Clear the Cache (Accept the Cookie)
Oh hello there!
As Led Zeppelin once sang. It’s been a long time, been a long time, been a long lonely lonely lonely lonely lonely … time.
Sorry I’ve been away. Well. Not sorry, it was the holidays after all. Life is hectic/busy around then.
Anyhoo let’s not ramble on (dad joke!).
Two things to note:
1.) I will have big news about OttOmate in either the next issue, or one shortly thereafter. It’s good news and I’m excited to share it with you all.
2.) I meant to do this before the new year, but I didn’t get to it. This issue is a clearing of the inbox. I got a bunch of interesting pitches over the past few weeks, and I didn’t see a lot of coverage for them, so I’m writing them up here.
Now let’s not be dazed and confused and get to the (recent) news:
Nala Robotics, which previously made such restaurant robots as the Chef 1.1 multi-cuisine robot, the PizzAIola pizza bot, and the Wingman frying robot, announced the Spotless robot dishwasher back in mid-December. According to the press announcement:
Spotless uses high-performance camera systems and machine learning to provide a complete dishwashing solution, from scrubbing to storage. This highly intelligent robot will remove leftovers, rinse and clean cookware, cutlery, dishware and glassware, as well as dry, stack and store hundreds of varieties of utensils and kitchenware.
So, it’s kinda like Dishcraft (which has been awfully quiet lately), but doesn’t seem to be a “dishes as a service” offering and more of a straight-up, well, dishwasher.
Renting a Spotless starts at $2,995 a month.
Robochef, which debuted a cookie making robot in 2021, added to its sweet-treat lineup with a new Cookie Shot robot. I had never heard of a Cookie Shot, but according to the press announcement:
Created in partnership with James Beard winning Chef Dominique Ansel for his Vegas location in Caesars Palace, the Cookie Shot SmartKiosk is designed to delight, entertain, and satisfy customers’ sweet tooth. The robot holds an inventory of the delicate handmade cookie shots, precisely fills them with chilled Madagascan vanilla milk, and serves up to 75 Cookie Shots per hour. Open 24/7, the SmartKiosk allows Caesars’ guests to indulge in a delightful dessert at all hours…
You had me at “chilled Madagascan vanilla milk.” Well, that’s not true. You had me at “cookie.” The robot holds 250 Cookie Shots and can dole out 60 of them per hour.
I wasn’t at CES this week — any readers out there who were try this?
Makr Shakr’s various robot bartenders served more than 1.7 million cocktails in 2022.
Jamba by Blendid is opening up a robot smoothie maker at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, GA this month. The installation is being done through foodservice giant Sodexo, which had previously installed a Jamba by Blendid bot at Georgia College.
The Jamba / Blendid partnership continues to move at, well, not lightning speed, but at a steady clip. This is the eighth deployment of a Jamba by Blendid bot to date.
Happy new year! Hope it’s a great one.
-Chris