Latest / Choppin’ It Up by Bloomberg Intelligence / Kiosks Can Boost Guest-Check Average and Margin

Transcript

Kiosks Can Boost Guest-Check Average and Margin · Choppin’ It Up by Bloomberg Intelligence

0:23
Speaker 1: Welcome to Chopping it Up. I'm your host, Mike Hanlon,
0:25
Speaker 1: the senior Restaurant and food Service Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
0:29
Speaker 1: Our research and that of bi's five hundred analysts around
0:32
Speaker 1: the globe can be found exclusively on the Bloomberg terminal. Today,
0:36
Speaker 1: we're joined by Brandon Barton, the CEO of Bite, the
0:39
Speaker 1: leading provider of intelligent KIOSK solutions for fast, casual and
0:43
Speaker 1: quick service restaurants. Thanks for doing this, Brandon.
0:46
Speaker 2: Mike, thank you so much. Really appreciate having me on.
0:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, you got it, man. I know you've been traveling
0:51
Speaker 1: a lot lately. Where you were at home this week?
0:54
Speaker 1: You on the road? What have you been up to?
0:56
Speaker 3: I'm mat this, this is the office, I'm at home.
0:59
Speaker 3: It's nice to be on the road. Next week home,
1:01
Speaker 3: the week after that, on the road next week after that.
1:03
Speaker 2: Life will the startup CEO?
1:05
Speaker 1: You know? Yeah, yeah, I know. A last time we
1:07
Speaker 1: spoke at Prosper he said you were busy. It's cool man,
1:10
Speaker 1: I know you're a big wine guy. You have anything
1:12
Speaker 1: you're looking forward to drinking this weekend?
1:14
Speaker 2: Well, not even this weekend.
1:16
Speaker 3: You know, I've tried to make a little you know
1:18
Speaker 3: thing happen at every time I go to these events
1:20
Speaker 3: in the conferences, I didn't do it a prosper because
1:22
Speaker 3: I wasn't not there for a long enough amount of time.
1:24
Speaker 3: But I like to bring big bottles of wine and
1:27
Speaker 3: introduce people to you know, old wines and what they
1:31
Speaker 3: taste like. So there's a nineteen eighty one shob that
1:34
Speaker 3: I'm bringing to fs Tech next week. But other than that, no,
1:40
Speaker 3: just you know, at home, just drink the casual stuff,
1:43
Speaker 3: cheap stuff, just you know, dinner wine, table wine.
1:46
Speaker 1: Okay, cool. Talk to me a little bit about your
1:49
Speaker 1: career journey prior to bite.
1:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you for asking.
1:53
Speaker 3: So I have spent my entire career in restaurants, if
1:58
Speaker 3: you really want to go back to it starts when
1:59
Speaker 3: I was fourteen years old and you know, needed to
2:01
Speaker 3: make make some money to you know, get the new
2:04
Speaker 3: Jordans and whatnot. So I was busing tables at this
2:07
Speaker 3: amazing little burger restaurant in Bay Ridge called Skinflints. But
2:12
Speaker 3: you know, I had not exactly realized that, let's say,
2:16
Speaker 3: being a restaurant tour was a career path for me
2:19
Speaker 3: until I was fortunate enough to go to Cornell.
2:22
Speaker 2: But I didn't go to the hotel school.
2:23
Speaker 3: Figured out that there was the best hotel school in
2:25
Speaker 3: the world there and immediately transferred in. So my passion
2:28
Speaker 3: for a restaurant goes way back. But after college, I
2:32
Speaker 3: worked in a couple of amazing restaurant groups, including Union
2:35
Speaker 3: Square Hospitality Group, where you know, I didn't get an MBA,
2:38
Speaker 3: but I got an MBA in hospitality from Danny and
2:41
Speaker 3: the amazing crew that's there, Randy Gurrudy, Terry Coglin, Wilkodera,
2:45
Speaker 3: those folks who were coming up at the same time
2:47
Speaker 3: as I was. But then I made the switch over
2:50
Speaker 3: to tech. You know, there was always a part of
2:52
Speaker 3: me that wanted to make a big, scalable impact on
2:56
Speaker 3: the business. And you know, after working in a couple
3:00
Speaker 3: of different restaurant tech startups, I found myself as the
3:03
Speaker 3: fourth employee at Rezi and so we set out with
3:06
Speaker 3: an incredible aspiration to beat up Open Table. Open Table
3:11
Speaker 3: was charging restaurants a dollar per guest to come in,
3:14
Speaker 3: and we didn't think that that was right. The busiest
3:15
Speaker 3: restaurants were being charged way more proportionally than they should
3:19
Speaker 3: be than the value they were given to Open Table.
3:22
Speaker 3: You know, by signing up all these people to Open
3:24
Speaker 3: Table's platform, and I'm very proud of the work that
3:26
Speaker 3: we did at Rezi to really be a contender.
3:30
Speaker 2: If not.
3:30
Speaker 3: Now it's a two horse race, if you will, as
3:33
Speaker 3: Resi's announced their acquisition of Talk, so we acquired Reserve,
3:37
Speaker 3: which was a competitor at the time. So now it's
3:39
Speaker 3: you know, Resie and Open Table still fighting that battle.
3:42
Speaker 3: But needless to say, I've had a ton of years
3:46
Speaker 3: in restaurants and restaurant technology, more than i'd probably like
3:49
Speaker 3: to admit.
3:50
Speaker 1: On the air, bay Ridge man, that you got your
3:53
Speaker 1: start in bay Ridge as some great restaurants there. In
3:55
Speaker 1: the mid two thousands, I spent a lot of money
3:58
Speaker 1: at the Pearl Room and one on one's you know,
4:00
Speaker 1: it's funny, Mike, you'll you'll relate here. Everyone gets gaga
4:04
Speaker 1: about this espresso martini thing, and let me tell you
4:07
Speaker 1: the Pearl Room was serving espresso martinis back then.
4:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, for what it's worth, you know,
4:14
Speaker 3: I don't know if this is a New York scene,
4:16
Speaker 3: but it certainly was a Brooklyn Third Avenue scene that
4:19
Speaker 3: you and I both probably have shared drinks in the
4:21
Speaker 3: same room. And it's fun there's a night life there.
4:25
Speaker 3: It's its own little thing. And some of the funny
4:28
Speaker 3: things that I think, you know, we look at today
4:32
Speaker 3: and say that's like like an espresso martini or like
4:34
Speaker 3: the obsession with bagels and everything. It's like, yeah, this
4:37
Speaker 3: might have came out of you know, Italian American culture
4:40
Speaker 3: in Bay Ridge, you know, twenty years ago.
4:42
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, for sure, great spot. So how long
4:48
Speaker 1: have you been at Bite and what attracted you to
4:50
Speaker 1: the role.
4:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, look, I've been at Bite essentially since
4:54
Speaker 3: the beginning. I after my time at Rezi, I met
4:57
Speaker 3: the two co founders of Bite, Sas and Jeff and
5:00
Speaker 3: and they were working on this you know, audacious project
5:03
Speaker 3: to put kiosks into restaurants. It was after a little
5:06
Speaker 3: bit of a pivot, and they came to me knowing
5:09
Speaker 3: that I knew how to do go to market for
5:11
Speaker 3: restaurant companies and I had the restaurant experience, and said,
5:15
Speaker 3: we'd love to you know, we'd love to have you
5:16
Speaker 3: consult And so I had breakfast with them at my Aleino.
5:19
Speaker 3: Back then, I was like a four or five day
5:21
Speaker 3: week breakfast at my Aleno, you know, meeting with people
5:25
Speaker 3: type of schedule. And so I met with them and
5:27
Speaker 3: after this breakfast, I said, this is a big deal.
5:30
Speaker 3: And I went ahead and called my friends at Chickshak
5:33
Speaker 3: at the time, who were using Kiosk in their astplace location,
5:36
Speaker 3: and I said, Hey, is is this like a fad
5:39
Speaker 3: or is this is this something that's going to change
5:41
Speaker 3: the industry? And everyone said the latter. So I joined
5:45
Speaker 3: up with the co founders. A few months later. They
5:48
Speaker 3: made me CEO of the company, and Jeff, myself and
5:50
Speaker 3: Thoughs have been really been running the company since together.
5:53
Speaker 2: So it's been.
5:55
Speaker 3: Since twenty eighteen, so we've been on the journey for
5:58
Speaker 3: a while.
5:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's been interesting, you know, because Jack in
6:02
Speaker 1: the Box tried to roll these out a long time ago,
6:04
Speaker 1: and then they actually removed them from the restaurants. You know,
6:07
Speaker 1: it's interesting how much consumer behavior has changed over the
6:11
Speaker 1: last handful of years.
6:12
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, I mean clearly, things like the pandemic had
6:16
Speaker 3: accelerated things now. Not in the beginning, of course, when
6:18
Speaker 3: we were all afraid to touch a you know, a
6:20
Speaker 3: shopping cart, never mind a kiosk, right, but you know,
6:25
Speaker 3: the adoption of technology by consumers has skyrocked it in
6:29
Speaker 3: every category. So This is not age restricted to gen
6:33
Speaker 3: z likes.
6:34
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no.
6:35
Speaker 3: Everybody knows how to order online, which means you know
6:38
Speaker 3: how to order off a Kiosk. And in a lot
6:40
Speaker 3: of cases, and I'm not saying nessay a lot of people.
6:43
Speaker 3: I'm saying a lot of cases, meaning there are times
6:46
Speaker 3: when somebody wants to go order from a cashier, and
6:48
Speaker 3: there are times when you might have your hands full
6:51
Speaker 3: or be listening to your favorite podcast like this one
6:53
Speaker 3: and not want to talk to anybody and not want
6:55
Speaker 3: to interrupt that to have to go into line and order.
6:57
Speaker 3: And so there's just a lot of scenarios in which
7:01
Speaker 3: Kiosk becomes the ideal scenario. And I think the prevalent
7:05
Speaker 3: idea for the industry at this point is to meet
7:07
Speaker 3: guess where they are. So you see a lot of
7:10
Speaker 3: innovation in drive through. You see a lot of amazing
7:13
Speaker 3: order ahead and voice AI and all this other stuff
7:16
Speaker 3: coming out, and Kiosk is a part of that. You know,
7:19
Speaker 3: it's not just going to be this one channel of
7:21
Speaker 3: walk in order but order ahead sometimes sometimes with the Kiosk,
7:25
Speaker 3: and we're part of that unifying the guest experience into
7:31
Speaker 3: a solid hospitality experience.
7:35
Speaker 1: I'd imagine you've gain a lot of inquiries from restaurant
7:38
Speaker 1: chains with significant exposure to California.
7:41
Speaker 3: Totally true, and you'd have to think that part of
7:45
Speaker 3: that is the increase in minimum wage two twenty dollars
7:48
Speaker 3: an hour any attack. Look Throughout my career, the through
7:53
Speaker 3: line has been how do I help restaurants create more
7:57
Speaker 3: ebitdah like, how do I help them become more profitable
8:00
Speaker 3: by using and leveraging technology? And that's purely based on
8:03
Speaker 3: my love for restaurants.
8:05
Speaker 2: I want to see.
8:06
Speaker 3: I was part of one of the most amazing restaurants
8:08
Speaker 3: in New York called Tabla. It had an amazing, you know,
8:11
Speaker 3: incredible eleven year twelve year run and then closed and
8:15
Speaker 3: the number of the number of things that we tried
8:18
Speaker 3: to do to make a three hundred and fifty seat
8:20
Speaker 3: Indian restaurants survive in New York at the time, it
8:25
Speaker 3: really spurred this idea of how do we make sure
8:27
Speaker 3: that we can preserve restaurants the way that they are
8:30
Speaker 3: and have people who operate well stay open. And you
8:33
Speaker 3: can see, you know, there's been a slew of bankruptcies lately,
8:35
Speaker 3: and you might point, you know, there might be a
8:39
Speaker 3: through line here on the folks that were not early
8:41
Speaker 3: enough to adopt new technologies, order ahead, move on to
8:45
Speaker 3: the third parties and not innovate as part of these
8:49
Speaker 3: these folks that are essentially you know, not surviving, and
8:52
Speaker 3: so long story short, you know, we strive to kind
8:56
Speaker 3: of make the profitability of the restaurant better. In Californi,
9:00
Speaker 3: there's increased pressure on the P and L because of labor,
9:04
Speaker 3: and so if we can enable their staff to do
9:07
Speaker 3: more by just keeping the staff the way they are.
9:10
Speaker 3: There's a misnomer that there's people getting fired because of chaosis.
9:13
Speaker 3: This is just not true. It's really about supplementing what
9:16
Speaker 3: they can do so they may be able to get
9:18
Speaker 3: the drinks faster if they're not taking the order, which
9:22
Speaker 3: is a really transactional part of the hospitality experience.
9:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, you're freeing them up for more high
9:29
Speaker 1: value jobs, right than just taking that.
9:31
Speaker 2: Order exactly, and not even just high value.
9:33
Speaker 3: There's very few pure play cashiers in the entire restaurant industry.
