Vol. XXII, No. 10, October 2022
- Pumpkin breaks record for largest ever grown in North America
- Drinking is falling out of vogue
- Getting LBE design right the first time
- Healthy kids' meals trending in the restaurant industry
- Are Dave & Buster's comparable store sales really booming?
- How important are restaurant reviews?
- Participation in Halloween-related activities to be at pre-pandemic levels
- Pickleball's popularity and hospitality venues growing
- Interest in non-alcoholic beverages on the decline
- Define your ideal customer - or be magnetic to no one
- Davis Mega Maze Colossal Adventures' corn maze among country's best
- Keeping up with guests' increasingly dynamic preferences
- Robotics creating pizzatainment
- More thoughts on socialized gaming, aka competitive socializing
- Can competitive socialization work with F1 simulators?
Robotics creating pizzatainment
Driven by the post-pandemic shortage of workers, restaurants are turning to robots. Robots are flipping burgers, frying French fries, brewing coffee, and even delivering food to customers. Now along comes several startups using robots and artificial intelligence to churn out pizzas faster and cheaper than humans.
Top engineering minds are building robotic equipment that can stretch dough, slap on sauce, and sprinkle cheese and toppings without human intervention.
- Stellar Pizza, founded by a former SpaceX rocket scientist, will open this month in L.A. with a fleet of trucks staffed by robotic pizza chefs + human drivers.
- PizzaHQ in New Jersey has converted a traditional pizzeria into a robotic one, with plans to expand.
- Picnic Works is a tech company that leases the "Picnic Pizza Station" - a modular assembly line that can make up to 100 pizzas an hour under the supervision of one human attendant.
Click the photo to see Picnic Pizza Station in action.
When it comes to pizza, robots can save money. The most expensive ingredient on pizza is cheese. Humans are terrible at consistent portion control, typically adding up to 40% more cheese than the recipe calls for. Robots can get it precisely right every time. Another problem at pizza joints is the quality of the pizza can vary daily. With robotics, there is 100% consistency in every aspect of making and baking it.
Many pizza joints are also banking on a "pizzatainment" element to increase the appeal of their restaurants. It's fun to watch a robot make a pizza.
And when the pizza is done, a robot can deliver it to the table.
Vol. XXII, No. 10, October 2022
- Pumpkin breaks record for largest ever grown in North America
- Drinking is falling out of vogue
- Getting LBE design right the first time
- Healthy kids' meals trending in the restaurant industry
- Are Dave & Buster's comparable store sales really booming?
- How important are restaurant reviews?
- Participation in Halloween-related activities to be at pre-pandemic levels
- Pickleball's popularity and hospitality venues growing
- Interest in non-alcoholic beverages on the decline
- Define your ideal customer - or be magnetic to no one
- Davis Mega Maze Colossal Adventures' corn maze among country's best
- Keeping up with guests' increasingly dynamic preferences
- Robotics creating pizzatainment
- More thoughts on socialized gaming, aka competitive socializing
- Can competitive socialization work with F1 simulators?
