Chipotle’s founder, Steve Ells, is aiming to open a new kind of restaurant: tiny, automated eateries staffed by robots and a handful of humans. According to documents obtained by the New York Post, Ells has been pitching the concept, called Kernel, to potential investors, and plans to open the first restaurant in Manhattan later this year.
Kernel’s model involves three human workers utilizing robots for an efficient assembly line. As described in the investor pitch, Ells claims that this concept “fundamentally rethinks labor, technology, real estate, and menu.” The menu could include a wide selection of items, from hamburgers to acai bowls.
Ells was the founder of Chipotle, the hugely successful chain of fast-casual restaurants that he had been CEO of until 2017. The final stepping down was caused by numerous outbreaks of foodborne illness at Chipotle locations, but the chain now consists of more than 3,000 restaurants.
In recent years, various restaurants have experimented with robots and other technologies to reduce their reliance on human workers. Chili’s, for example, utilises a robot called Rita at some of their stores, and White Castle has tested out using ‘Flippy’, a robotic burger-flipping machine from Miso Robotics. Chipotle has thoroughly tested a tortilla chip-making robot known as ‘Chippy’, from the same creators as Flippy.
In addition, AI is being utilized to streamline customer service at fast-food chains like McDonald’s and Wendy’s. Whilst the concept from Ells’ Kernel is novel, it is a fairly logical adaptation of such developments.
Ells had the idea for Chipotle in 1993, with the first restaurant appearing in Denver. His goal with the company was to popularise fast-casual dining and, with the founding of Kernel, he is aiming to cast a new light on the food industry on a much smaller scale. Whether or not the concept of tiny restaurants staffed by robots proves successful will likely be determined when Kernel opens its doors in the coming months.
