Kristen Hawley [00:00:00]:

They also have a avocado peeling and pitting robot, which is huge deal. Right. Repetitive tasks and potentially dangerous tasks. It's called the autocado because it's. Yeah, it really, really is. They have a tortilla making bot called Chippy, who does work in one store in southern California. And Chippy was programmed to make tortilla chips like a human.

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Angelo Esposito [00:00:23]:

Welcome to Wisking It All with your host, Angelo Esposito, co founder of Wisk.AI, a food and beverage intelligence platform. We're going to be interviewing hospitality professionals around the world to really understand how they do what they do. Welcome to another episode of Wisking It All. We are here today with Kristen Hawley, the founder of Expedite, a newsletter about restaurant tech and the future of hospitality. Kristen, thank you for being here with me today.

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Kristen Hawley [00:00:56]:

Thanks for having me.

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Angelo Esposito [00:00:57]:

Yeah, so, I mean, quick background, I think, is always warranted. I don't want to do it injustice, but obviously, from what I've seen online and from what I've heard, a little quick background, you've been in the industry or been doing this for over a decade, really kind of pragmatic coverage and sharp analysis of tech and the relationship with, I guess, restaurants. From what I've seen, your writing as a period in insider, bon appetit, food and wine eater, and many more publications, as well as being on stage as a moderator, interview and presenter, national restaurant show, Ces Smart Kitchen Summit. I got my notes here. The Culinary Institute of America, the Institute of Culinary Education, et cetera, et cetera. So you're no stranger to the restaurant and tech space, and that's why I'm so excited to have you here. But I'd love to have your version of what you do, so it'll probably do more justice.

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Kristen Hawley [00:01:58]:

I don't know, that sounds pretty impressive. So, yeah, I've been covering the restaurant technology industry and the way that restaurants have changed for the last ten years, the way that restaurants have changed because of technology. And I started writing about this very particular intersection when I moved from New York to San Francisco. And as a person who loved restaurants, you know, third place, tiny apartments, I just noticed that restaurant, I guess what I'd call restaurant culture, was different in San Francisco than it was in New York. And that was largely because in 2000, 920, 1020 eleven, the tech scene scene industry in San Francisco was, uh, blowing up. You know, it was, it was kind of taking over a lot of stuff. A lot of, a lot of things. A lot of restaurants and culture.

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Kristen Hawley [00:02:55]:

And there's a ton of technology happening, and the way that people were interacting with restaurants was different, and the expectations were different. And it was largely because of tech and restaurants and hospitality, traditionally slow on the uptake of new technology for many reasons, but it really felt like this inevitable shift that was coming. And I found there was a lot of, I guess, almost miscommunication between tech companies and restaurants about how they wanted to grow and how they wanted to evolve in, like, this brave new world. And I thought, I love that you said pragmatic coverage, because that's what I try to do. I think it needs to be, when we're talking about food, right? It needs to be understandable and accessible. It's something that everybody needs and requires, and it's changing when you're applying tech principles to an industry that is as old as. I mean, you know, a lot can get lost. So, yeah, so I believe that there's a real opportunity still ten years later, for just really honest and insightful coverage of who's shaping the future of hospitality.

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Angelo Esposito [00:04:06]:

Beautiful. It's funny, when you mentioned you were talking about San Francisco, you know, ten plus years ago, I had a good friend that lived there, so I used to go visit quite a bit. And I remember I was like, oh, I wanna move here. Like, this is like maybe 1012 years ago. And it's funny that you kind of mentioned the restaurant scene was different. Cause they're so, I guess, open to tech and trying things, and things always get experimented there, whether it be things like Uber Lyft or anything else. And it just triggered a memory that this was more than a decade ago, and it was like, I can't remember the place. I wanna say it was either blue bottle coffee or something else, but you can order coffee ahead of time and pick up.

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Angelo Esposito [00:04:40]:

Right? And it was like, yeah, this is like twelve years ago. So it's like, I didn't even think about it, but I was putting the dots together and I'm like, it's true. It's a different. It's like us. And then San Francisco was his own kind of, like, separate scene almost.

