Mezli isn’t the first restaurant in the San Francisco area to use automation. Its founders say it’s the first to completely eliminate human presence from on-site operations, from ordering to receiving food.
Mezli is scheduled to officially open on August 28 at the Spark Social food court, located at 601 Mission Bay Boulevard North, San Francisco.
Mezli started like any good startup story. Three college graduates were looking for a solution to a problem they all faced: The lack of healthy, nutritious dinner options that wouldn’t break the bank, especially when they lived in one of the most expensive metropolitan areas in the US. No time to prepare a healthy meal for yourself, and no money to pay someone else to do it for you.
Mezli will officially open on August 28 at the Spark Social food court, located at 601 Mission Bay Boulevard North, San Francisco.
So three young engineers, a software and AI expert, an automation expert and an aerospace engineer sat down together to come up with a solution for clean, healthy and cheap eating. Their solution even opened up new possibilities for the food industry in the future. Two years after they first came up with the idea and spent several million dollars on research and development funded by venture capital, the dream of three engineers Alex Kolchinski, Alex Gruebele and Max Perham is just a few days away from officially opening.
Mezli is not a restaurant in the traditional sense, meaning there are no tables and chairs to sit at and wait for a waiter to bring you a menu. Instead, a touchscreen and a card slot greets diners.
The automated system inside Mezli makes food very quickly, about 75 meals per hour, which means every 48 seconds, less than 1 minute, a meal is ready and delivered to customers. Mezli's food prices are also lower than the average in San Francisco. The cheapest dish costs $6.99.
This restaurant cannot be considered in the traditional sense, that is, there are no tables and chairs to sit and wait for the waiter to bring the menu to order. Instead, a touch screen menu and a card slot will be what will greet diners.
The co-founders built what’s essentially a large, refrigerated shipping container that puts those ingredients in bowls, heats up the food, and delivers it to where diners can pick it up. But from a technical standpoint, the co-founders say it’s been quite difficult to solve. Most other “automated” restaurants require a human presence, with waiters taking orders and robots cooking, or vice versa. But Mezli can operate autonomously, serving hundreds of meals without any human staff.
Elsewhere, of course, human chefs are still needed to prepare raw food. That’s the job of chef Eric Minnich, who worked at the Michelin-starred Madera at the Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel and at the Commissary restaurant run by American chef Traci Des Jardin. He and two others prepare food daily, including pre-cooking and portioning it. Once a day, Minnich and his team deliver the raw ingredients to the automated restaurant.
Costs are kept to a minimum because there are less than five people serving the entire restaurant, allowing Mezli to serve hundreds of people daily at a lower than average price per meal.
Mezli’s menu is Mediterranean-based, of course, with the selling point being that it’s a true tech restaurant. Diners can choose from a few eye-catching dishes: za’atar yogurt-grilled chicken with turmeric rice, roasted cauliflower with red rice and sweet potatoes, minced lamb with tzatziki sauce with mushrooms and grilled tomatoes, or chickpea patties with salad. There’s also the option to create your own dinner from the available options.
Mezli's food prices are also lower than the San Francisco average, with the cheapest dish costing $6.99.
The customization itself means that if you want, with just a software update, Mezli can instantly transform into a Thai or Indian restaurant.
Kolchinski acknowledges that Mezli may not be the future of dining, and there are limitations to a model without human interaction in restaurants. But he and his co-founders say their technology meets the needs of fast, convenient, affordable, and healthy dining in a way that traditional restaurants can’t.
Mezli can serve hundreds of people daily at a lower than average price per meal.
Mezli boxes, which run on electricity and don't require gas hooks, hoods, or even a roof, can be placed anywhere. Plus, they can be built much more cheaply than traditional restaurants, though Kolchinski declined to share the exact cost of making the first box.
