2020 and, like the new Sweetgreen Infinite Kitchen, the system was visually reminiscent of the Creator burger makeline. The system’s conveyor belt runs under ingredient dispensers that drop customized mixes of fresh ingredients into bowls. You can see the Sweetgreen version of the Infinite Kitchen in action below.

In the video and the press release, Sweetgreen takes pains to make clear that while it sees automation as a way to add efficiency to operations and enhance the customer experience, they are not doing away with humans as part of the Sweetgreen experience.

“Every meal begins with human hands,” says the video’s narrator, “from our local farmers to our team members, all there to guide you through the process.”

With the Infinite Kitchen, Sweetgreen has also rethought the customer process flow, integrating digital touchpoints (including self-service kiosks similar to those from Spyce).

From the release:

When visiting the Naperville Sweetgreen restaurant, customers are greeted by the new “host” position which provides a more personalized connection between team members and guests. To order, customers can utilize self-service kiosks, place an order through the mobile app, or order directly from the restaurant’s host. The new restaurant format also brings in a new Tasting Counter, brand-storytelling digital screens and a revamped merchandising strategy for an authentic Sweetgreen experience at every touchpoint. Customers visiting the store will be able to shop exclusive merch with designs inspired by the new store joining the Naperville community.

According to the company, Sweetgreen will open its second Infinite Kitchen location later this year at an existing restaurant, where the company hopes to learn how to integrate and retrofit the new technology into an existing kitchen.

Long term, expect the company to expand the use of automation to most of its locations. Company CEO Jonathan Neman has said that about half of Sweetgreen’s labor is food assembly. “And this Infinite Kitchen takes the majority of that,” Neman said in November.

Wendy’s Announces FreshAI, a Generative AI for Drive-Thrus Powered by Google Cloud

Today Wendy’s announced it is working with Google Cloud to develop a generative AI solution for drive-thrus called Wendy’s Fresh AI.

The new solution, which is powered by Google Cloud’s generative AI and large language model technology, will go into a pilot test next month at a Wendy’s company-operated store in Columbus, Ohio. According to the announcement, the new tool will be able to have conversations with customers, the ability to understand made-to-order requests, and generate responses to frequently asked questions. 

In contrast to general-purpose consumer interfaces for LLMs such as ChatGPT and Google Bard, Wendy’s Fresh AI will be walled off and tailored around interacting with customers ordering food at a Wendy’s drive-thru. According to the company, Wendy’s Fresh AI will have access to data from Wendy’s menu and will be programmed with rules and logic conversation guardrails, ensuring that the conversation bot doesn’t spout off about politics or culture when prompted, but focuses solely on helping customers get their burger order right.

The deal is a nice pick-up for Google, which has been on its heels to a degree since last fall when the OpenAI released ChatGPT. Google’s strength in enterprise platforms through its Google Cloud infrastructure services could possibly give it a leg up on other generative AI platforms, even though OpenAI beat the company to the fast food drive-thru lane through its partnership with Presto.

Wendy’s says that it will use the learnings from the pilot to inform future expansion of the platform to other Wendy’s drive-thrus.

Where Is This All Going?

The restaurant quick-service industry has been embracing digital transformation in a big way over the past few years as a way to remedy the industry’s continued struggle with finding qualified workers, and the fast food drive-thru is probably one of the roles could be largely automated with a well-tuned generative AI model. I can envision a hybrid model that utilizes a gen-AI as the first point-of-contact customer interaction layer, but has it backstopped by a remote carbon-based life form (i.e. human) that can step in when there is the first hint of something out of the ordinary. Think of it as a Gen-AI/Bite Ninja hybrid model (while Bite Ninja hasn’t announced any AI solution partnerships for its cloud labor platform, I would be surprised if those conversations aren’t already underway).

2023 Restaurant Tech EcoSystem: Nourishing the Bottom Line

In collaboration between TechTable and Vita Vera Ventures, we are pleased to share an updated 2023 Restaurant Tech Ecosystem map.

We all saw that the pandemic brought a wave of experimentation in the restaurant tech space, but we also know that tech-driven change is not always linear. 

