Technology that began as a way to give the wait staff a helping hand has become a mainstay for Rachel’s Kitchen.
In late 2021, the Las Vegas-based fast-casual franchise began utilizing a robot server, Servi, at its largest location. The bot, developed by the company Bear Robotics, regularly brings dishes to and from the kitchen to guests.
Rachel’s Kitchen founder and CEO Debbie Roxarzade
Founder and CEO Debbie Roxarzade said she initially became interested before the coronavirus pandemic when she started seeing the technology popping up at a few other companies.
“I started to look more seriously at them during COVID,” Roxarzade said. “We were looking for ways to help the team that was there, when it was a hard time to get new team members and all of the other challenges for the industry. I thought it would be a great way to lend an extra hand and also another way to allow customers to come back to restaurants while not having as much exposure.”
The robot is programmed with a full map of the restaurant and a layout of the seating areas. With a home station behind the restaurant’s counter, staff will load the robot with dishes which it will then bring to the table, and ensure everything is off its trays before it moves on.
“If there’s something left on the tray, it will wait until the customer takes everything and then go back to its station,” Roxarzade said. “You can program it to go wherever you want, but we have it stay at our front counter so we can easily utilize it.”
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So far, the robot is at just one of the brand’s nine locations. Because of the cost, Roxarzade said she doesn’t plan to install more robots at existing restaurants, as they’re smaller. However, should additional larger-sized locations open, the brand will add the technology, as guests have taken a liking to it.
“Very early on, when we first put it in, there were some people saying, ‘Please don’t let this replace your staff, we don’t want this taking peoples’ jobs away,’” Roxarzade said. “But we explained it’s not here to take anyone’s job, it’s to help our team because they’re working hard and we were having trouble finding people.
Servi is the robot model from Bear Robotics that Rachel’s Kitchen has been using at its largest location.
“Once people understood that, the response has been very positive,” Roxarzade said. “A lot of people are enjoying it and kids love it. It makes operations easier for us, too. Our team isn’t needing to run plates back and forth. The robot can take an order to a table and the server can start on the next table before checking on the other one.”
Along with Rachel’s Kitchen, Bear Robotics is partnered with brands such as Buffalo Wild Wings, Denny’s, Sergio’s Cuban Restaurants and Marriott. Along with the hospitality industry, Bear Robotics has also deployed its products in healthcare, retail and real estate spaces.
In restaurants in particular, robot servers are growing in popularity. Buffet franchise Golden Corral, for example, is testing serving robots from Richtech Robotics. The technology is moving outside of restaurants, too. Marco’s Pizza, for example, began testing autonomous delivery robots over short distances in October 2023.
At Rachel’s, in addition to the robots, the brand is testing AI solutions to answer the phone and take simple orders.
“The way I look at it is the technology that’s coming in is all to help the team so they can be more hospitable to the guests,” Roxarzade said. “I feel like if there’s a server robot bringing food, or online orders are coming in and being answered automatically, the team has more time to spend with the customers or those coming in for pick-up.”