Robotic specialty coffee shop debuts
Cafe X makes 120 drinks an hour
SANFRANCISCO— As Katy Francowaited for her morning coffee, passersby pulled out their phones and snapped photos and video of her barista.
A man in his 20s did a double take, recorded the scene on his iPhone and posted it to Instagram. Anotherwoman drifted toward the barista and asked no one in particular: “What’s going on here?”
Franco’s baristawas a robot. It’s part of an automated coffee shop called CafeX— the latest example of the San Francisco’s dual infatuations: artisanal coffee and automated technology. “It’s incredibly convenient,” Franco said.
Moments earlier, Franco had ordered her coffee using the CafeXmobile app. Nowa white robotic arm, the same kind used in car manufacturing facilities, was moving around a paper cup, pushing on syrup levers and brewing her a hot cup of coffee.
“I prefer this because you don’t have to wait,” said Franco, whose coffeewas made in less than aminute. “It even accepts PayPal.”
HenryHu appreciates the validation. Hu, a 23-year-old college dropout who founded Cafe X, envisioned his coffee kiosk as the answer to longwaits at coffee shops: Awell-made cup of coffee delivered quickly, efficiently and at a relatively lowcost. A flat white at CafeXis $2.95.
On the speed front, CafeXcan make a hot espresso beverage in less than a minute and is able to pump out 120 coffee drinks in an hour. A CafeXkiosk can occupy as little as 50 square feet, although its footprint in San Francisco’s Metreon shopping mall is a little over 100 square feet andwasmost recently home to another automated tenant: a Bank of America ATM.
Encased in plexiglass, the kiosk contains two coffee machines equipped to brew Americanos, espressos, cappuccinos, lattes and flat whites. Customers can order their drink from the CafeXmobile app or at one of two iPads mounted outside the kiosk. The entire transaction is cashless, and customers even get a notification on their phone when their coffee is ready.
“It’s similar to calling an Uber,” Hu said. “It’s for people whowant a grab and go coffee, who want consistency.”
Tech investors have started dipping their toes in the food industry, backing the meal replacement startup Soylent, the fake meat firm Impossible Foods and specialty coffee roaster Blue Bottle, among others. CafeXis raising cash fromthose who seek a confluence of the familiar (technology) and the new (food).
In addition to securing a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship last year (a grant awarded by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel’s foundation to college dropouts whowant to form their own companies), Hu has raised $5 million in venture capital to expand CafeXto more locations. His12-person startup built the first Cafe Xkiosk inHongKong last year. The second kiosk— and the first in theUnited States— sits across from anAMCticket counter inside the Metreon.
“People, millennials in particular, don’twant towait in line,” said Ben Ling, an investor from Khosla Ventures, whose firm has also invested in the automated San Francisco quinoa restaurant Eatsa. “CafeXreally solves that problem of the ordering efficiency. Froma user perspective, it’s vastly superior.”
Automation helps keep costs lowfor business owners, which makes products and services more affordable for consumers, Ling said. That’s why automation, particularly in the food service and hospitality industries, seems inevitable.
Self-driving cars are already being tested on U.S. roads. Manufacturing facilities andwarehouses have already automated entire professions.
And while a multipurpose robot that can do everything that awaiter or chef can do is still a ways off, artificial intelligence and industrial robotics have advanced to the level where they can begin chipping away at the more menial parts of a food service job.
“Anything that has highly repetitive tasks that don’t require judgment is suitable to be automated,” Ling said.
With job loss always a top issue, a coffee shop that does away with baristas or a lunch spot that does away withwait staff could spark outrage.