Fully Robotic Kitchen Slings Burgers And Fries At New SoCal Restaurant

PASADENA, CA — Burgers, fries and drinks. While the menu at CaliExpress by Flippy is basic, the new Pasadena eatery is anything but simple — its owners say CaliExpress is the world's first fully autonomous restaurant.

The result is a restaurant that serves precision-cooked food (thank you, robots) at lower prices with fewer employees and less waste, its owners say.

"To our knowledge, this is the world's first operating restaurant where both ordering and every single cooking process are fully automated," said John Miller, one of the executives behind the restaurant. "The marriage of these various technologies to create the most autonomous restaurant in the world is the culmination of years of research, development, and investment in a family of revolutionary companies."

Here's how it works:

• Guests order food on self-ordering kiosks
• They then watch their meal being prepared — the grill robot grinds wagyu-blend beef for each burger before putting it on the grill
• Flippy — the AI fry-cook robot already in use at other restaurants — cooks up crispy fries for exactly the right amount of time

The fully-automated grill and fry stations offer several benefits. Flippy helps prevent the threat of slips and burns for the kitchen crew and reduces the amount of food and oil waste, its owners say.

Naturally, the kitchen crew is smaller, and the owners say the automated nature of CaliExpress makes for a less stressful work experience with "above average wages," according to a release.

The cost savings for the restaurant allows the wagyu-blend burgers to be priced similarly to other burgers using standard meat, the owners say.

CaliExpress is a effort by Cali Group, a holding company that seeks to use tech to transform restaurants and retail; Miso Robotics, which created Flippy; and PopID, a tech company that aims to simplify ordering and payments using biometrics, according to a release.

The Pasadena restaurant also includes a "pseudo-museum experience" from Miso Robotics, which includes dancing robot arms from retired Flippy units, experimental 3D-printed artifacts from development and more, according to the restaurant.

"AI-powered, robotic order-taking and cooking enables the major chains that feed America to substantially improve quality, consistency and speed," said Rich Hull, CEO of Miso Robotics. "Miso is proud to partner with Cali Group and PopID to make CaliExpress by Flippy a reality. Flippy has been an incredible success story and now everyone in Southern California can come take a look — and a taste — for themselves."

Nationally, White Castle has already begun installing Flippy units and plans to use the robots at over 100 of its restaurants, according to reports.

Experts say that jobs that require lower levels of education and involve routine tasks have the greatest chance at being automated. Researchers estimate that anywhere from 9 to 47 percent of jobs across all industries could be automated in the future, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

An estimated 12.37 million people in the U.S. worked in food service and drinking establishments in December. The country's workforce totaled 161.18 million people that month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Fast-food workers at large chains in California are set to see a minimum-wage increase to $20 an hour later this year, a move that has prompted Chipotle and McDonald's to say they raise prices in order to cover the increased labor costs.

CaliExpress by Flippy is now open at 561 E. Green St. in Pasadena. Reservations can be made online.