It’s a simple process: You tap out your order on an iPad, and then a kitchen staff (not visible anywhere inside the restaurant) prepares the meals. You wait a few minutes, and watch for your name to pop up on the wall of futuristic cubbies—each one has a clear LCD screen that flashes your name as soon as your meal has been deposited (by ROBOTS!) into said cubby. Step up to your cubby, tap the screen twice, and the screen automatically rolls up so you can retrieve your bowl and then hit the road. MORE: 5 Ways to Eat More Quinoa When You Don’t Like Quinoa The menu features a variety of quinoa types and toppings (BBQ Portobello mushrooms, grilled corn, pickled onions, roasted beets, curried parsnip) and each one starts at $6.95. The place already boasts a 4.5-star rating on Yelp, with commenters raving that “the hype is real” and that it “looks like an Apple store, but for food!” Some publications haven’t been quite as accepting: “Hate People? Love Quinoa? Your Dream Restaurant Just Opened” quipped one headline. But founder David Friedberg (a software entrepreneur) seems to really care about nutritious and sustainable food. The restaurant’s website waxes poetic about the virtues of quinoa—a high-protein plant food that’s less resource-intensive than meat. And he told TechCrunch that he hopes to someday operate Eatsa locations in areas where access to fresh food is limited. MORE: Gluten-Free Qunioa Pancakes with Caramelized Apples and Hazelnuts Then again, the New York Times reports that Easta has plans to eliminate the kitchen workers and replace them with machines, too, if it can be done for less money. And while it’s all well and good that we start eating quinoa instead of McDonald’s hamburgers, maybe it’d also be good to give jobs to, like, real humans. In interviews, Friedberg stands firm in his belief that using automation to bring down costs will ultimately benefit consumers—and that a new model of employee-less restaurants could create new tech jobs. (The company did not return our requests for comment.) So is Eatsa the start of a fast food revolution? Or a sign of the end times? We’ll let you be the judge.
