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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Little Ceasers

Subway Partners With Beyond Meat for Plant-Based Meatball Sub

Subway joined the growing number of QSRs offering plant-based meat options this week, announcing a new partnership with Beyond Meat.

The two companies will start testing the Beyond Meatball Marinara sandwich, a plant-based take on one of Subway’s classics, in September, according to a press release. The sandwich will be available in 685 Subway restaurants for a limited time in the U.S. and Canada. Subway didn’t specify how limited that time would be or what happens afterwards. Presumably, the Beyond Meatball Marinara will be available as long as supplies last, and its expansion will depend on how popular the sandwich proves during this testing phase.

Subway is the latest fast-food outlet to start offering a plant-based option on its menu. At the end of last month, Beyond added a partnership with Dunkin’ to sell plant-based breakfast sandwiches in NYC. Beyond also has menu items at chains like Del Taco and Carl’s Jr., as well as a strong retail presence in grocery stores. The company even launched a new ground-beef-like product at Whole Foods earlier this summer.

Impossible, meanwhile, is set to do a nationwide rollout of its Impossible Whopper at Burger King this week. The company, who is Beyond’s chief rival, already works with White Castle as well as some non-burger chains like Qdoba and Little Caesar’s. Impossible is also (finally) heading to retail stores this September.

Given the surging popularity of both Impossible and Beyond, we can expect the list of QSRs testing out plant-based options like these to keep growing throughout the rest of the year.

Domino’s Just Delegated Phone Orders to Its Resident Chatbot

Ordering food online has never been easier, but that doesn’t mean everyone wants to do it. In fact, the phone still the preferred method for most consumers. Trouble is, placing orders via phone means more room for human error, since anything from a spotty connection to bad hearing can lead to incorrect orders.

With that in mind, Domino’s just officially unveiled a method that could leverage the accuracy you get with technology without forcing people to go full digital if they don’t want to.

Its (his?) name is DOM, and while this chatbot-like being has been accepting orders online since 2014, this is the first time the AI-powered voice-recognition system will also be taking telephone calls. DOM can also answer questions when customers call to check on the status of their order. 

“While many of our orders come via digital platforms, there are still millions of customers who like to call in their orders directly to their local stores,” Dennis Maloney, Domino’s Chief Digital Officer, said in a press release. “DOM can now take those orders, freeing up our store team members to focus on preparing orders and serving customers already in the lobby.”

Domino’s has quietly been testing DOM’s phone skills in a handful of company-owned locations over the last few months. Initial feedback was positive enough to expand the test to 20 stores, and Domino’s says it plans to implement the service in more sites over the next few months. 

Meanwhile, Domino’s CEO and President, J. Patrick Doyle, noted (in the same press release) that the company’s goal is to “one day be 100% digital.”

The trailblazing pizza company is well on its way: Currently, 65 percent of its U.S. sales are digital, and Domino’s is continually testing new concepts and ideas, be they self-driving delivery robots or giving customers 15 different ways to order digitally on Superbowl Sunday.

But they’re not alone. Papa John’s claims 60 percent of its sales are digital and says it’s more like Amazon than a brick-and-mortar retailer. Likewise, Pizza Hut addressed its dragging sales by starting a loyalty program and allowing people to order via Amazon Echo. And Little Caesars recently filed a patent for a pizza-making robot, which means they too have an eye towards technological solutions.

So is pizza the new tech company? Actually, it’s a good route to test out these new concepts. The worldwide pizza market is currently worth $134 billion, and one doesn’t need a statistician to predict that the pizza-eating population isn’t declining anytime soon.

But as Domino’s implied when it announced this week’s news, not everyone is ready to hang up the phone and order exclusively through digital. “Voice is a more natural way for people to interact with technology,” Domino’s CEO and president, J. Patrick Doyle, noted in the press release.

It could be this flexibility that gives Domino’s an edge over its competitors. DOM gives the company a way to meet the needs of less tech-savvy customers without sacrificing its digital strategy. That combination could mean Domino’s is headed for absolute dominance sometime soon.