In early 2022, we made bold predictions about the restaurant tech environment in 2023, as we anticipated numerous acquihires ahead (acquisitions primarily driven by tech talent vs strategic tech value). This was due to the tight tech labor market (at the time) and the increasingly challenging funding and interest rate conditions. 

However, with the recent wave of macro tech layoffs, the tech labor market is no longer tight, and we believe more restaurant tech companies may be forced to shut down rather than finding a soft landing through acquisition. We’ve already seen a strong reset on requirements for capital efficiency and valuations of startups in the sector. This macro shift may create potential for rollup opportunities, but many early-stage assets across the sector are overfunded single-point solutions and still subscale.

This is ironic as the need for tech-driven solutions has never been stronger, but companies without the right growth metrics will likely struggle to survive. The inflationary environment is also forcing harder decisions for operators, which may further dampen their willingness to engage with new solutions.

With that in mind, we are pleased to share our 2023 Restaurant Tech Ecosystem, which serves as a current heat map of the broader ecosystem within the US (and is clearly not exhaustive). 

Click here to enlarge/download image of map. Click here for downloadable PDF.

The Journey from Point Solutions to Comprehensive Tech Stacks

While single-point solutions for things like online ordering, loyalty programs, and delivery were popular during the pandemic, we have reached a moment now with perhaps too many point solutions in the market. 

Tech stacks that require too many logins are now in fact creating a cognitive burden for employees, rather than the intended promise of efficiency and ease of use. As a result, operators are beginning to seek integrated systems and smaller tech stacks that can do more. (See commentary in the previous section about rollup opportunities!) 

Restaurant tech advisor David Drinan succinctly identifies the near-term priority for most operators: “The restaurant industry is thirsty for technology innovation that will deliver high margin, incremental revenue.”

On the operational side, managers are still struggling with certain areas such as scheduling and inventory management. These tasks can be time-consuming, especially for independent restaurant owners who have limited resources. As a result, we have seen a growth category of solutions that can automate these functions and provide real-time data to help operators make informed decisions.

Help *Still* Wanted   

The labor shortage in the restaurant industry has been a major challenge for operators in recent years, and labor optimization is still at the top of every operator’s mind. The pandemic caused many workers to permanently leave the hospitality industry, leaving restaurants short-staffed. 

According to the National Restaurant Association, almost two-thirds of US restaurant operators say they do not have enough employees to support existing demand. Instead of replacing this lost workforce, many operators are turning to tech to automate more functions and reduce the need for human labor. 

From digital menus and ordering kiosks to automated kitchen equipment, there are many ways that technology can help restaurants operate more efficiently with fewer employees. By automating basic tasks such as taking orders and processing payments, operators can free up their staff to focus on more complex tasks that require human expertise, such as customer service and food preparation.

Another trend the restaurant industry is grappling with is the changing expectations of younger workers when it comes to the employer/employee relationship. With more emphasis on work-life balance, career development, and job satisfaction, younger workers are looking for more than just a paycheck. 

To meet these expectations, operators are looking for workforce management solutions that can help to improve engagement, development, and rewards for their employees. This includes tools for tracking and managing schedules, as well as innovative solutions for tip outs and other compensation mechanisms. By investing in these solutions, operators can not only attract and retain top talent but also improve the overall efficiency and productivity of their workforce.

Finally, it is worth noting that basic scheduling and labor management tools can have a significant impact on profitability by reducing labor costs and improving operational efficiency. By automating scheduling and timekeeping, for example, restaurants can reduce the likelihood of overstaffing or understaffing, which can be costly in terms of wasted labor or lost sales opportunities. 

In the end, the ability to leverage technology to optimize labor is critical for restaurants to remain competitive in a challenging operating environment. While kiosks and text ordering have shown promise in the QSR space, there are many other opportunities for technology to make a positive impact on the industry as a whole.

Ghost Kitchens: It’s Even More Complicated

In our 2021 restaurant tech retrospective, we had a lot to say about this growing subsector, including the challenges for success (a.k.a. profitability) within the confines of a ghost kitchen business model.  

Now, as the concept of virtual and ghost kitchens continues to evolve even further, it’s important for operators to understand the complexities involved and navigate these challenges to build successful ghost kitchen operations.

