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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

restaurant

ChefHero Raises $12.6M, Expands its Buying Platform Into Chicago

ChefHero, on online marketplace that aims to streamline wholesale food and supply ordering for restaurants, announced today that it has raised a $12.6 million Canadian (~$9.8M USD). The round was led by Accomplice.co, with participation from Golden Venture Partners, Precursor Ventures and Math Ventures. This brings the total amount raised by ChefHero to $15 million Canadian.

Based in Toronto, ChefHero acts as an aggregator, making purchases to local suppliers on behalf of independent restaurants. Restaurants go on ChefHero to order things like produce, dry goods, meat, and other disposable goods like paper products. ChefHero places those orders with the wholesalers, who then fulfill delivery.

Working through ChefHero provides restaurants with a number of benefits, according to Co-Founder Saif Altimimi. First, it streamlines the ordering process. So instead of a restaurant going to separate suppliers for each item it needs, it can order everything through ChefHero. Second, because it is tying together orders from many restaurants, ChefHero is able to get volume discount pricing to save those restaurants money.

ChefHero currently works with more than 500 restaurants in the Toronto area. The company makes its money by charging a commission on the supplier side with the percentage dependent on the type of good and the amount ordered. The more restaurants that use ChefHero, the deeper discounts it can offer.

ChefHero was founded in 2016, has 65 employees. It plans to use the new money to build out a team and expand its recent move into Chicago, which is where one of its investors, Math Ventures is located.

Survey: Robots and VR to be Mainstream in Restaurants by 2025

Human-less restaurants may be stumbling a bit in their infancy, but a recent survey from Oracle predicts that robots and virtual reality will become mainstream in the restaurant biz by 2025.

The findings of the Oracle survey were presented at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas earlier this month. Here are some of the highlights (read the full story at Kiosk Marketplace):

Facial Recognition/3D Imaging
Nearly half of the consumer respondents said the use of facial recognition and 3D imaging would make their restaurant experience better. They like the idea of being identified without giving their name or showing a loyalty card.

On the restaurant operator side, 46 percent of respondents said facial recognition and 3D imaging would be mainstream by 2025. The applications for this tech would be both in the front and back of the house including security and food safety.

Virtual Reality
Restaurant operators see a benefit to using VR in their establishments, predicting it will become mainstream by 2025. They see its use in staff training and designing restaurant flow, as well as guest entertainment (enjoy that virtual filet mignon!).

Artificial Intelligence
It would be interesting to see how the researchers framed this question, since AI can be widely misinterpreted. But according to the survey, a little more than a third of consumers would like a more Netflix-y meal, with suggestions based on previous dining.

Roughly a third would also like to be automatically charged, eliminating the wait to pay. Combine this wish with the acceptance of facial recognition and your Minority Report-style experience isn’t that far off.

Robots
The restaurantbots are coming! “Many restaurant operators” anticipate robots becoming mainstream by 2025, performing tasks such as cleaning, food service and preparation and hosting.

The year 2025 is not that far off and readers of The Spoon are already preparing themselves today for the mainstream restaurant tech of tomorrow.

I Ate At Eatsa. Now I’m Convinced It’s The Future of Fast Casual Dining

Like most everyone, one of the reasons I love going to New York City is the food.

And after all, why not? The variety is endless, and every meal brings a chance to eat somewhere (and something) amazing. In just one three-day trip to the Big Apple this week, I got to eat  dinner at America’s best pasta restaurant, have lunch in the middle of Grand Central Station, and grab breakfast at one of the city’s best cafes with longtime former editor of Food and Wine, Dana Cowin.*

But the meal I got most excited about was a $10 Bento Bowl I had at eatsa. That’s because while I’d written a bunch about the quinoa-centric, tech-heavy restaurant startup, I’d yet to eat there, so I was intrigued to see what it was like to eat with a completely automated the front-of-house experience.

I ate @eatsarestaurant this week. Here’s a quick video recap of the experience.

A post shared by Michael Wolf (@michaelawolf) on

Here’s a quick recap of my experience:

The Walk-In Experience:  When I walked into the Madison Avenue eatsa, it was moderately crowded. At 3:30 in the afternoon it was late for lunch, so I’d expect even bigger crowds during lunch hour.

This location was loud. Of course, everything seems to be bustling in the middle of Manhattan, but this eatsa location was definitely louder than most fast food or fast casual restaurants I’ve been to, in no small part due to the loud music playing over the speakers.

I also noticed an eatsa employee in the lobby. I found this interesting because I wasn’t sure if anyone ever saw an employee when dining at eatsa.

The Order Experience: The order experience is straightforward. Before I could peruse the menu on one of the 8 or kiosks, I was asked to swipe a credit card. I was then given a choice of pre-made bowls or the option to build my own custom bowl.

Ordering food at eatsa

I found the menu simple and easy to understand. Once I chose a Chef’s bowl, I added a beverage and paid. The total price for my bowl was under ten bucks.

