RoboBurger, the world’s first fully autonomous robotic burger chef, launched last month with a ribbon cutting at the Newport Centre, a Simon Mall in Jersey City, NJ. This restaurant in miniature cooks restaurant-quality freshly grilled burgers from scratch, and it will soon be heading to airports, malls, colleges, offices, factories, and military bases across the country.
RoboBurger is launching its first unit in Newport Mall, in Jersey City. Locals will be able to have a hot, fresh, restaurant quality burger at the press of a button, at anytime of day – or night.
“RoboBurger is like having a personal chef for 6 minutes, that dedicates all its attention to making YOUR burger, with the perfectly grilled patty, and a crispy, fresh toasted bun,” noted RoboBurger co-founder and CEO Audley Wilson. “Our system has the fastest grill to hand technology in the industry. You can get a fresh, piping hot burger, right off the grill, 30 seconds after it’s ready. That’s our secret to excellent taste. The best part? RoboBurger is plug and play, needing only an electric plug to function and that allows us to make fresh burgers.”
RoboBurger is an artificially intelligent, self-operating, patented kitchen designed to include all the processes of a restaurant at a fraction of the size.
Inside of a frame that occupies about 12 square feet, the RoboBurger features everything it needs to make a complete burger in approximately six minutes. While there may not be any humans involved, the machine uses the same five-step cooking process employed by many quick-service restaurants. An automated griddle grills the patty at the same time the machine toasts the bun. When you order your burger, you can decide whether you want ketchup, mustard and cheese on it.
The launch comes on the heels of so much industry discussion coming out of the Pandemic focused on touchless and contactless food prep. RoboBurger is the first hot food vending machine approved at the gold food standard for safety by the National Sanitary Foundation at the standard NSF/ANSI 25.
“I started RoboBurger in my garage 17 years ago, and now there couldn’t be a better time to bring it to life and have everyone experience it,” said Wilson. “RoboBurger gives everyone freshly grilled, delicious burgers – while ensuring a safe, contactless experience. RoboBurger always comes out piping hot and is never pre-cooked and kept warm.”
Founded in 2019, RoboBurger is the world’s first fully autonomous robotic burger chef that creates restaurant-quality burgers from scratch. Headquartered in Newark, NJ, the minority-owned business (MBE) is led by Wilson, CTO and Partner Dan Braido and CMO and Partner Andy Siegel.
Like so many other aspects of the robotics world, the pandemic has dramatically accelerated interest in the automated kitchen. After all, the food and restaurant industry was deemed essential amid global shutdowns, but finding kitchen staff proved a problem for many, especially early on when questions remained around COVID’s transmission.
Last year, California-based fast casual salad chain Sweetgreen went all in on automation with the acquisition of Spyce. Founded in 2015, the Boston-based startup started making waves a few years back as a spinout of MIT mechanical engineering students. First serving up food at the school’s dining hall, the team ultimately opened a pair of automated restaurants in the Boston area. Sweetgreen plans to eventually incorporate Spyce’s technology into its restaurants. It will likely take some time to scale up to the needs of the chain, which currently operates more than 120 locations across the U.S.
RoboBurger told Total Food Service at last month’s SHFM Networking that it plans to bring its automated burger chef to airports, malls, colleges and other similar venues across the country in the coming weeks and months.
To learn more about RoboBurger, visit their website