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Kristen Hawley [00:04:53]:

It was. It's just like the things that you take for granted now. Like, when Uber started here, it was a bunch of town cars, right? And so it. Yeah, it was. It's changed rapidly. It's changed rapidly. And with that, like, social change has come really different expectations. And, you know, restaurant owners who've been running their businesses for decades are needing to understand and catch up with what's happening in technology.

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Angelo Esposito [00:05:19]:

Right? And so getting. Getting to hear a bit about expedite. Right. So you've been at the forefront of the restaurant tech space with expedite. So my initial question is, kind of what inspired you to start this newsletter in the first place? And then, like, how's it evolved since its inception?

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Kristen Hawley [00:05:34]:

Yeah, well, my first newsletter, I started in 2013, and it was like, I think I've deleted it off the Internet. It was a lot of casual observations and information about what was happening less in the industry, like, less industry coverage. Zordash was a startup when I started, a real startup with maybe some seed funding, that first iteration of the newsletter was really just chronicling. I think I highlighted chefs on Twitter. I think we talked about Instagram. I don't know, real baby stuff. And the impetus for the newsletter was, this is such a niche thing. And I like, am I a weirdo? Am I the only one that cares about this? And so my now husband encouraged me to start a newsletter.

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Kristen Hawley [00:06:24]:

He works in technology, and he noticed a lot of people in his orbit writing newsletters at this time over ten years ago. And so I just asked a couple of friends, like, hey, if I put this thing together that's about restaurants and technology, I think it was about chefs and technology at the time, specifically, like, cooking. Yeah. Would you read it? And. Yeah, yeah. And thankfully, I had a couple friends that worked in the business in tech adjacent hospitality, and they got it in front of the right people for the right people. They got in front of some, like, executives at Opentable and other places that were interested in commentary about business that they were working in. And, yeah, I sold that newsletter in 2016 to a company called Skift B, two B Media company.

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Kristen Hawley [00:07:06]:

They joined them as part of the acquisition and led their restaurant industry coverage for three years. And it was wonderful until they decided in 2019 that they were not going to cover restaurants anymore. So, yeah, that was a bummer. And the timing was unfortunate for them, I would say. But so the way that that was structured meant that I had to leave the old newsletter with them. And I started expedite in the fall of 2019 over. Started over at zero, which was a real challenge. But I believed that my work was unfinished, and I believed that we were really in a moment in restaurant technology, where it was like the industry had grown up.

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Kristen Hawley [00:07:45]:

The industry was, like, legit. There were ipos, there was a lot of money flowing into it. There was a lot of interest, and I could not have been more right, because in 2020, suddenly, everybody who has ever eaten at a restaurant was extremely interested in how they worked and their business model and how they could support them during the earliest and scariest days of COVID So expedite, you know, while it has been in my brain for a really long time, it was really formed during, I would say, like, the worst early pandemic days, when there was a need for real, timely information about how the industry was changing and how tech was helping at that point and potentially hurting. You know, it wasn't all good news, but, you know, like, when you have people who are, like, you consider smart, educated business people who are coming to you saying restaurants have terrible margins and they're terrible businesses, and how do they, you know, it's like, yeah, yeah. Have you not been paying attention? Have you ever talked to anybody who's run a restaurant? I think that increased consumer and diner awareness and how restaurants work and how technology helps them and potentially hurts them is only, has only been a benefit for the business. And that's kind of what's been keeping me going for the last three years.

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Angelo Esposito [00:09:05]:

I love that. That makes a ton of sense, and I'd love to maybe shed a bit of light on the founder side of it just real quick, like, you know, it's not easy to start something from scratch and you've done it twice, but to start something from scratch and then get it acquired, I'd love to maybe just touch on that. Cause we also have some different restaurant tech founders on the podcast, and it's always nice to hear, like, the entrepreneurial journey. So I'd love to hear quickly, like, maybe, what did that look like? Right. Building something from nothing. Right. Really gratifying. But then getting a.

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Angelo Esposito [00:09:33]:

I'd love to hear about that. How was that? How was it working at this acquirer, and what did that process look like?