9:39
Speaker 3: That is always a fraction of their job. Okay, and
9:42
Speaker 3: so if we could take that fraction away, can the
9:44
Speaker 3: dining room be cleaner, can the bathrooms be cleaner, can
9:47
Speaker 3: the food come out quicker? And so we see our
9:51
Speaker 3: restaurants have increased revenue, not just because we are efficient
9:55
Speaker 3: and great at presenting them the guests with items that
9:58
Speaker 3: they want to order. We'll talk about our AI that
10:01
Speaker 3: does that, but also because food production can go quicker
10:04
Speaker 3: and the line can be smaller. There's all these other
10:06
Speaker 3: benefits that don't get factored in. But we're happy about
10:10
Speaker 3: all the brands that we work with in California. It
10:11
Speaker 3: certainly is a place. But now Washington, Oregon, New York,
10:17
Speaker 3: other places that are considering raising the minimum wage will
10:21
Speaker 3: see the same effects.
10:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. Congrats on the Portillo's deal.
10:25
Speaker 2: Thank you.
10:26
Speaker 1: I've read that they're testing that they're kios in California.
10:29
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, they are, well, not just in California, downtown
10:32
Speaker 3: Chicago to some of their busiest stores. That test is
10:36
Speaker 3: going really well, and probably by the time we're talking
10:39
Speaker 3: about this is even more news to come of that.
10:42
Speaker 3: And you know, talk about an environment where you're putting
10:47
Speaker 3: Kiosk to the test. Those restaurants, I believe their average
10:51
Speaker 3: store volume is nine million dollars. That's so on the
10:54
Speaker 3: far end of what an average unit volume for a
10:57
Speaker 3: restaurant brand like that is uh, you know, we have
11:01
Speaker 3: tons and tons of volume that are being done and
11:04
Speaker 3: the guests are adopting it. It just this is the
11:06
Speaker 3: this is the thing that's different than five years ago
11:08
Speaker 3: or six years ago. If you put Kiosk in your
11:11
Speaker 3: restaurant and do it smart and in the right way
11:13
Speaker 3: and have the right hospitality that you're teaching your your
11:16
Speaker 3: team that goes along with that, guests are very willing
11:20
Speaker 3: to adopt Kiosk as part of their ordering process.
11:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had uh, we had mic Osamlu the CEO
11:26
Speaker 1: on the pod. I guess it was last year. I'm
11:30
Speaker 1: a fan, super sharp, sharp guy. Great conversation. What kind
11:34
Speaker 1: of average check increases are your Kiosk customers getting from
11:37
Speaker 1: the technology and how much of the improvement is more
11:40
Speaker 1: consistent up selling versus maybe just giving customers more time
11:44
Speaker 1: to browse the menu.
11:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great question. I think it's hard to
11:47
Speaker 3: parse the division of those things. We have been, you know,
11:53
Speaker 3: using AI before it was cool to say you are
11:55
Speaker 3: and even from the beginning. One of the reasons that
11:58
Speaker 3: I joined Bite was because Sauce our Cto was so
12:02
Speaker 3: incredible at this and he was able to create an
12:07
Speaker 3: algorithm using you know, some of the most advanced kind
12:10
Speaker 3: of machine learning technologies to learn how people like to order,
12:14
Speaker 3: and then you know, offer items to guests that may
12:19
Speaker 3: or may not know those items exist and might go
12:21
Speaker 3: along with the meal that they're having. And so we
12:24
Speaker 3: typically will see a twenty percent increase in average check.
12:27
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's way bigger than that. Sometimes, you know, in
12:32
Speaker 3: certain scenarios where there's not tons of things to upsell,
12:34
Speaker 3: that might be more in the ten to fifteen percent range.
12:37
Speaker 3: And the idea of upselling, we as consumers know that
12:42
Speaker 3: as somebody asking you to buy something, but it's very different.
12:45
Speaker 3: On a kiosk, it's just presenting a bunch of options,
12:48
Speaker 3: and so there is this light touch to it where
12:51
Speaker 3: it's just a guest opting in to the idea of
12:54
Speaker 3: buying something or adding double meat or I didn't know
12:57
Speaker 3: that you could put extra chi on this for fifty cents,
13:02
Speaker 3: where those are not questions that you would get when
13:04
Speaker 3: you're ordering with somebody. Imagine if every time you ordered
13:06
Speaker 3: a burger, like you want double cheese, you want double meat,
13:08
Speaker 3: do you want you know sidur fries? Would you like
13:10
Speaker 3: to know upsize that This is not a hospitality experience,
13:14
Speaker 3: whereas using a digital experience you could put a lot
13:17
Speaker 3: of options to people they opt their way into them.
13:20
Speaker 3: But our intelligence is showing guests things that they are
13:23
Speaker 3: highly likely to want to order. And that's based off
13:26
Speaker 3: of our data that we have with the restaurant. But
13:29
Speaker 3: not only that data, but we use the data from
13:31
Speaker 3: the entire you know, eight years of doing this, and
13:36
Speaker 3: we can draw conclusions about what, I don't know, what
13:39
Speaker 3: trends there might be in certain regions, or if it's
13:42
Speaker 3: cold not to sell ice cream, you know, which seems
13:45
Speaker 3: pretty simple to do, but yet at the same time
13:48
Speaker 3: it's very effective for guests increase in average.
13:51
Speaker 1: Check Okay, cool, I guess kind of on that same vein.
13:55
Speaker 1: Are any of your customers using the data in their
13:57
Speaker 1: loyalty programs or face recognition to provide customers in even
14:02
Speaker 1: more personalized Kiosk experience?
14:03
Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely so.
14:05
Speaker 3: We do have facial recognition. It was also something that
14:08
Speaker 3: wowed me back at that breakfast. Facial recognition is opt
14:11
Speaker 3: in by a guest and it's opt in by the brand.
14:13
Speaker 3: Every brand doesn't necessarily have to use that, and the
14:17
Speaker 3: facial recognition is great because sometimes the idea of let's
14:20
Speaker 3: say type your phone number in for loyalty, or scan
14:22
Speaker 3: this thing so that we can recognize who Mike is
14:25
Speaker 3: on this next order, that sometimes feels.
14:27
Speaker 2: Like a lot to do.
14:28
Speaker 3: And imagine you could just walk up to a screen
14:30
Speaker 3: and it knows that's you, and it says your last order,
14:33
Speaker 3: you know, was this exact bowl with this add on
14:36
Speaker 3: and not this one and take this out and put
14:38
Speaker 3: this in. It's a lovely way to have a very
14:42
Speaker 3: light touch loyalty, right, and recognize somebody and then give
14:48
Speaker 3: them personalized recommendations. So one of the things the algorithm
14:51
Speaker 3: will do is understand if you like things that are spicy,
14:54
Speaker 3: will suggest more things that are spicy to you.
14:56
Speaker 2: Right.
14:57
Speaker 3: That might be, you know, instead of just the regular prize,
14:59
Speaker 3: maybe it's the spiced curly fries I don't know, that
15:02
Speaker 3: go along with something.
