Entirely robot-run, Mezli launches its first ‘fully autonomous’ restaurant in California
Fully-automated Mediterranean restaurant opens in San Francisco’s Mission Bay, offers more than 60,000 menu combinations
Mezli launches revolutionary robot-run restaurant in San Francisco
Mezli co-founder and CEO Alex Kolchinski explains his company’s fully autonomous robot-ran restaurant that recently opened in San Francisco on ‘Varney & Co.’
After two years in the making, a group of Stanford graduates is opening their first restaurant location where robots are serving up fresh meals for a low price.
"We started thinking through this in 2020, so almost two years ago now, when we realized we didn't really have any great, affordable, healthy food options on or around campus," Mezli co-founder and CEO Alex Kolchinski said in an interview on "Varney & Co." Friday.
Located in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood, Mezli offers Mediterranean-style bowls put together on a robot assembly line. Its menu features more than 60,000 customizable variations.
Customers walk-up to Mezli’s ordering touch screen, place their order and keep track of its process on their personal smartphones. When it’s ready for pickup, customers retrieve their food from a smart locker.
ROBOTS THAT STOCK DRINKS AT CONVENIENCE STORES AIM TO AUTOMATE ALL ‘BORING JOBS DONE BY HUMANS’
"The glass here actually turns clear when your order is ready, and your bowl comes out, you grab anything else you need, and you've got a healthy meal for a low price," Kolchinski explained.
Mezli co-founder and CEO Alex Kolchinski says the fully-automated restaurant offers a "healthy meal for a low price" on "Varney & Co." Friday, September 2, 2022. (Fox Business)
Mezli’s co-founder and CEO claimed the fully-automated restaurant makes the cost of operation cheaper for two reasons: fewer labor costs and less capital to return.
"One, is that these are actually a lot cheaper to build than a restaurant, so there's less capital to return," Kolchinski noted. "The other is that we have our staff in our central kitchen where they can do their job more efficiently, and onsite, we need barely any labor at all, so we're able to pass that savings on to customers."
In situations where customers may not be fully satisfied with their orders, Kolchinksi expressed that their first location has human staff on-hand to address any additional needs.
"But in the longer term, there's email and phone contact that the customers can reach out to us through so we can again step in," the CEO said.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
Robots are coming: Flippy 2 machine replaces human workers at restaurants
FOX Business correspondent Madison Alworth shares how kitchens are gearing up for the automated future with machines.
Each autonomous kitchen has a price tag just above $500,000, according to Kolchinski, and Mezli has plans to expand their robot-run restaurants.
"But we expect to be able to get that [price] down substantially because these are mass producible," he pointed out.