admin Chili’s Grill & Bar, the Brinker International-owned casual dining giant with over 1,600 restaurants across 29 countries, is looking to mitigate its front-of-house labor challenges with the use of a robot that serves food, beverages and buses tables at 10 of its restaurants.
Details on the Expected Shift
Recently, Nicole Cipani, Instructional Designer at Brinker International, shared the news in a LinkedIn post. The server robot is dubbed “Rita” and was created by California-based restaurant and hospitality technology company Bear Robotics. “Well ladies and gents … from coast to coast, Rita is officially live in 10 restaurants!” Cipani wrote.
As Chili’s is testing out automated solutions for its front-of-house operations, Inspire Brands-owned sports bar chain Buffalo Wild Wings, which has more than 1,200 restaurants across nine countries, is looking into new ways to automate its kitchens. The California-based restaurant automation company Miso Robotics announced that the bar chain had begun testing out the tech company’s robotic chicken wing fryer, Flippy Wings, at Inspire Brands’ Innovation Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
Robots as the Future of Food Chains
“Technology is making a fundamental impact on the end-to-end restaurant operational model,” Paul Brown, CEO of Inspire Brands, said in a statement. “Intelligent automation including AI and robotics will not only transform how we communicate with and take orders from our guests but also how we prepare and serve food to those guests.” The robot will soon be installed at Inspire Brands’ Alliance Kitchen ghost kitchens, with plans to come to a consumer-facing Buffalo Wild Wings location in 2022. Miso Robotics states that its research shows that the robot increases food production speeds by 10% to 20%.
“I’d say partially automated or semi-automated food production — that’s going to be the norm within five to 10 years, no doubt,” Stephen Klein, Co-Founder and CEO of Hyphen, a tech company that launched the first robotic make-line over the summer, asserted in an interview. “If you’re ordering from your phone, and the only interaction you’re having with the restaurant is through that digital device, it really doesn’t matter who’s making your food, as long as it’s fresh, fast and consistent.”
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