15:03
Speaker 2: And therefore we.
15:04
Speaker 3: Are moving more towards that personalization. I think the next
15:09
Speaker 3: step here is not just to understand your behavior as
15:12
Speaker 3: a guest on a Kiosk, but your behavior as a
15:15
Speaker 3: guest in the entire ecosystem for that restaurant. So that
15:20
Speaker 3: means if I could pull your order from the app
15:22
Speaker 3: last time and say do you want to reorder this?
15:26
Speaker 3: It might not be what you want to do at
15:27
Speaker 3: that moment because you were ordering for you and your
15:29
Speaker 3: family versus ordering for just yourself, But that becomes the
15:33
Speaker 3: next step in this idea of personalization. You have one
15:36
Speaker 3: account with this and regardless of the digital channel that
15:39
Speaker 3: you go through, you'll have access to that order history.
15:43
Speaker 3: And this is why you hear many brands, I'm sure
15:45
Speaker 3: as you listen into earnings calls as I do, talking
15:47
Speaker 3: about one hundred percent digital because they want to have
15:50
Speaker 3: this holistic view of the guests and make sure to
15:52
Speaker 3: service them the best way they can in each one
15:54
Speaker 3: of these channels.
15:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really interesting what percentage of people are opting
15:59
Speaker 1: in and how are restaurant chains kind of motivating them
16:03
Speaker 1: to do so.
16:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, look, I think it varies. You know,
16:08
Speaker 3: it's above fifty percent. You know, the opt in is again,
16:12
Speaker 3: it's light. It's not an idea of having to let's say,
16:16
Speaker 3: use a clear machine at the airport where it's like
16:19
Speaker 3: put your irises in the exact spot. Okay, you know,
16:23
Speaker 3: we have a fairly high accuracy, and I think the
16:26
Speaker 3: motivation is for your the customers that are our frequent customers.
16:31
Speaker 3: I remember the first restaurant that we launched in New York.
16:35
Speaker 3: I would sit it was a couple of blocks away
16:36
Speaker 3: from our office, and I would sit there and watch,
16:39
Speaker 3: and we had some people that would come in and
16:41
Speaker 3: clearly they were like busy at work, they had a
16:43
Speaker 3: half hour to get lunch. They'd come in and with
16:46
Speaker 3: a couple of taps on a screen, they'd have their
16:48
Speaker 3: order done. Whereas if it's the first time you're experiencing
16:50
Speaker 3: the brand, you might want to, as you said, take
16:52
Speaker 3: your time browse the menu.
16:54
Speaker 2: I have.
16:55
Speaker 3: We've had some fun with Dig. Tracy Kim, the CEO there,
16:59
Speaker 3: she's actually and uh And it was just on on
17:02
Speaker 3: my podcast a Simmer talking about how some guests are
17:06
Speaker 3: using this to better navigate a menu because a menu
17:09
Speaker 3: board doesn't have a full description of it and if
17:12
Speaker 3: it did, it would be overwhelming. Right, So what is
17:15
Speaker 3: in the health bowl or the Caesar salad bowl or
17:19
Speaker 3: you know, in their case, like the roast chicken plate.
17:22
Speaker 3: You can look much deeper into it on a person,
17:24
Speaker 3: you know, a screen that's personalized to you.
17:26
Speaker 1: So, yeah, Digs great, they have great chicken thighs. I'm
17:29
Speaker 1: I frequent it when I'm up at our seven thirty
17:31
Speaker 1: one lev.
17:32
Speaker 3: I think it's one of the best values, especially if
17:36
Speaker 3: you are factoring in your health. They have such an
17:39
Speaker 3: incredible healthy menu, So if you're looking at to you know,
17:42
Speaker 3: for a healthy lunch, option digs the spot.
17:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, they do a great job. What's the forty five
17:47
Speaker 1: percent role?
17:51
Speaker 3: Le?
17:51
Speaker 1: So I listened to one of your podcasts you were
17:55
Speaker 1: on with Rev. Ciancio, and I think it was something
17:58
Speaker 1: about about customers walking by, you know, I you know,
18:04
Speaker 1: because some places the line is too long, right. We
18:06
Speaker 1: see that in a you know, I see that, you know,
18:10
Speaker 1: in drive throughs.
18:11
Speaker 2: You know.
18:12
Speaker 1: McDonald's some years ago was talking about how they have
18:14
Speaker 1: five more than five cars in the line, people will
18:17
Speaker 1: just drive past. And ye know, Chick fil A has
18:20
Speaker 1: a lot higher to like demand and people are more
18:22
Speaker 1: willing to wait, so it might be twenty five cars, right,
18:24
Speaker 1: And so that is impacting restaurants, especially in the city. Right,
18:29
Speaker 1: if people see long lines, they might go elsewhere, right.
18:32
Speaker 3: It impacts restaurants everywhere. Yeah, so I think the status
18:36
Speaker 3: forty five percent of guests that see a line are
18:38
Speaker 3: going to are gonna, you know, walk out the door right,
18:40
Speaker 3: a lot of more than three people, right, And so
18:44
Speaker 3: you know, thank you for bringing that up. Even in
18:46
Speaker 3: places that are you know, pay less, like at Chipotle,
18:50
Speaker 3: where you're going to walk through an experience, they always
18:52
Speaker 3: will have a line. But when that line gets long enough,
18:55
Speaker 3: there's something that we call que rejection. And so the
18:57
Speaker 3: idea is that you know, same thing, whether it's within
19:01
Speaker 3: your car or not. You're seeing a line and you're saying, no,
19:04
Speaker 3: I'm not going here, that's gonna take too long.
19:05
Speaker 2: Now. By the way, the Chipotle line, the Sweet Green line.
19:08
Speaker 3: They're fast. That it's not that these lines are slow,
19:11
Speaker 3: but the perception of it is that it is. And
19:13
Speaker 3: so if you can offset some of those orders to
19:18
Speaker 3: a kios that's sitting on the side, you know, easily
19:21
Speaker 3: accessible by the guests, people are way more willing to
19:24
Speaker 3: wait for their food than they are to wait to
19:27
Speaker 3: order their food, because then it seems like you're waiting twice,
19:30
Speaker 3: you know, Like I said before, I mean, I'm a
19:32
Speaker 3: very digital focused person. So I'd love to get my
19:35
Speaker 3: order in and then check my app and see what
19:37
Speaker 3: the score of the game was last night. Check Fantasy
19:40
Speaker 3: you know, see the Giants lose again and and then
19:44
Speaker 3: you know my salads ready perfect?
19:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, good stuff. What's the impact of kios
19:49
Speaker 1: on on employee turnover and satisfaction?
19:52
Speaker 2: Yeah?
