The advantages and limitations of robot servers in Kamloops and Okanagan restaurants
Customers can find a cute kitty robot whizzing around serving food at a handful of Kamloops and Okanagan restaurants, but one restaurateur in Kelowna predicts it will take time before the bots become regular fixtures in the industry.
The bots, called BellaBots, first started appearing at restaurants in the region at the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tony Katsabanis, owner at Antico Pizza Napoletana in Kelowna, has had his bot for almost three years.
“I knew the company importing the bots here to Canada, and they said ‘try this out’,” he said. “I wasn’t looking to do it and it was just for fun to see what customers would say and people loved it.
“It comes with the name Bella which is funny, we’re an Italian restaurant and it has an Italian name.”
Katsabanis’ bot continues to be a popular feature of his restaurant, but he said in many cases the robots are limited in the industry by floor plans, at least for the near future.
“The problem with them is restaurants have to be designed around having automation,” he said. “You can’t have steps in your restaurant and the tables have to be a certain distance apart.
“You can’t just slap technology in there or you’re going to do a big design change on your floor plans.”
Katsabanis said his restaurant happened to be designed to accommodate the robot by coincidence.
“The new restaurants being built now and into the future will incorporate designs to take on more robot service and technology,” he said. “Same in the hotel business, they’re using a robot to deliver food where it can talk to the elevator, it’s connected through wifi.”
“It can go to the right floor to deliver food but the elevator has to have the new technology in it, it’d be extremely expensive to update an existing system.”
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At Katsabanis’s restaurant, the bot Bella stands by the woodfire pizza oven waiting to deliver food. It can take four plates at a time to a table and senses when the plates have been taken. It says ‘thank you’ and whizzes back to stand waiting at the oven for more pizzas.
“It’s fun for the kids and it’s easier on staff,” Katsabanis said. “We have heavy plates and can only carry two around. This thing takes four, the food isn’t waiting for a server so it’s getting to the table hotter. The servers have more time to do others things, everyone is happy.”
When asked if the technology is a threat to human jobs, Katsabanis said the bot is doing the opposite.
“More technology is making us more efficient and we’re able to drive more customers into the restaurant, tables are turning faster so staff levels don’t change,” he said. “If anything, staff size grows because we’re doing that much more business.”
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Over in Kamloops at least one restaurant is using a BellaBot to help out. Japanese sushi restaurant Oh Sushi Mura was quick to take on the new technology and got its bot in late 2021.
The BellaBot, designed by Pudu, uses 3D sensors to avoid obstacles and cost $15,000 each, according to its website.
Katsabanis bought a second bot he keeps in storage as a back up.
“It’s become a big part of the business,” he said. “The person who first brought it here was using pronouns to describe it, and it was weird. The funny thing is you get used to having it around, everyone starts using pronouns for it."
Antico Pizza Napoletana is an award winning Italian restaurant located at 347 Bernard Avenue in Kelowna.
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