TOP PIZZERIA STATES

Best of all: Under xRobotics’ Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) subscription model, pizzeria operators pay only $1,500 a month. The company estimates a pizzeria with $1 million in sales will save an average of $7,000 monthly with the bot. A restaurant with between $600,000 and $700,000 in annual sales could save $5,000 a month on average. Installation and maintenance are free, and every pizzeria gets two robots for the same price. “The service part is the key,” says Alena Tikhova, a former pizzeria owner and xRobotics’ current chief marketing officer. “If a robot breaks down and is just sitting there, the owner would be very unhappy. So we always give them two robots. And whenever we upgrade to a new model, the restaurant automatically receives it for the same payment. Once xPizza Cube 2 comes out, they’ll get it without having to ask for it.”

Tikhova says the company has already sold 300 Cubes and is currently taking preorders from other pizza chains and independents.

In August, Picnic, another RaaS innovator, announced the pricing model for its Picnic Pizza System, which helps operators make up to 100 pizzas per hour. Monthly subscription prices for the system range between $3,500 and $5,000, depending on configuration and production volumes. Picnic plans to start shipping its system to pizzeria customers next year. “The continued labor challenge and the low operating margin of

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foodservice is putting a major squeeze on all types of operators and makes them more amenable to new technology solutions,” Picnic CEO Clayton Wood told PMQ back in January. “Since automation can deliver cost-effective, consistent quality, plus predictable timing and increased convenience for the consumer, its adoption is accelerating, and the momentum builds. The consumer still wants what they wanted before—quality, convenience, personalization—and automation of the food preparation process will be the best way to deliver on that need.”

Piestro, another leader in pizza automation, struck a deal with the 800 Degrees Pizza chain in August. Outfitted with moving robotic arms and dispensers for sauces and toppings, Piestro’s vending machines assemble and bake the pizza in about three minutes. Chef Anthony Carron, founder of 800 Degrees Pizza, has created recipes specifically for the machines, and the chain plans to place 3,600 units in high-traffic locations over the next five years. Piestro also announced a deal with Canadian pizza chain Fast Fired, which will market “Powered by Piestro” machines to its franchisees across the country.

Robots have infiltrated the waitstaff in a few pizzerias, too. Dominic Mannino, owner of East Coast Pizza in Pueblo, Colorado, hired a new robotic food runner earlier this year. Mannino has been short-handed on the floor for much of the year, so Bella, built by Pudu Robotics, arrived just in time. And Bella always has a smile on “her” face, even without actual lips. “It’s a great help for the waitresses we have right now,” Mannino told Fox News 21 in late September. “It’ll greet you, take you to your table and bring the food out to you.”

Just punch in the table number for an order, and Bella zips off. The bot can “feel” its way around the restaurant, keep a safe distance from customers and carry dirty dishes back to the kitchen.

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Meanwhile, Servi, from Bear Robotics, has been charming guests at Angelo’s Palace Pizza in Cumberland, Rhode Island, since the spring. Neither Servi nor Bella can take orders, but they free up human servers to spend more time with the customers. And so far, most guests love them.

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Hordes of compact, knee-high delivery bots already swarm American college campuses—and a few cities—around the country. “We saw demand for robot usage just go through the ceiling,” Alastair Westgarth, CEO of Starship Technologies, told the Associated Press (AP) in early November. “I think demand was always there, but it was brought forward by the pandemic effect.”

Starship now has more than 1,000 delivery robots in its fleet, with hundreds more on the way. They’re delivering food, especially pizza, on 20 U.S. campuses, and 25 more will be added soon, the AP reports. Starship’s rival, Kiwibot, says it has dispatched 400 robots to college campuses as well as downtown Miami, while Grubhub has deployed 50 robots from Russian tech company Yandex at Ohio State University.

Then there’s Pazzi, an automated pizzeria in every sense of the term. Located in Paris, Pazzi opened this year with a storefront sign that reads, “Come for the show. Stay for the pizza.” Robots