19:53
Speaker 3: I mean, look, I think we'd love to have a
19:55
Speaker 3: lot more hard data on this, but generally speaking, if
19:58
Speaker 3: you're a tip ticking res tips go up, right we
20:02
Speaker 3: are we're offering an experience that can make sure to
20:07
Speaker 3: prompt a guest for tipping if they want to do that,
20:11
Speaker 3: and you could set percentages on whatever you want. Doesn't
20:13
Speaker 3: have to be a twenty percent tip, but the overall
20:15
Speaker 3: tips go up. I also think that it takes a
20:18
Speaker 3: lot of pressure off their job responsibilities. I think you
20:22
Speaker 3: would know when you're trying to juggle two or three
20:24
Speaker 3: balls at the same time, like taking an order, putting
20:27
Speaker 3: the order together, getting drinks, and doing all those things
20:30
Speaker 3: at once. You could take one of those things away
20:33
Speaker 3: and just cut it down to two, you're going to
20:35
Speaker 3: be better and more efficient at it. So we have seen,
20:38
Speaker 3: and this might perhaps be counterintuitive, but we've seen a
20:42
Speaker 3: lot of staffs embrace the idea of Kiosk ordering so
20:45
Speaker 3: that they can actually execute on their job better. And look,
20:48
Speaker 3: people don't get into the restaurant industry for just a job.
20:52
Speaker 3: A lot of people want to do this because they
20:54
Speaker 3: feel making others happy is part of that bonus. It's
20:58
Speaker 3: not just the wage that I can, but I want
21:00
Speaker 3: to make have an impact on other people's lives, right,
21:03
Speaker 3: And so I think it allows Kioskodering allows that person
21:08
Speaker 3: to do more of the personal interaction. Again counterintuitive, take
21:12
Speaker 3: the transaction part out of it and give somebody take
21:16
Speaker 3: an extra few seconds to hand somebody their order and say, Mike,
21:19
Speaker 3: thanks so much for coming in today. And I guarantee
21:22
Speaker 3: you those hospitality employees feel the impact of the smile
21:26
Speaker 3: that Mike gives back to them before they leave, and
21:29
Speaker 3: they and Mike might say have a great day, yeah.
21:32
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. Man. I think that's part of the
21:34
Speaker 1: issue that we're seeing with Starbucks, is right, that was
21:37
Speaker 1: the cafe where the barista knew your name right when
21:40
Speaker 1: you walked in, and they've they've gotten away from that, right,
21:44
Speaker 1: It's kind of become soulless, transactional, and I think it's
21:47
Speaker 1: really impacted their sales. So it's really important to be
21:50
Speaker 1: able to free up your employees to provide hospitality, no
21:54
Speaker 1: matter what the concept.
21:55
Speaker 2: Is yeah, And I think that's kind of the point.
21:58
Speaker 3: With Starbucks is that the the the increased variations on
22:03
Speaker 3: their menu have made it ever so much more difficult
22:06
Speaker 3: to be a barista. And so never mind that you
22:09
Speaker 3: now have to be a barista in a cashier or
22:11
Speaker 3: barisa and a you know, you know, the person that's
22:14
Speaker 3: handing you all your food fulfillment. Right, So I totally
22:18
Speaker 3: agree with that.
22:19
Speaker 2: I think.
22:19
Speaker 3: Look, I think I probably am one who thinks that
22:22
Speaker 3: Brian is going to do great things there in his
22:24
Speaker 3: new role. So you know, he's already come out with
22:27
Speaker 3: a little statement on how he's going to change the
22:29
Speaker 3: environment to be that third place again. And happy to
22:34
Speaker 3: uh to receive a call from them if they want
22:36
Speaker 3: to do some stuff with bite.
22:39
Speaker 1: Nice nice plug. I I yeah, I'm looking forward to
22:42
Speaker 1: seeing what what he can accomplish at Starbucks. That's going
22:45
Speaker 1: to be. That's gonna be a fun one to track,
22:47
Speaker 1: for sure. I'd imagine the technology is helping sun Chains
22:52
Speaker 1: ease the issue of late night staffing.
22:54
Speaker 3: Late night and midday okay, right, so Midge, you know
22:58
Speaker 3: shift changes even you know, even the idea that a
23:03
Speaker 3: restaurant is drive through heavy. So we have some restaurants
23:06
Speaker 3: that we work with that are over seventy percent drive
23:08
Speaker 3: through and again, multiple balls in the air. Can we
23:12
Speaker 3: take one away? So, if you have the majority of
23:15
Speaker 3: your staff and the majority of your revenue coming through
23:17
Speaker 3: drive through, and everyone's focused on this one or two
23:20
Speaker 3: windows out the side of the restaurant, how can you
23:24
Speaker 3: have your eyes in the back of your head to
23:26
Speaker 3: be in both places at once? And so how great
23:29
Speaker 3: is it to be able to have your focus on
23:31
Speaker 3: that seventy percent revenue channel and then the other thirty
23:34
Speaker 3: percent coming in the store? You hot, you know that
23:37
Speaker 3: you have to deliver on that that handoff that hospitality
23:40
Speaker 3: experience when you're giving people what they've ordered or even
23:43
Speaker 3: making sure that the dining room's clear. So I think
23:46
Speaker 3: that applies to late night when you might be shorter staffed.
23:48
Speaker 3: I think it applies to, you know, the shoulder periods
23:52
Speaker 3: as well. We've had a restaurant brand who actually has
23:55
Speaker 3: quite an older clientele. You know, if you were to
23:58
Speaker 3: compare them to the Chipotles and and maybe the Sweet
24:01
Speaker 3: Greens of the world, and they found that that the
24:06
Speaker 3: Kiosk always being able to be there to take an
24:08
Speaker 3: order and not having somebody wait, while there's shifting things
24:11
Speaker 3: happening in the kitchen and people are trying to do
24:13
Speaker 3: multiple things at the same time. Really added to that,
24:16
Speaker 3: let's say two to five pm time period where people
24:20
Speaker 3: are coming in and just want to get something and
24:24
Speaker 3: you know, have a very quick and easy experience.
24:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's a home run. You're leveraging the box
24:30
Speaker 1: in a slow time, right, and so you're leveraging your
24:32
Speaker 1: fixed costs. It's it's helpful, for sure. Sure. I've read
24:36
Speaker 1: in one of the case studies on your website that
24:38
Speaker 1: bite help to lower food cost So does that mean
24:41
Speaker 1: food costs are going down as a percentage of sales
24:43
Speaker 1: due to the higher AUVs and average checks and the
24:46
Speaker 1: up selling higher margin menu items or is there something
24:50
Speaker 1: more to it than that.