One major obstacle has been the potential for tension between virtual brands and existing businesses, where adding virtual brands can lead to direct competition with their own existing businesses. Finding the right tech and operational partner to balance between these two is key.

Additionally, ensuring food safety and maintaining quality standards across multiple brands can be a challenge. Many of the generic virtual brands have lacked distinct value or clear taste standards, leading to underwhelming food quality issues and removal from the major third-party delivery platforms.

Last Mile Magic

Making the economics work for restaurant delivery is a growing priority for the industry. This includes better interoperability between POS/Kitchen systems and delivery providers, better routing and batching systems, localized kitchens, and of course even the mode of transportation for delivery.

We are tracking over 20 companies in the North American unattended last mile category, but it is still early days with most (all?) of the solutions operating in limited geographies and customer trials. So we have left this slice off the infographic for 2023, but don’t forget to keep your eyes on the sky, as we’ve seen recent growth of backyard drone delivery companies which are proving to be faster and better for the environment (if they can outweigh the noise and regulatory concerns).

GenAI on the Menu

Tech entrepreneurs have long dreamed of personalized food recommendations, but few have succeeded in creating true personalization beyond dietary concerns, allergens, or ingredient likes/dislikes. 

However, we have now reached a unique moment where new technologies like ChatGPT will be able to create meaningful and personalized interactions with guests. This has always been the premise of a variety of AI-driven restaurant tech startups, but the ability to leverage the underlying data to engage and interact with guests in a truly personal and conversational manner is game-changing. 

By using data from previous orders and interactions alone, ChatGPT can help to create a more tailored experience for guests, from recommending menu items to offering personalized promotions. ChatGPT can become a critical part of a restaurant’s marketing team by creating content, with the ability to easily translate to different languages as well. This could give operators a crucial competitive advantage as consumers demand more personalized experiences. We have only begun to see the capabilities of ChatGPT with free templates being offered to restaurant operators already.

Moreover, conversational AI like ChatGPT can also be a valuable tool for restaurant operators seeking to understand their own operating metrics. By integrating ChatGPT into their tech stack, operators can ask natural language questions and receive real-time responses, empowering them to make informed decisions about their operations.

Emerging Restaurant Tech Concepts to Watch

  • Chat/AI across marketing and operations
  • Tech-enabled employee support and training (for example, personalized perks, tip-out options, or language choices) 
  • AI for scheduling to free up managers
  • Dynamic pricing
  • Reusable containers + tech-driven circular economy for foodservice 

Looking ahead –  As always, we welcome your thoughts and reactions, and look forward to continuing to follow this sector together in the coming years. Reach out to us: Brita@vitavc.com and hello@techtablesummit.com. 

Doordash & Roku Want You to Order Dinner Before You Stream That Next Episode of ‘The Last of Us’

Want to order dinner before watching that next episode of your favorite streaming series? Pick up your Roku remote, click on that special offer, and you’ll have piping hot food sitting in front of you before Ellie surprises or infuriates Joel once again.

That’s the hope anyway for the streaming company and Doordash, who together just announced a new multiyear partnership that makes Doordash a key promotion partner on the Roku platform.

Here are the specifics of the deal:

Complimentary Dashpass: New and existing Roku account holders with a linked streaming or smart home device can get six months of complimentary DashPass.

For those unfamiliar with Dashpass, the delivery company’s subscription plan allows customers to order food without being charged a delivery fee (which ranges from about $2-$5 nowadays). The Dashpass offer is a big win for Doordash since Roku has a massive subscriber base (65 million accounts as of November 2022), and converting just a percentage point or two of the streamer’s subscribers into paying Dashpash subscribers will be a big boost for the delivery company.

Shoppable Ad Offers: DoorDash will be the exclusive marketplace ad solution partner for DoorDash US restaurants and grocers that buy interactive shoppable ads on Roku for the first year of the partnership.

Today Roku gets the bulk of its revenue through advertising (and less every year from streaming hardware), which is why Roku customers (like myself) are seeing more ads pop up on the streaming device nowadays as they navigate their way to shows.