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Kristen Hawley [00:09:38]:

Yeah, I call myself a reluctant entrepreneur. I sort of fell into it as a freelance writer. But freelance writers are entrepreneurs, especially now, when much of your image depends on what you're doing on your own. So what that looked like was, I had a friend in common with the CEO of this media company called Skipt, which covers the travel business in a way that was really in line with the way that I cover restaurants, like consumer focus. Why do people care? How does this news about an industry show up every day for the average person? And so we had a couple conversations, and I was just extremely open to next steps. I came up in magazine journalism. I worked in the big publishing houses in New York before I came to San Francisco after the 2008 crash, when everyone in magazine lost their job, including me. And so going back to a media company was like, it was a very easy decision because I loved having colleagues, I loved having editors.

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Kristen Hawley [00:10:42]:

I loved having fellow creatives. I loved having a marketing and a sales team, which I do not have right now, which is the part of the downside of being a solopreneur. But it was, yeah, you know, I mean, it was an exit. They paid me for the newsletter and then they brought me on full time. I was extremely proud of it and still am. And it was just, it was a real pleasure to help build out coverage that was, you know, tangential but very complimentary to their travel industry.

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Angelo Esposito [00:11:10]:

That's really cool. And any lessons learned that you can share? Because I was like trying to share nuggets of information in terms of, you know, other founders listing or just other business owners and any maybe lessons that looking back, you're like, I would have done x or y differently.

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Kristen Hawley [00:11:25]:

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I mean, like I said, I had to leave the newsletter on the table when I left, and it wasn't my decision. And I think I should have done some more upfront negotiations about what was mine and what was theirs. And, you know, like, it's not like I'm doing the exact same thing I was doing when I joined the company. So it's not like it was a non compete, but, you know, I created a lot of things for them that live with them. And that is a challenge when you are continuing to build your brand again, like solo. And that is just youth in naivete, I guess, on my part.

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Kristen Hawley [00:12:05]:

And also, you know, I think it was the right decision for me at the time. I absolutely don't regret it. The only thing I would change, I think, was being able to take more when we parted.

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Angelo Esposito [00:12:16]:

That makes sense. But either way, I think, you know, congratulations is not easy to build something out of nothing and then to create so much value that somebody else wants to buy it. Just in that, I think there's a lot of, at least for me, when I think about it, a lot of satisfaction of just, you know.

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Kristen Hawley [00:12:32]:

Yeah, I remind myself of this all the time. All the time. Freelance journalism can be a lonely endeavor, especially when you're reading a newsletter in your office by yourself. And I have created things of value that are valuable to others. And that is a huge deal.

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Angelo Esposito [00:12:50]:

That's awesome.

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Kristen Hawley [00:12:50]:

Huge deal. And it was great. It was great.

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Angelo Esposito [00:12:52]:

That's awesome. And then so fast forward. I love that. And then fast forward. Then you're like, okay, cool, I'm out of here. But I think I want to continue doing this. So, like, what did that look like. And I'd love to transition to what you're doing today, basically.

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Kristen Hawley [00:13:06]:

Yeah. Well, like I said, it felt like it was unfinished. I had a lot of support from readers that came with me in the beginning when I joined the company, I had a lot of support from, like, readers that I gained while I was at the company. You know, there were companies, people at the company itself, who were extremely supportive and have continued to be extremely supportive of my endeavor and to, you know, covering what I believe is. Yeah, yeah, it's nice. I think that I took some time off, and I just, like, in the time I took off, I think, like, doordash, iPod and Resi was acquired. Like, there was a couple, like, really big things that happened that I missed. Yeah.

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Kristen Hawley [00:13:49]:

And that was hard. That is hard as, like, a newstown, this industry that I've covered since its infancy, and I remember being in conference rooms with Doordash executives. Like, we are the next big thing. We are bullish on our ability to scale and grow, and you're kind of like, okay, yeah, you know, you hear it all the time. They were right. And to see that through, you know, I missed getting to cover it, so that was. That was a bummer. I love explaining complex topics to a general audience.

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Kristen Hawley [00:14:13]:

It's my favorite thing. So there's nothing more complex than how tech works, and it's a nice little niche to have found myself in.