24:51
Speaker 3: Well, typically the things that are additive to the main
24:55
Speaker 3: part of a meal are lower food costs. Your French
24:58
Speaker 3: fries are cheaper than the burg The soda is way
25:02
Speaker 3: cheaper than the French fries. And so if we can
25:05
Speaker 3: help to remind people that they forgot to put a
25:07
Speaker 3: drink in their cart, or they forgot to you know,
25:10
Speaker 3: add that extra side, or maybe it's a dessert, these
25:13
Speaker 3: are lower costs. Lower food cost items, and therefore you know,
25:18
Speaker 3: food cost is going to go down as a total
25:20
Speaker 3: percentage of sales. Also, as you mentioned, all the variable
25:24
Speaker 3: costs go down as sales go up. That's that's how
25:27
Speaker 3: that works, right, you know, So you know, the the
25:32
Speaker 3: cost of labor so to speak, is going to go
25:34
Speaker 3: down as sales go up if you're not adding more
25:36
Speaker 3: labor to do that. Now, food cost doesn't exactly act
25:38
Speaker 3: the same way. But but if we're adding the sales
25:42
Speaker 3: on these higher margin items, it's going to bring down
25:45
Speaker 3: the food costs in a you know, significant way.
25:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great. Talk to me about the secret menu
25:52
Speaker 1: at Shacks che Big Chicken.
25:54
Speaker 3: Let me can I just start by saying, Shaquille O'Neil
25:57
Speaker 3: is He is exactly who you think Key is in
26:00
Speaker 3: terms of how kind and generous and amazing he is.
26:03
Speaker 3: I spent nearly an hour with him at the Big
26:07
Speaker 3: Chicken conference in Las Vegas. Shout out to Josh and
26:10
Speaker 3: Josh and all and Sam and all the team out
26:12
Speaker 3: there for getting that to happen. And and you know,
26:16
Speaker 3: we set off on this project to try to bring
26:19
Speaker 3: Shack's personality into a Kiosk experience, and so We didn't
26:23
Speaker 3: just say hey, let's just do this in a small way,
26:27
Speaker 3: in the big Chicken way with the capital big. We
26:30
Speaker 3: did it in a big way. We actually have changed
26:33
Speaker 3: our entire user experience to be able to do this
26:36
Speaker 3: not just for them, but to do this for many
26:38
Speaker 3: other brands. So before we were saying, hey, this is
26:41
Speaker 3: a great way to get the transaction done, but now,
26:44
Speaker 3: how do we add a hospitality experience? How do we
26:47
Speaker 3: add fun to that transaction to make guests want to
26:50
Speaker 3: come use the kiosk? And there was no better path
26:53
Speaker 3: or you know, initial place to do this. And with
26:55
Speaker 3: Shaquille O'Neil probably the most memorable you know, celebrity that
26:58
Speaker 3: I know, Okay, and so we have instances of Shack
27:03
Speaker 3: throughout the entire you know, chicken menu, flapping chicken wings
27:07
Speaker 3: and doing all this. But the kicker and the best
27:10
Speaker 3: part in my mind, was we had a little area
27:12
Speaker 3: where if you click it, and you figure out that
27:14
Speaker 3: you can click this area, you get into Shack's secret menu.
27:17
Speaker 3: And it's not just Shack, it's the entire O'Neal family.
27:20
Speaker 3: So his mother has an item's there that she wants
27:24
Speaker 3: or done Lucille's way, his daughter. He has menu items
27:27
Speaker 3: that are done her way, and so it's really about
27:30
Speaker 3: appealing to multi generational but also putting a little fun.
27:36
Speaker 3: I mean McDonald's, you know, did some good stuff here
27:38
Speaker 3: when they had the Travis Scott menu, for example, and
27:40
Speaker 3: they you didn't have to change what you have in
27:43
Speaker 3: your kitchen, but how do you do a shacksway?
27:45
Speaker 2: You know?
27:46
Speaker 3: And I think that's really cool. So there's so much
27:49
Speaker 3: more that is going to come out of that. I
27:51
Speaker 3: hope that some of our restaurants will embrace us and
27:53
Speaker 3: maybe even look to local celebrities or influencers and say,
27:57
Speaker 3: you know, you see this on old school menus. This
28:00
Speaker 3: is the way Brandon has his martini, So we're going
28:02
Speaker 3: to put it on the menu. That's honoring the people
28:04
Speaker 3: and the regulars around you. I would love to see
28:06
Speaker 3: people say this is this is just a salad for
28:09
Speaker 3: us here and it's double chicken caesar kale, and that's
28:13
Speaker 3: exactly the way Sally does it every Tuesday, and now
28:16
Speaker 3: we have it on the menu for her.
28:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's very cool. I'm not really sure. I'm a
28:22
Speaker 1: huge fan of Shaq and the Inside the NBA show,
28:25
Speaker 1: so I haven't heard any updates about what's going to
28:28
Speaker 1: happen with it. But now that like TNT lost that contract,
28:31
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like heartbroken.
28:33
Speaker 2: Me too, me too.
28:35
Speaker 3: I think it's I don't know, it's fairly improbable to
28:38
Speaker 3: me that they're going to keep Shaq and Chuck off
28:40
Speaker 3: at the NBA TV circuit in some way.
28:43
Speaker 2: I hope the idea.
28:44
Speaker 3: Of having Shaq and Chuck still involved with, you know,
28:49
Speaker 3: commenting on basketball is going to be there. Maybe they'll
28:51
Speaker 3: go the Peyton and Eli way and you could just
28:54
Speaker 3: tune into T and T and have them sitting there
28:56
Speaker 3: watching a game.
28:57
Speaker 1: That'd be cool. Also, where do I got to touch
29:00
Speaker 1: on the menu? Because I noticed there's a big chicken
29:02
Speaker 1: on my way home from work, so I'm going to
29:04
Speaker 1: have to get one of those up. It's in Bridgewater,
29:06
Speaker 1: New Jersey. So where do I have to touch the menu?
29:09
Speaker 3: Yeah?
29:10
Speaker 1: Sure, sure to find that menu.
29:12
Speaker 3: If you look at it long enough, it'll say, you know,
29:15
Speaker 3: like something like a shosh you know, don't touch here,
29:18
Speaker 3: but chat On the bottom left hand side of it.
29:20
Speaker 3: Shack is sitting there and telling you know, if you
29:23
Speaker 3: hit Shack kind of like a little whack a mole
29:25
Speaker 3: if you hit shack at the menu will come up.
29:28
Speaker 1: Okay, very cool. I got to check that out. All right.
29:31
Speaker 1: What do you think of McDonald's move to test these
29:33
Speaker 1: kiosks that accept cash.
29:35
Speaker 2: I love it.