And now, the chances of those ads featuring a special offer for a restaurant down the street have gone up. DoorDash merchant partners can run ads directly on Roku, and if a customer decides to bite, they’ll get the TV ad promotion offer via SMS/email. From there, the customer is led to the storefront directly in the DoorDash app to redeem the offer.

Food delivery promotion via streaming isn’t anything new – Just Eat launched an Apple TV app in 2016 – but it’s getting easier to do as platform players like Roku bake partners like Doordash more tightly into the platform. But even after the attempt to make it easier to order food on our TVs has been going on for almost a decade, the integrations are still mostly about retrieving special offers.

I’d really like to see Roku or other platforms make it possible to see content from local restaurants and food makers I’m interested in. For example, imagine learning more about how the buzzy new pizza place in your town makes pizza or hearing from the chef about the latest item on the menu.

While It might not be smell-o-vision, it would still be pretty darn cool.

ClearCOGS ChatGPT Beta Will Help Restaurant Managers Predict If They’ll Run Out of Chicken

Last week, restaurant software technology company ClearCOGS announced a new ChatGPT-3-powered beta of their restaurant management software. According to the company, the new beta will enable restaurant owners to “understand and respond to even the most complex questions about your restaurant’s inventory, sales, and operations.”

According to a post on the company’s website, the ClearCOGS beta will enable real-time queries from managers about their operations using a natural language interface. The new pairing between the company’s predictive forecasting system and ChatGPT is designed to answer questions such as “What are my top selling items this week?” or “I only have 20lbs of chicken in inventory, what’s the chance I’m going to run out today?”. ClearCOGS says this will allow its customers to make informed decisions about their inventory and operations more quickly without more labor-intensive (and old-school) hours spent diving into spreadsheets and reports.

Last month, I wrote about how generative AI tools like ChatGPT could make a difference in the home kitchen, but it’s not all that surprising that we’ll likely see these tools enter the restaurant space. ClearCOGS is a back-of-house operations tool, and I expect we’ll see similar tools debut soon for front-of-house, customer-facing interactions as well.

ClearCOGS is currently accepting signups for the beta pilot of their ChatGPT-enabled system. Restaurants interested in participating can sign up on their website.

Watch LG’s Server Robot Bring Dishes to Customers at Popular Korean Restaurant in Georgia

One year ago, LG announced the debut of its new hospitality server robot, and now the Korean tech giant’s CLOi Servebot is showing up at restaurants like the Airang K in Johns Creek, Georgia. Since June 2022, four “LG CLOi ServeBot” robotic assistants from LG have been assisting wait staff by accompanying them to guests’ tables while carrying multiple dishes at once.

Initially, Arirang K had deployed two of the Servebots to help their employees but soon upgraded to four. “Everybody liked the first two so much that we upgraded to four LG ServeBots to maximize service levels and guarantee that every customer gets to see the robots in action,” said Miok Kim, general manager of Arirang K.

The LG Servebot has 11 hours of operating time and three shelves that hold up to 22 pounds. They also feature sensors and cameras that enable autonomous driving, obstacle avoidance, and recognition.

“As the CLOi Servebot is cruising down the path to deliver food to a table, if a chair is pulled out a little bit too far, It will notice the surroundings in the settings and direct to a different route,” said Brittany Marubio of LG.

If you haven’t seen a server bot in one of your favorite restaurants, chances are you will soon as the server-bot market pioneered by Bear Robotics is becoming more crowded. In addition to LG and Bear, solutions from Pudu Robotics and Keenon Robotics are also beginning to be deployed. Restaurants are using these robots to not only deal with understaffing but to take the burden off of employees and make their jobs safer.

“The main dishes that come on in our restaurant are mostly hot, and it can be dangerous,” said Taylor Robinson, a server at Arirang K. “So the LG Servebots are able to help us by bringing those dishes up for us and all we have to do is hand it right off at the table.”

You can see the LG Servebot in action in the video below:

LG ServeBot at Arirang K Restaurant

New McDonald’s in Texas Has Conveyor Belts & Two Drive Thru Pickup Lanes

If you partake in restaurant or foodie TikTok, you’ve probably seen a viral video of the new McDonald’s concept restaurant in Forth Worth, Texas.