Wait and Pick Up: After checkout, my name soon appeared on a big screen above the wall of cubbies.

After ordering, my name appeared on a big screen under ‘Current Orders’

When my food was ready, the screen told me which cubby from which to pick up my meal. The total wait time was less than five minutes. When I picked my meal up, both my bowl and drink were there. However, my dining companion’s drink was missing, so he had to ask the eatsa employee to radio to the back and have them put a drink in the cubby.

How Was The Food?: You should know this: the food at eatsa is really good. I have to admit I wasn’t sure how much I would like a quinoa-centered meal, but the bento bowl I ordered was fresh, crispy and most of all, delicious. My friend Aaron Cohen ordered the hummus and falafel bowl and found it equally tasty.

Closing Thoughts

After eating at eatsa, here are my takeaways:

The whole experience was very low friction: Eating at eatsa is  just really, really easy to do. I walked in, ordered and started eating in about 5 minutes.  I think for lunch customers in busy cities or corporate dense suburbs, eatsa is perfectly optimized for quick pick-up-and-go lunches.

Price-value exceeds most restaurants. The food quality and taste are extremely high for the price. My meal was under ten bucks, lower than average when compared to pretty much any chain restaurant.

It’s not all robots…yet. In a way, I was happy to see a human employee in the lobby of eatsa. It became apparent with my friend’s missing drink why eatsa would need to have someone in the front of the house to answer questions and solve problems.

The mystery is part of the allure. Since we’re early in the robot-restaurant revolution, people are naturally curious about how the restaurant works. When I asked the young woman working up front what went on in the back of house, she said, “some people say it’s robots” with a twinkle in her eye and left it at that.

This is the future of fast food and fast casual. As CEOs from fast casual chains like Buffalo Wild Wings wring their hands about the future, eatsa is busy creating a new template that leverages automation to bring a high-quality, low-friction food experience to the consumer. While I don’t think all restaurants will automate the front-of-house like eatsa – after all, no one can replace a great maître d’ or the ambiance of a cool coffee shop with touch screen kiosk – I have no doubt that what eatsa has created is a glimpse into the future.

*Yes, that’s a humble-brag, as I’m a fan of Dana’s and you should be too (you can check her podcast here). And no, a Dana Cowin is not included with every meal at High Street on Hudson.

IoT Innovator Smallhold Sees Minifarms as Big Business

Believe it or not, those mushrooms you had in your go-to restaurant’s nightly pasta special were grown in the back, between the walk-in fridge and the spice cabinet.

Home grow systems are the buzz, keeping in mind that not everyone is blessed with a green thumb or the time and energy to maintain an indoor herb garden or heirloom tomato plants. Sensing an opportunity that could be solved using IoT technology and a dose of innovation, Brooklyn-based Smallhold has brought remote-maintained minifarms to the food industry.

Smallhold was among the 17 featured finalists at the recent Food + City competition in Austin. Recently, Smallhold was also one of four companies selected for a new program, Techstars Anywhere, a virtual accelerator program that is an offshoot of its prestigious brick and mortar origins.

“We believe minifarm technology and distributed agriculture is the future of farming,” says Smallhold co-founder and COO Adam DeMartino. “We see fresh and nutritious produce as the new norm no matter where you are – be it in midtown Manhattan or in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Smallhold Networked Minifarms employ the concept of vertical farming. The units fit in small spaces and are outfitted with Wi-Fi, which are monitored at company headquarters. The service starts with the company shipping its clients produce that is 75% grown, to be housed in a self-contained chamber, equipped with advanced lighting and water recirculation. With this approach, deployed at two restaurants and a Brooklyn produce hub, Smallhold is able to achieve 40 times the output per square foot of a traditional farm with 96% less water usage. The produce hub also supplies area restaurants and stores with gourmet mushrooms.

Adam and co-founder/CEO Andrew Carter met as roommates at the University of Vermont and became best friends. Andrew was heavily involved in the urban agriculture scene in New York, and started developing technology around mushroom production. Carter went on to work with startups in ag/tech space while DeMartino’s entrepreneurial spirit took him to startups Ghostery, Datorama and Futureclaw where he developed marketing and sales strategies.

While its IoT technology allows scale, Smallhold is patient in its approach with a vision of moving beyond servicing restaurants and grocery stores and making a mark in the consumer space. “We are very selective with our initial customers,” says DeMartino. “We want restaurateurs that will appreciate the produce and give us valuable feedback in how to improve our service, system, and produce.  This information is almost worth more than the revenue.”

Smallhold is not alone in the home grow/IoT farming market. Farmbot is offering an Arduino powered, open-source robo-farmer that can completely automate the growth of enough vegetables for one adult in a year; Sprouts I/O has an app-driven personal produce system in the works; Edyn can track growth conditions with its remote sensor and Gro.Io has an end-to-end smart hydroponic system including lighting, grow pockets and sensors.