

Eatsa, a fully automated restaurant, opens today - robbyking
http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2015/08/31/fast-food-reinvented-eatsa-a-fully-automated-restaurant-opens-today/

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nfoz
> there is a team of about five or six back-of-house kitchen staff (or as I
> like to imagine, magical elves) who are hidden from view and prepare the
> food. There’s also one attendant on hand to help the tech challenged.

So no, it isn't fully automated. Just the front staff. That's not nearly as
interesting, and the headline is intentionally misleading.

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kagamine
It's essentially a drive-thru that you walk through and there is only one
person to complain to when you find a bug in your salad. I don't see how this
is anything "new" at all.

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todd8
In 1964 my parents took me to a restaurant in New York called an Automat (see
[http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/revisiting-
the-...](http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/revisiting-the-era-of-
automatic-dining/)). It had a wall with little windowed doors that would open
for a few coins. Inside were dishes of food that one could take to your own
table.

Off topic aside: we were in New York to go to the 1964 World's Fair. All I
remember of that was the IBM pavilion. There I wrote handwritten digits on a
card (in little boxes) that a machine read and printed out. Even then I was
fascinated with computers.

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vinay427
>As it’s all automated, be aware that the restaurant only accepts credit
cards. No cash.

I understand the allure of credit cards for their target marker, but has the
author not heard of vending machines, ATMs, and other automated cash handling
systems already in place? Those need regular maintenance, to be fair, but
considering there's a regular staff of cooks that wouldn't be a problem.

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crdoconnor
Not exactly a new concept:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_%26_Hardart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_%26_Hardart)

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bullsbarry
So for those of us on the east coast, this is what Wawa has been doing for
years now. Except now you can't mill around watching them prepare your food.

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michaelmior
This vaguely reminds me of a "restaurant" I ended up at in an industrial area
in France while staying near the airport for a flight the next day. The entire
place consisted of one wall of frozen foods and another wall of microwaves.
Not completely automated but pretty minimal human involvement since you had to
microwave your own food.

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JoeAltmaier
So 'fully automated' means 'partially automated', i.e. just the order-takers
are missing. Still a kitchen; still busboys; still hand-made food delivered to
a cubby with your name on it.

I guess 'fully automated' means 'lousy service' now.

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sdm
This is a pretty common thing -- except the glass door cubby hole thing that
your food gets put in. You find in a lot of Taiwanese restaurants machines at
your table for ordering, requesting things like water and utensils, etc. Yes
they have people who bring these things out to you, but otherwise it doesn't
sound too different. What's new here? If it was machines preparing the food
the title might be more deserved.

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Pinatubo
San Francisco plans to raise its minimum wage to $15 in a couple of years.
Expect to see more businesses that follow this model.

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technofiend
Considering the recent troubles with Listeria Blue Bell had I would be very
worried if all the food was automatically prepared. I don't think we're there
yet food-safety-wise; can a machine detect and clean foreign object
contamination, yet? Probably not.

