[imagesource: Spyce]
You’re looking at Brady Knight, Michael Farid, Luke Schlueter, and Kale Rogers, the four co-founders of Spyce, a Boston-based restaurant.
Given that Spyce is spelt with a ‘y’, and one of the co-founders is named Kale, the fact that it’s a rather unique restaurant concept shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Spyce is a “robot-centric” restaurant, and earlier this week it announced a totally revamped concept.
Here’s Fast Company to set the scene:
The first thing you do at Boston fast-casual eatery Spyce is line up at a digital kiosk. There, you select a salad or bowl like The Bungalow, a brown basmati rice bowl with coconut curry sauce, brussels sprouts, carrots, and chili lime cashews. If that doesn’t appeal, you can also order take-out online…
But then things get interesting. While several pairs of hands might touch an order from Sweetgreen or Just Salad on an assembly line, often the first person at Spyce who touches your food is you.
That’s because all of Spyce’s food is cooked using robots in a setup that Spyce calls the “Infinite Kitchen.” A bowl travels along a conveyor belt as ingredients cooked at different temperatures are dropped in through a series of funnels. Super-heated steamers heat grains that can be used as a base, while ingredients like proteins are seared on hot planchas until they are caramelized and dropped in.
Pretty much a fully automated kitchen.
Now you can work your chefs to the bone for days on end, much like a normal restaurant, without the bother of having to listen to their gripes at the end of the shift.
A tip of the hat to chefs and kitchen staff working long, long hours for paltry pay in this country.
For a little idea of how Spyce’s Infinite Kitchen works, here’s a Mashable video that starts playing of its own accord.
You may need to refresh to watch it:
Then there’s this, from Spyce themselves:
The idea of an automated kitchen is also timely, given that there’s a global pandemic on, but there is still some human involvement:
The company has built its own delivery system instead of relying on third-party apps like Uber Eats. Spyce has hired a team of drivers to deliver food on zero-emission electric mopeds and created separate compartments in their carrier bags to keep cool and warm ingredients at the right temperatures.
Spyce may have fewer employees in the kitchen, but makes up for it with its number of delivery employees…
“Because we can staff the team more lean, we can pay the few employees we have in the kitchen above market, and hire a team of drivers as W2 employees,” [co-founder Farid] says.
Save money in the kitchen, treat delivery drivers better.
Decent trade-off.
Given that the new kitchen concept has just launched, it’s too soon to say whether or not it’s a concept that’s going to take off.
Let’s check back in further down the line and see.
[sources:mashable&fastcompany]
