Cafe X

This week, Cafe X will launch their second generation robotic coffee barista, the ‘Robotic Coffeebar 2.0’. I had a chance to catch up with Cafe X CEO Henry Hu and ask him a few questions about the new platform.

Are you using a different core robot (vs the Mitsubishi arm) with this new product?

Hu: The robot is the same but we worked with the San Francisco design firm Ammunition on the robot’s UX/personality and industrial design. We also designed a new gripper for the robot arm so that it can now handle 8oz hot cups, 12oz hot cups, 12oz cold cups and more in the future.

In talking about the robot, you indicated the new design allows you to put into almost any location. Are you looking to put Cafe X into smaller footprints later this year than your current walk-in coffee shops?

Cafe X’s Henry Hu

Hu: Not necessarily. The new design makes it easier to install a machine because it fits through standard double doors and has a smaller footprint. We could do more standalone units later this year like in the lobbies of office buildings but we could also do larger flagship stores with multiple machines inside to handle higher peak demand.

It looks like you are currently running a full-stack business model (develop tech, customer experience, own real estate and have employees in shop, etc), which is in a way reminiscent of Eatsa 1.0. Eatsa eventually transitioned to more of a technology provider model; Do you expect to explore other models such as putting Cafe X within existing coffee shops run by non-Cafe X employees?

Hu: We’re open to it but the current focus is own and operate. All locations are performing very well and we’re still getting great reviews from customers.

What is the dimensions/footprint of the CoffeeBar 2.0 vs the 1.0?

Hu: 2.0 takes about 40 square feet. It can pretty much go against a wall. The 1.0 needed over 100 square feet because it required rear access for our internal refrigerator so there had to be about 4-5 feet of space behind the machine.

Do you have any metrics on how many coffees 1.0 serves per day and how that could differ with 2.0?

Hu: Our Market St location is doing about 400 orders per day. We can do over 600 with the 2.0. With the 2.0, customers can now order multiple drinks using our new ordering app. We’ve also added some really great animations for the different drink customization options (syrups, milks, cup sizes, etc.) that were designed by Y Media Labs. I think this will naturally increase order volume too.

You previously offered one size cup. Will that change with the new platform?

Hu: Yup! Now we have 12oz hot drinks and we serve nitro cold brew (and nitro tea in a few weeks) in 12oz clear cups. All the cups are biodegradable/compostable.

Do you have any data/metric on cost comparisons of running a Robot Coffee bar vs. a traditional coffee bar?

Hu: It’s less, but our focus is on quality ingredients, drink consistency, exceptional customer service.

When the Cafe X robot coffee shop opened last year, it seemed like something one might see at a Disneyland rather than down on the corner next to the local bodega.

That’s because instead of getting a cup of joe from a tattooed young barista wearing a green apron, customers input their orders using a tablet and then proceeded to watch as a Mitsubishi robot arm prepared the coffee. Throw in the throngs of people crowded around the glass cage to snap pics to put on their socials, and the whole thing definitely had a Tomorrowland-meets-Boston Dynamics vibe to it all.

But when I visited the second Cafe X location last month, I started to see how the automated robo-barista could go from tourist attraction to everyday experience.  Not only had the crowds died down a bit as tech-drenched denizens of San Francisco have started to accept the idea of robot crafted coffee, but the coffee was decent, the service fast and the experience enjoyable. In short, when I squinted just right, I could see a future with Cafe X coffee shops installed pretty much anywhere.

As it turns out, that’s exactly what the folks behind the Cafe X are thinking as well. That’s because this week the company will debut its second generation coffee robotic coffee bar, a robotic ‘coffee shop in a box’ that can be installed in an office building, at the airport, or in the student union hall.

The new robot coffee shop – the company’s third -is in San Francisco’s financial district at One Third Plaza. The new shop will feature what the company is calling “Robotic Coffee Bar 2.0”, a smaller footprint, lower cost installation that takes up a total of 40 square feet and, as CEO Henry Hu told Curbed, can be installed with a forklift.

“The new design makes it possible for Cafe X to be in almost any location,” said Hu in the company’s announcement about the new platform.

In a way, Hu and his team look like they are taking what was a proof of concept and lab experiment and growing it into a company with a vision for the future. To do that, the company teamed up with industrial design firm named Ammunition to not only to create something that is not only less amusement park attraction and more coffee shop, but also a product that can be replicated at practically any location.

“Cafe X occupies a weird [design] space,” said Victoria Slaker, the vice president of industrial design at Ammunition. “It has to be credible at an architectural scale, but has to be manufactured in large numbers. . . It’s almost along the lines of building a car that happens to make coffee. You have to make a lot of them, and they have to have certain functionalities. It’s funny we ended up with these wing doors. We didn’t do it to be fancy—we’re not Elon Musk—but it totally made sense functionally.”

Long-term, it remains to be seen how much of the coffee shop becomes automated. There’s something of a natural tension between automation and what Howard Schulz designated as the “third place” in life. I also think the best baristas – like the best chefs – can’t be easily replaced with a robot. While Cafe X is pointing to new artisanal-ish type of features such as the ability to serve single-origin roasts and serve up nitro coffee on tap, these extras are not gonna replace a full-fledged third wave coffee experience like that of Blue Bottle anytime soon.

But hey, not every coffee I buy is Blue Bottle quality. Like most, sometimes I just want a decent espresso or latte, and I want it now. And, if Hu and his team have it their way, there will be a lot more robotic baristas around in the future to help me scratch that quick-coffee itch in the future.

You can see the Cafe-X Coffee Bar 2.0 in action in the video below: