San Francisco’s Robot Restaurants Are Going out of Business

Kitchen Nightmares
 Jan 14, 2020

Futurism

Given its close proximity to Silicon Valley, it’s no surprise that San Francisco is one of the more tech-forward cities in the world.

Case in point: in recent years, a number of restaurants run to varying degrees by robots have opened in San Fran. But according to a new Business Insider story, if you’re hoping to enjoy a meal at one of the futuristic eateries, you better hurry — because many are already going out of business.

Closing Up Shop

In July 2019, Eatsa — a restaurant serving quinoa bowls via futuristic pickup windows — closed its locations in San Francisco because owners couldn’t pay the rent. Meanwhile, robotic coffee bar Cafe X closed all of its San Francisco locations except the one in the airport just this week, BI reports.

And in November 2018, Softbank-backed startup Zume pivoted from running a San Francisco-based restaurant for its pizza-making robot to focusing only on deliveries. On Wednesday, it announced it wouldn’t even be doing that anymore.

Food Failure

The failure of these San Fransisco-based robot restaurants could be attributable to the simple fact that they’re restaurants, a notoriously difficult business.

Or, perhaps BI is onto something when it posits that diners might just prefer that their food come with a side of human interaction.

READ MORE: Some of San Francisco’s robot-run restaurants are failing. It could simply be that we still want to be served by humans, not machines. [Business Insider]