Spyce Kitchen or just Spyce was a robotic-powered restaurant which prepares food in "three minutes or less".[1]
| Spyce | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Restaurant information | |
| Owner(s) | Sweetgreen |
| Head chef | Daniel Boulud |
| Street address | 241 Washington Street |
| City | Boston |
| County | Suffolk |
| State | Massachusetts |
| Postal/ZIP Code | 02201 |
| Coordinates | 42°21′28″N 71°03′29″W / 42.3579°N 71.0581°W |
| Website | www |
History
editMIT 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
editSpyce raised $21 million in series A funding in September 2018, led by venture capital firms Maveron, Collaborative Fund, and Khosla Ventures.[15]
Restaurants
editSpyce 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
editIn 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
edit- ^ a b "MIT Has Made a Fully Robotic Kitchen". Food & Wine. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- ^ a b "Xconomy: Spyce, MIT-Born Robotic Kitchen Startup, Launches Restaurant: Video". Xconomy. 2018-05-03. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- ^ Albrecht, Chris (2018-04-11). "Spyce Kitchen Robot Restaurant Opening This Spring". The Spoon. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- ^ a b "Restaurant keeps its prices down – with a robotic kitchen". newatlas.com. 29 May 2018. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- ^ "Robotic woks are the chefs in this Boston restaurant". Engadget. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- ^ "Go to Downtown Crossing for a Meal Cooked by a Robot". Eater Boston. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- ^ "When a Robot Makes You Dinner". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- ^ "Collegiate inventors awarded 2016 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize". MIT News. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- ^ "MIT students invented a robotic kitchen that could revolutionize fast food". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- ^ Kolodny, Lora (2018-06-16). "Robots make the food at this Boston restaurant, but the recipes come from vaunted chef Daniel Boulud". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- ^ Holley, Peter (2018-05-17). "The Boston restaurant where robots have replaced the chefs". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- ^ "In Boston's newest restaurant, all the chefs are robots". Digital Trends. 2018-05-30. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- ^ Muzzi, Madeline. "Watch: Are Grain Bowls Made by Robots the Food of the Future?". Grub Street. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- ^ "Four MIT graduates created a restaurant with a robotic kitchen that cooks your food in three minutes or less". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- ^ Maffei, Lucia (2018-09-07). "MIT-Born Spyce Raises $21M Series A to Open New Robotic Restaurants". BostInno. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
- ^ a b "Spyce | Order Online". order.spyce.com. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
- ^ Lucas, Amelia (August 24, 2021). "Salad chain Sweetgreen bets on automation by acquiring Spyce and its robotic kitchen tech". CNBC. Retrieved 2021-10-03.
- ^ Heater, Brian (August 25, 2021). "Salad chain Sweetgreen buys kitchen robotics startup Spyce". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-10-03.