The video, posted on December 17th, shows off the location’s automated drive-thru and an empty lobby with a couple of lonely ordering kiosks. Comments feature the usual mix of outrage, cheering, and sarcasm.

For its part, McDonald’s has been publishing its own videos and blog posts about the new restaurant since the beginning of December. The video below shows off the unique features of the concept store and how it makes life for food delivery drivers and on-the-go customers easier:

Watch on TikTok

The new location, run by second-generation McDonald’s franchisee Keith Vanecek, includes two drive-thrus, including one targeted at digital order customers called the Order Ahead lane. The Order Ahead lane utilizes a rotating vertical lift that brings the order from above and drops it onto a conveyor belt. From there, the conveyor belt shuttles the order to the customer, who picks it up through the window.

While it’s a bit reminiscent of the Taco Bell ‘dumbwaiter’ delivery chute unveiled earlier this year, it looks like the McDonald’s Order Ahead pickup is more akin to a second bank-teller window in that the customers’ order is sent across to the customer, and not -as is the case with the Taco Bell concept – put into the delivery chute from overhead by an employee working on the second level.

Whatever the mechanics, Micky D’s Order Ahead window is yet another signal that the big QSRs are beginning to embrace designs with multiple pickup points at a single location to avoid the order logjam that comes with a typical drive-thru design that zippers multiple order lanes into a single pickup lane.

Inside the store, in addition to kiosks, there’s a mobile order pickup shelving installation where customers can take and go their orders.

The new concept is another example of how QSRs are continuing to rethink the design of their locations as a larger share of their business goes through delivery and app-generated delivery. While this is the only McDonald’s location with these innovation concepts, the company has made it clear they plan to roll out ideas that they determine could benefit customers in other locations as part of their ‘Accelerate the Arches’ growth strategy.

Podcast: Hospitality in the Era of Web3 with Ben Leventhal

Ben Leventhal has nothing if not good timing. 

In 2004 the New York entrepreneur launched Eater at the dawn of the blogging era, when food media was still mostly legacy publications and message boards. 

After selling Eater to Vox, he launched Resy in 2014 just as restaurants were beginning to bristle at the data practices of legacy online reservation systems such as OpenTable. He’d eventually go on to sell his second company to American Express. 

And now Leventhal is looking to create his third founder success story with the launch of Blackbird, which he describes as “a new loyalty, membership, and payments technology company.” With Blackbird, Leventhal hopes to create consumer-friendly software that harnesses the features enabled by new platforms such as Web3 while pushing the technology into the background.

“Consumer software is consumer software,” Leventhal told me

In this episode, we discuss Ben’s journey from those early days, how the evolution of food media, the changes to reservation and other restaurant tech platforms, and how he envisions Web3 and other new technologies could change the game for small and independent restaurants. 

You can find out more about Ben’s new company at Blackbird.xyz. 

You can listen to the podcast by clicking play below, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

AI-Powered Colonel Sanders and Santa Voices May Be Coming to a Drive-Thru Near You

Are drive-thrus the next celebrity voice licensing opportunity?

If Presto Automation has its way, the answer could be yes. The restaurant automation company announced this week that it has launched a new custom voice solution that features different characters ranging from celebrity voices to restaurant mascots to localized voices with specific local dialects.

According to the company, the new Presto Voice feature allows guests to place orders in a conversational style and says its natural language recognition technology will allow it to operate even in high noise environments. In addition to celebrities and brand mascots such as Colonel Sanders, the technology will also enable offer seasonal voices (like Santa) and regional personalities such as local sports athletes.

In the release, Presto claims in a recent survey that 68% of consumers aged 18-44 years said that they are significantly more likely to use a drive-thru featuring celebrity voices. I’m personally skeptical about how persistent any boost in business computer-generated character voices would be, but I’m willing to be persuaded.

Celebrity voices or not, there’s no doubt that this type of technology will continue to gain traction as restaurant operators struggle to hire qualified employees. If Presto and other drive-thru automation technology prove to be reliable, my guess is the drive-thru employee at large national chains will become an endangered species within 5 years.