Salad-making robots are coming to Houston

Houstonians can order salads from restaurants, grocery stores and, soon, salad-making vending machines.

The Salad Station, a Louisiana-based fast-casual chain, is planning to open dozens of restaurants and place salad-making vending machines across the Houston area over the next several years. With the tap of a few buttons, its salad-making machines drop portions of pre-chopped and refrigerated ingredients into a bowl and serve it fresh to customers.

“We’re seeing a nationwide change in eating habits,” said John Mike Heroman, Salad Station’s head of franchise development. “We see growth as people are looking for healthy meal options.”

Robotics and automation are poised to transform the restaurant industry just as it has other sectors, from automotive to retail. Restaurants and tech startups nationally are experimenting with robots and vending machines that make a variety of meal and dessert options.

California-based chain CaliBurger partnered with Miso Robotics to develop Flippy, a burger-flipping robot hailed as the world’s first autonomous kitchen assistant. Spyce, a Boston restaurant, features a robotic kitchen that collects orders from self-service kiosks, stir-fries ingredients in a hot wok and drops the hot meals into a bowl. Pizza Touch is piloting pizza vending machines in Florida. At Tipsy Robot in Las Vegas, two factory-arm robots mix 120 drinks every hour.

In Houston, Reis & Irvy’s Frozen Yogurt vending machines have popped up in the Texas Medical Center and the Art Institute of Houston.

To be sure, restaurants have been tinkering with technology since the heyday of the automat and the advent of fast food chains. However, the development of foodservice robots has accelerated in recent years amid rising labor and food costs.

The rise of robots in the kitchen has raised concern over the future of restaurant workers. Food preparation and service jobs are among the most vulnerable to replacement by machines due to restaurant work’s predictable and physical nature, according to a McKinsey Global Institute study.

“These robots are all about the dollars,” said David Littwitz, a Houston restaurant broker and consultant. “If you have a robot that can make X amount of burgers and pizzas, you’re not having to pay a person wages or benefits, like health insurance.”

Heroman with Salad Station said he isn’t worried about robots taking jobs away from the chain’s more than 300 employees, who run 20 restaurants across Louisiana. The company’s 2,000-square-foot restaurants, which each employ about 15 workers, offer more than 100 salad items and toppings, a spread that would be difficult to replicate in a vending machine.

“We don’t see these robots as a threat to our existing Salad Stations and employees,” Heroman said. “There’s always going to be a need for the restaurant experience.”

Moreover, the vending machines — which are targeted for hospitals, office towers, apartment complexes and sports arenas — will complement the Salad Station restaurants. The machines would offer nurses working the overnight shift at a hospital an option for healthy food when restaurants are closed, said Joe Benson, chief executive of RoboFresh, a Houston company contracted by Salad Station to service the vending machines.

“Houston is a 24/7 city, so we wanted to bring a healthy option that’s available 24/7,” Benson said.

Staying fresh

Salad Station’s vending machines are the size of a large ATM, featuring a clear window so customers can view the ingredients inside. Customers can choose either a romaine lettuce or spinach base topped with chicken or ham, three types of dressing and 17 salad toppings ranging from cherry tomatoes to edamame beans. The ordering and salad-making process typically takes less than three minutes, Benson said.

The ingredients are held in 22 clear canisters, which will be chilled to 38 degrees and switched out for fresh ingredients twice a day. Although prices are yet to be determined, each 32-ounce salad bowl from the vending machine will cost less than $9, Benson said.

The vending machines are made by Chowbotics, a California company, and each costs north of $40,000. Salad Station plans to purchase and place 10 of the so-called Sally machines in Houston by early 2020, Benson said.

RoboFresh, the Salad Station contractor, plans to open a commercial kitchen near the Texas Medical Center to serve the vending machines. The company has five employees, and plans to hire more as the number of salad vending machines grow.

Salad Station has signed an agreement to open its first Houston-area restaurant, a franchise location in Friendwood, next year. The chain plans to open 40 stores in the Houston area, entering a competitive turf held by Houston-based Salata, a made-to-order salad chain that is undergoing a major rebrand to court customers.

Salad Station’s salad-making vending machines won’t make an appearance inside its restaurants, however. The company operates five machines in Louisiana, which have been popular, Heroman said.

Will robots and vending machines take over kitchens across Houston? Littwitz, the Houston restaurant consultant, isn’t convinced that will happen.

“It’s entirely possible, but I’m not so bullish,” Littwitz said. “People like going to restaurants because they like the idea that a human being is cooking and customizing their meal.”