Engineering:Spyce Kitchen

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Short description: Boston-based robotic-powered restaurant engineered by MIT grads

Template:Infobox restaurant Spyce Kitchen or just Spyce was a robotic-powered restaurant which prepares food in "three minutes or less".[1]

History

MIT mechanical engineering graduates[2] Michael Farid, Brady Knight, Luke Schlueter and Kale Rogers[3] developed the kitchen using seven autonomous work stations to prepare bowl-based meals using healthy ingredients such as kale, beans and grains.[4] The four graduates wanted to make healthy meals more affordable,[5] so they built the robotic technology[6] and initially served the food to students at an MIT dining hall.[7] The group received the $10,000 "Eat It" Lemelson-MIT undergraduate prize in 2016[8] as one of America's top two collegiate inventors in food technology.[9]

The four then teamed up with chef Daniel Boulud to create the new menu for their restaurant.[10][11] Prices started at $7.50 for an entire meal in a bowl[12] at their first real branch, which opened on May 3, 2018, in Boston, Massachusetts.[13] Referred to as the "Spyce Boys",[4] the four founders were inspired by their experiences as hungry student athletes on tight budgets. Spyce Kitchen automated cooking units also clean up after cooking and dirtying the cooking apparatus.[14]

Funding

Spyce raised $21 million in series A funding in September 2018, led by venture capital firms Maveron, Collaborative Fund, and Khosla Ventures.[15]

Restaurants

Spyce operated and then shuttered two restaurants in the Greater Boston area. Their first restaurant was located at 241 Washington St in downtown Boston.[16] Their second restaurant, which opened in February 2021, was located at 1 Brattle Square, in Harvard Square.[16]

Acquisition by Sweetgreen and closure

In 2021, the company was acquired by Sweetgreen, a chain of salad restaurants.[17][18]

Both Spyce restaurants were closed following the Sweetgreen acquisition, "to focus on developing technology for Sweetgreen restaurants". The downtown Boston location closed October 22, 2021,[1] and the Harvard Square location closed February 18, 2022.[2]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "MIT Has Made a Fully Robotic Kitchen" (in en). Food & Wine. https://www.foodandwine.com/fwx/food/mit-has-made-fully-robotic-kitchen. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Xconomy: Spyce, MIT-Born Robotic Kitchen Startup, Launches Restaurant: Video" (in en-US). Xconomy. 2018-05-03. https://www.xconomy.com/boston/2018/05/03/spyce-mit-born-robotic-kitchen-startup-launches-restaurant-video/. 
  3. ↑ Albrecht, Chris (2018-04-11). "Spyce Kitchen Robot Restaurant Opening This Spring" (in en-US). The Spoon. https://thespoon.tech/spyce-kitchen-robot-restaurant-opening-this-spring/. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Restaurant keeps its prices down – with a robotic kitchen" (in en). 29 May 2018. https://newatlas.com/spyce-restaurant-robotic-kitchen/54818/. 
  5. ↑ "Robotic woks are the chefs in this Boston restaurant" (in en-US). Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/04/boston-robotic-kitchen-spyce/. 
  6. ↑ "Go to Downtown Crossing for a Meal Cooked by a Robot". Eater Boston. https://boston.eater.com/2018/4/27/17290330/downtown-crossing-robotic-kitchen. 
  7. ↑ "When a Robot Makes You Dinner" (in en-US). The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/16/when-a-robot-makes-you-dinner. Retrieved 2018-06-21. 
  8. ↑ "Collegiate inventors awarded 2016 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize". MIT News. https://news.mit.edu/2016/collegiate-inventors-awarded-lemelson-mit-student-prize-0412. 
  9. ↑ "MIT students invented a robotic kitchen that could revolutionize fast food". Business Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/mit-students-invented-a-robotic-kitchen-2016-4. 
  10. ↑ Kolodny, Lora (2018-06-16). "Robots make the food at this Boston restaurant, but the recipes come from vaunted chef Daniel Boulud". CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/15/spyce-is-developing-robotic-restaurants-with-help-from-daniel-boulud.html. 
  11. ↑ Holley, Peter (2018-05-17). "The Boston restaurant where robots have replaced the chefs" (in en-US). Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2018/05/17/will-robots-replace-chefs-at-this-new-boston-restaurant-they-already-have/. 
  12. ↑ "In Boston's newest restaurant, all the chefs are robots" (in en-US). Digital Trends. 2018-05-30. https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/spyce-restaurant-boston-robots/. 
  13. ↑ Muzzi, Madeline. "Watch: Are Grain Bowls Made by Robots the Food of the Future?" (in en). Grub Street. http://www.grubstreet.com/2018/05/video-spyce-restaurant-opens-in-boston-with-a-robot-kitchen.html. 
  14. ↑ "Four MIT graduates created a restaurant with a robotic kitchen that cooks your food in three minutes or less". Business Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/spyce-restaurant-uses-robotic-kitchen-cook-food-three-minutes-fast-casual-boston-2018-5. 
  15. ↑ Maffei, Lucia (2018-09-07). "MIT-Born Spyce Raises $21M Series A to Open New Robotic Restaurants". BostInno. https://www.americaninno.com/boston/bostinno-bytes/mit-born-spyce-raises-21m-series-a-to-open-new-robotic-restaurants/. 
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Spyce | Order Online". https://order.spyce.com/home. 
  17. ↑ Lucas, Amelia (August 24, 2021). "Salad chain Sweetgreen bets on automation by acquiring Spyce and its robotic kitchen tech" (in en). https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/24/salad-chain-sweetgreen-acquires-spyce-and-its-robotic-kitchen-tech.html. 
  18. ↑ Heater, Brian (August 25, 2021). "Salad chain Sweetgreen buys kitchen robotics startup Spyce" (in en-US). https://social.techcrunch.com/2021/08/25/salad-chain-sweetgreen-buys-kitchen-robotics-startup-spyce/. 

External links



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