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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Flippy 2

Chipotle Trialing a Tortilla-Making Robot Named Chippy, Eyeing Wider Rollout Later This Year

Today Chipotle announced they have launched Chippy, a tortilla-making robot.

The company is working with Miso Robotics, the company behind the Flippy fast-food robotic arm robot. As you can see below, Chippy is a slightly modified variation of Miso’s Flippy bot, only instead of flipping burgers or frying potatoes, the bot is optimized to make Chipotle’s tortilla chips.

A Look at Chippy, Chipotle's Tortilla-Making Robot

Apparently, the customization for Chippy included producing tortilla chips with varying degrees of seasoning to mimic the imperfect work product of more carbon-based life forms. “Everyone loves finding a chip with a little more salt or an extra hint of lime,” said Nevielle Panthaky, Chipotle’s Vice President of Culinary, in the release. “To ensure we didn’t lose the humanity behind our culinary experience, we trained Chippy extensively to ensure the output mirrored our current product, delivering some subtle variations in flavor that our guests expect.”

According to the release, Chipotle is currently testing Chippy at their innovation hub in Irvine, Calif., with plans to integrate Chippy into a Chipotle restaurant in Southern California later this year.

“The company is leveraging its stage-gate process to listen, test and learn from crew and guest feedback before deciding on a national implementation strategy,” the release said.

In other words, Chipotle is trialing Chippy to evaluate (and possibly prepare for) a potentially wider rollout of the robot to essentially automate the chip-making process.

If we were to predict end-of-year headlines for 2022, one of them could well be “The Year Restaurants Went All In on Robots.” Already we’ve seen news of White Castle and Pizza Hut making significant moves, and yesterday Bear confirmed numerous chains are doubling down on robotic servers. And now, we can add one of the country’s biggest fast-casual chains to the list of restaurants that are experimenting with transitioning one of the core employee functions to automation.

For Miso, the company has continued to gain momentum ever since the commercial launch of their second-generation kitchen robot last year. One reason for the embrace of their new generation robot is its flexibility. The Flippy 2, which the company first trialed at White Castle starting in September of 2020, can make all sorts of hot food, enabling the robot to be plugged into the various kitchens of different chains.

Q&A With Miso CEO Mike Bell About Building The Company’s Next-Generation Food Robot

This morning, Miso Robotics unveiled their second-generation restaurant kitchen robot, the Flippy 2. Having followed Flippy since the early days, it’s been interesting to watch the different phases and trials over the past few years as the company essentially developed what is arguably the first true high-volume quick service restaurant kitchen robot to hit the market.

Since today’s news essentially marked the culmination of a five-year journey to build a new robot crafted from lessons garnered from thousands of hours of operation in high-volume kitchens, I thought it would be a good time to catch up with the company’s CEO, Mike Bell, to ask him about the achievement and where he sees the company going over the next couple years.

Q: It seems Flippy 2’s out-of-the-gate deployment is the fry station. Do you anticipate also being able to have Flippy 2 be customized to work the grill at some point? 

A: Yes! Flippy is currently automating the fry station but it will, at some point in the future, develop the ability to fry burgers on a grill.  

Q: Are Flippy 2’s going to be deployed primarily in new-build kitchens, existing QSRs, or both in the near future? 

A: We’re planning on deploying Flippy in both spaces in the near future and we’re very excited about what will come in the next year. Currently, we have plans to deploy about a dozen additional pilots in the next few months, and we’re also in talks with several top restaurants and QSRs who are interested in bringing Flippy to their kitchens, both in the U.S. and overseas.  

Q: It seems to me Wavemaker products are sold via two purchase models: a full unit purchase with monthly support or a Robotics-as-a-service model where the lease pricing and support are built into the monthly fee. Is this the case for Flippy 2?

A: Yes, that’s correct, we will be offering Flippy 2 through a Robot-as-a-Service model, which allows us to bring our products faster and more efficiently to the back-of-house without an upfront cost. The final cost will really depend on the needs of each restaurant and the specific configuration Flippy 2 requires. 

Q: Are you planning on any potential new robots outside of the Flippy line for Miso, or is this the primary robot model line you will have for the foreseeable future? 

A: When it comes to robotics and automation, anything is possible. We can basically automate any task in the kitchen, and the back-of-house is full of low-hanging fruit.  

At Miso, we want to focus on those tasks that bring the higher ROI for our customers, those that can improve margins and have an immediate impact on their bottom line. So, after years of learning about real kitchen operations, we found that the frying station was in desperate need of automation and optimization. It has alarmingly high churn rates and is the source of many of the burns and accidents that take place in the kitchen.  

Flippy at the fryer was created to solve all those problems – but this doesn’t mean we are stopping there. We will continue to explore and expand our product lines, like we did with CookRight and the Automated Beverage Dispenser we built in partnership with Lancer Worldwide earlier this year, as long as it makes business sense. 

Q: Outside of White Castle, are you looking to deploy Flippy 2s in other QSR chains in 2022? 

A: Definitely! We are grateful for our partnership with White Castle, and we are looking forward to deploying additional units once our pilot is completed. And, as mentioned before, we also have about a dozen additional pilots underway 

Q: How long was the development process for the Flippy 2? 

A: The truth is thatFlippy has been in development for more than five years – we’re truly the only company learning at the level we are learning about real kitchen operations. And Flippy 2 is the result of many conversations and the feedback we’ve received from valuable industry partners, like White Castle, who deployed Flippy for the first time in September 2020.  

Q: Do you have any numbers you can give for total Flippy deployments at this time? Forecasted deployments for 2022? 

A: To date, we’ve had a total of six Flippy units working at different restaurant locations around the country, and we also have around a dozen more pilots underway. We have also been in talks with several top restaurants who are interested in taking Flippy overseas in the next year.   

Q: Do all new deployments now become Flippy 2s, or do you plan on keeping the Flippy 1 as an option for potential customers? 

A: Flippy 2 has been deployed in White Castle’s Chicago 42 location, and it replaced the machine we had working there for over a year.   

We’re confident that, with these new changes, Flippy 2 will help increase White Castle’s efficiency while improving the overall wellbeing of its employees.  

Once we complete the pilot program with this new unit, we have plans to deploy up to 10 additional Flippy 2 units to other White Castle locations throughout the country.