29:36
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, you talk about you were talking
29:39
Speaker 3: a little bit about the news cycles on kiosk and
29:41
Speaker 3: this that it was like stop and go for Jack
29:43
Speaker 3: and other places. Also, the commentary around McDonald's kiosk program
29:50
Speaker 3: has been wrapped up in a bunch of noise like there,
29:53
Speaker 3: you know, total digital transformation being I don't know, six
29:56
Speaker 3: figures for franchisees and the franchisees revolting and some people
29:59
Speaker 3: took that a revolting on kiosk and guess what they
30:01
Speaker 3: were not. And so it's just a signal to me.
30:04
Speaker 3: McDonald's is certainly the leader in so many categories. Innovation
30:08
Speaker 3: is one of them as well, And it's just a
30:12
Speaker 3: signal to me that they see more and more use
30:15
Speaker 3: cases and more and more guests that want to come
30:17
Speaker 3: and use the kiosk, and they're maintaining their value proposition
30:22
Speaker 3: while also increasing the hospitality by saying you can now
30:25
Speaker 3: you know, do a cash transaction here. You know, we're
30:28
Speaker 3: partnered with a great company glory to be able to
30:30
Speaker 3: do that as well in certain cases. And look, I
30:34
Speaker 3: think cash transactions are declining. I think that's not a
30:37
Speaker 3: controversial thing to say, but in certain scenarios, in certain
30:40
Speaker 3: states and certain locations, you want to be able to
30:43
Speaker 3: take cash because you want to have a hospitality experience
30:47
Speaker 3: for everybody. Okay, you don't want to exclude people from
30:51
Speaker 3: that because they, you know, didn't use a credit card
30:53
Speaker 3: or just we're using cash today. So I love it,
30:56
Speaker 3: and I think it underscores the idea that kiosk are
31:00
Speaker 3: going to be in every QSR and fast casual restaurant
31:03
Speaker 3: in the next few years.
31:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. Ten years later, Chili's brought back xiosks. Right,
31:09
Speaker 1: why did he work last time? Was it just were
31:11
Speaker 1: they just too early? And what do you think about
31:15
Speaker 1: them bringing that technology back?
31:17
Speaker 3: Well, you know, you know my non professional opinion here,
31:21
Speaker 3: I guess, or you know, not fully educated on what
31:24
Speaker 3: the Chili's team has in mind. I think the idea
31:27
Speaker 3: of having something to assist their service staff to provide
31:33
Speaker 3: better service by allowing guests to order the second round
31:37
Speaker 3: of drinks at the table makes sense.
31:40
Speaker 2: You know.
31:40
Speaker 3: Going back to the comment abound around some of the
31:43
Speaker 3: brands that have not innovated, having struggles and bankruptcy and
31:46
Speaker 3: things like that. This is Chili's way to perhaps try
31:49
Speaker 3: to move into innovation cycle. I will say frankly that
31:54
Speaker 3: that whole let's say family dining, casual dining category, you know,
31:58
Speaker 3: as well as I is getting smushed. I mean, more
32:00
Speaker 3: people want to go to Kava and sit down and
32:02
Speaker 3: not have table service, then they might want to go
32:06
Speaker 3: to a more casual and then they'll save the table
32:10
Speaker 3: service for a higher end experience, maybe something like a Hillstone.
32:13
Speaker 3: And so the category is getting crushed, and that means
32:17
Speaker 3: the margins are getting hurt and they have to figure
32:19
Speaker 3: out something. So I applaud Chilis for doing it. I
32:22
Speaker 3: will say, you know, the majority of my background, you know,
32:25
Speaker 3: has been in fine dining and has been at my
32:27
Speaker 3: hospitality background has been in table service. I think that
32:31
Speaker 3: that's probably the highest level where you want to see,
32:35
Speaker 3: you know, tablet assisted ordering. That that's where it stops
32:39
Speaker 3: to me. If I, you know, I don't think Hillstone,
32:42
Speaker 3: you know, if we go up a level should adopt
32:44
Speaker 3: something like this, I think you will start to degrade
32:47
Speaker 3: the relationship between server and guests. Which is a part
32:51
Speaker 3: of the full service experience, and so you know, for
32:56
Speaker 3: what it's worth. You know that that's something that we've
32:59
Speaker 3: even tried with with higher end like fast casuals or
33:02
Speaker 3: even i should say casual dining, and it's not the best.
33:07
Speaker 3: It's not the best experience for guests. And if we
33:09
Speaker 3: do anything at Bite, we care about the guest experience
33:11
Speaker 3: more than anything.
33:13
Speaker 1: Yep, yeah, for sure. Yeah, Chili's has done a great job.
33:16
Speaker 1: And it also eliminates another pain point, which is like
33:18
Speaker 1: paying the check. You know sometimes you know, if you
33:21
Speaker 1: got young kids, they tear it into a pumpkin after
33:23
Speaker 1: a certain amount of time at the table or whatever
33:26
Speaker 1: it is, and you have to get out of there.
33:28
Speaker 1: So I think it makes sense for a chain that's
33:31
Speaker 1: catering more to families.
33:33
Speaker 3: The paying the check thing is interesting because everyone there
33:36
Speaker 3: was there's always been a ton of companies in the
33:38
Speaker 3: restaurant technology space that's like, you can pay your check faster.
33:41
Speaker 3: And yes, I understand that that is a pain point
33:44
Speaker 3: that the guest feels, and that's great, But the thing
33:48
Speaker 3: that the promise of it always has been and you'll
33:50
Speaker 3: turn that table faster. Okay, Well, if you don't have
33:53
Speaker 3: another guest to go fill that table immediately, and it's
33:58
Speaker 3: going to just sit empty for the time the guests,
34:01
Speaker 3: those initial guests would have been paying the check. You're
34:03
Speaker 3: actually not generating more revenue through table turns. It's a
34:07
Speaker 3: big misnomer that I think, especially as you get to
34:10
Speaker 3: maybe some of the smaller table service restaurants concepts. You know,
34:15
Speaker 3: unless you're filling nine point thirty turning your what are
34:18
Speaker 3: you turning your tables to to what? To an empty
34:21
Speaker 3: dining room? So but I do I do you know,
34:24
Speaker 3: I know that there's pain in getting a check and
34:26
Speaker 3: getting it paid.
34:27
Speaker 1: So heard, Yeah, all right. We touched on this a
34:31
Speaker 1: little bit, the voice AI. Right, So McDonald's recently ended
34:35
Speaker 1: their trial after some well publicized issues. On the other hand,
34:39
Speaker 1: Taco Bell is ramping up their trial this year. So
34:42
Speaker 1: what have been the issues with voice AI And when
34:45
Speaker 1: will this really be a viable technology that everybody's going
34:48
Speaker 1: to start adopting.
34:49
Speaker 3: I think it's already passed viable yet I don't think
34:54
Speaker 3: it's past scale, okay, And so the viability of this
34:58
Speaker 3: could work in certain environ in certain restaurants, but I
35:01
Speaker 3: don't think it's going to work at scale for another
35:03
Speaker 3: few years. The acceleration of artificial intelligence will help this
35:09
Speaker 3: because we are talking about a very complicated piece of AI.
35:13
Speaker 3: It's not just suggesting items, but it's trying to understand accents,
35:17
Speaker 3: regional accents. I mean, this is you know, not you know,
35:21
Speaker 3: non English speaking language. You know, guests that are coming
35:25
Speaker 3: and trying to communicate makes.
35:27
Speaker 2: It very hard.
35:27
Speaker 3: By the way, in the future, it's going to make
35:29
Speaker 3: it very easy because if you speak Japanese, it will
35:33
Speaker 3: speak Japanese back to you.
35:34
Speaker 2: How lovely is that? But it's not the case today.
35:38
Speaker 3: The thing I think most about is some of the
35:40
Speaker 3: stats that have been out about the order accuracy and
35:43
Speaker 3: how many orders can can be put in without an intercept. Okay,
35:47
Speaker 3: and an intercept might be a staff employee, but sometimes
35:51
Speaker 3: maybe what I what I don't like about it is
35:53
Speaker 3: the intercept is coming from a third party. And I
35:57
Speaker 3: know that there's been issues with our people listening into
36:00
Speaker 3: this conversation in California. That's that there's some lawsuit that
36:03
Speaker 3: was there. And you know, I think restaurants need to
36:08
Speaker 3: be experimenting with this for sure and move at a
36:12
Speaker 3: very deliberate pace with it. Be very diligent about understanding
36:18
Speaker 3: how the guest feels. One of the lovely things about
36:21
Speaker 3: Kiosk is usually somebody's grabbing their order and sitting in
36:23
Speaker 3: a restaurant. You can ask them if you want. If
36:26
Speaker 3: they're driving off, you don't actually know how they felt
36:28
Speaker 3: about that experience. Sure there's a survey, Sure there's a this,
36:30
Speaker 3: but man, I would be really inspecting how the guest
36:34
Speaker 3: feels and if the guest feels like that was done
36:36
Speaker 3: well and without issue. And by the way, I have
36:41
Speaker 3: there are many customer service experiences now that include this
36:44
Speaker 3: that are outside of restaurants, right, and you're talking to
36:47
Speaker 3: a bot. You all, we all have been there and
36:49
Speaker 3: been like operator operator operator, right, and so so we
36:53
Speaker 3: don't want that level of frustration ever in the hospitality industry.
36:57
Speaker 3: But I have had some in certain scenarios that have
37:00
Speaker 3: been beautiful and seamless. We were talking about internet problems before.
37:04
Speaker 3: There's a way Optimum reset your internet in five seconds
37:07
Speaker 3: you talked to about it's over and you don't actually
37:09
Speaker 3: need to talk to anybody on the phone. And so
37:11
Speaker 3: I have a lot of hope for this category, and
37:13
Speaker 3: I think we're in the early inning.
37:16
Speaker 1: Great excluding Kiosk ordering, what restaurant pain points are AI
37:21
Speaker 1: best suited to solve.
37:23
Speaker 3: I'll go to something that's probably even a little bit
37:26
Speaker 3: further than voice voice ordering.
37:30
Speaker 2: But kitchen robotics.
37:31
Speaker 3: Okay, just by the nature of cooking, it's a repeatable process,
37:38
Speaker 3: there are steps to it. And again at the higher
37:42
Speaker 3: levels of dining, this is not this is we're very
37:46
Speaker 3: far out from that. But at the levels of dining
37:49
Speaker 3: and QSR, you know, cooking French fries seems like something
37:53
Speaker 3: that can be an automated process. I applaud the Sweet
37:56
Speaker 3: Green team for what they've did and alleged they've they've
37:59
Speaker 3: gone out on with you know, with regards to buying
38:01
Speaker 3: spice and and and putting in the Infinite kitchens. I
38:06
Speaker 3: went to the Infinite Kitchen store and Penn Station area
38:09
Speaker 3: recently just to check out the newest one because it's like,
38:11
Speaker 3: the question was, can we make the footprint an urban
38:15
Speaker 3: footprint for Sweet Green? And it was cool and you know,
38:18
Speaker 3: by the way plug again, they went ahead and adopted Kiosk,
38:23
Speaker 3: and they built something in house because it had to
38:25
Speaker 3: be perfect with the Infinite Kitchen. But they took this
38:28
Speaker 3: this step of automating the back of house in front
38:31
Speaker 3: of house at the same time. And you know, I've
38:34
Speaker 3: even had a chance to visit Kernel, which is Cevel's
38:38
Speaker 3: new spot in New York. They're doing well. They're not
38:40
Speaker 3: doing Vegan anymore, which is interesting. But I have a
38:44
Speaker 3: lot of hope that artificial intelligence and machine learning and
38:49
Speaker 3: all the intelligence around cameras and vision of what to grab,
38:53
Speaker 3: when to grab it, when it's cooked, infrared, all of
38:57
Speaker 3: these things add up and yeah, we could we can
39:00
Speaker 3: automate some steps in that hospitality or in the cooking experience.
39:04
Speaker 3: So I have a lot of hope for that category.
39:07
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I know a lot of restauranteurs do too,
39:10
Speaker 1: looking forward for that those investment costs to come down. Yep,
39:14
Speaker 1: all right, great stuff, man, Brandon, thanks for doing this.
39:17
Speaker 1: Where can listeners find out more about bite?
39:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean get bitte dot com. I mean I
39:23
Speaker 3: if people are listening, want to reach out to me,
39:24
Speaker 3: I'm a Brandon at gatbyte dot com. I love talking
39:27
Speaker 3: to people that have used kios. Want to do any
39:29
Speaker 3: of that, and then look out for I have this
39:32
Speaker 3: wonderful podcast myself with Chris and Hawley of Expedite do
39:36
Speaker 3: a shameless plug there and The podcast is called the
39:39
Speaker 3: simmer Apple Spotify Listen Up. We talked to incredible restauranteurs,
39:44
Speaker 3: the tech CEOs, everything, and maybe we'll have Mi co
39:47
Speaker 3: on too.
39:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, that'd be awesome. And your podcast experience definitely shown
39:51
Speaker 1: through on this episode. Man, you're great. You're a pro
39:55
Speaker 1: for sure.
39:55
Speaker 2: I appreciate that. Man. Thank you for saying that.
39:58
Speaker 1: You got it, and thanks for to Audio for tuning in.
40:01
Speaker 1: If you liked the episode, please share it with your
40:02
Speaker 1: friends and colleagues. Check back soon for another episode of
40:05
Speaker 1: Chopping It Up.