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Angelo Esposito [00:14:23]:

It's funny because that's actually one of the questions I wanted to ask, is the perfect segue. It's how do you, especially with these major publications, how do you approach writing about a niche topic? But to a broad audience, that in itself sounds pretty challenging. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

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Kristen Hawley [00:14:38]:

Yeah, I think that it comes down to, why should I care? And COVID. During the worst days of COVID and lockdowns, you know, the PPP and restaurant relief funds and legislation and lobbying and all of that, people did care. I think the sell now is a little bit harder. Like, a lot of, you know, God, I don't think I've written about or been asked about or been interviewed about a topic more than QR codes, and it still comes out. People hate them. Hate them. Most restaurants aren't a super fan either, but the ones that have continued using them do so for a reason. Right? And it's like, well, why?

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Angelo Esposito [00:15:18]:

Right.

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Kristen Hawley [00:15:19]:

So that's kind of how I approach. Why should I care? How does it affect me? And sometimes it is explaining a restaurant's position to a readership, like, you know why they use QR codes? Because they're having trouble finding and retaining staff. Why are they having trouble finding and retaining staff? Because they're not able to charge what they should for dinner because they're in a competitive environment, inflation and everything. So being able to tie those stories together and be like, yeah, you know what? You hate using your phone. I'm sorry. Like, ask for a paper menu, I'm sure.

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Angelo Esposito [00:15:50]:

Exactly. That's super interesting. And it. It's funny because one thing we noticed, I mean, COVID for restaurants was horrible for us. It was pretty tough, too, because we all were tied to the restaurant. You know, we're subscription service for restaurants. So, like, you know, it's like, 80% of your clients are like, we're gonna pause our subscription. So that's pretty tough for us to.

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Angelo Esposito [00:16:09]:

But the one kind of caveat that came from it, that helped, because we do, like, a lot of backhouse stuff, like inventory management and recipe costing. One, if there's any. There's not many. But one slight positive that came of COVID is a lot of restaurants became a lot more educated and aware of, like, the importance of, like, cost control. And, you know, it's not as sexy as, you know.

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Kristen Hawley [00:16:29]:

Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:16:29]:

Typically, people think more revenue and sales and marketing, it's always a bit harder to pitch cost savings. But I think during COVID when people really had more time and, you know, the restaurant tours kind of started taking that stuff seriously. So that was one nugget that was kind of positive is like, when we got back into it post COVID, there wasn't as much, like, education. It was like, yeah, of course. I need to know my cost supplier. You know, tomatoes are going up, and this is going, like, everyone was, like, bought in already, so it kind of. That was the one positive. But it.

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Angelo Esposito [00:16:56]:

But it's interesting to see how, like, like you said, a topic that's maybe people don't think about and then example, like, oh, they're raising prices. Restaurants expensive. It's like, they're not doing it to try to gouge you. They're doing it because labor is going up, supplies are going up. Like, they need to make, you know.

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Kristen Hawley [00:17:11]:

Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:17:11]:

Whatever margins they can, which is generally in a restaurant, it's not too high to begin with. Right.

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Kristen Hawley [00:17:16]:

Yeah, it's. I mean, you know, I'm sure that, like, the real back of house tech companies would love if I could make, like, inventory management applicable to, like, the bon appetit readership.

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Angelo Esposito [00:17:24]:

I think that's a pretty dry topic. Yeah, yeah.

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Kristen Hawley [00:17:29]:

But there's a place for this story.

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Angelo Esposito [00:17:32]:

Yeah, that's funny. It's funny. We even tell people in the early days when I was like, you know, I found a whistle when I started, I think it was 2015ish or end of 2014, but when I started it, that was one of the pitches. It was, and it still is to a certain point in the days, like, listen, we're never going to make inventory fun. Inventory sucks. I'm not going to lie to you and pretend it's going to be fun. I'm just going to make it less sucky. I'm going to make it less bad for you.

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Angelo Esposito [00:17:52]:

And that was kind of the pitch, but it's true. It's a very dry topic, like recipe costing, but it's, you know, it was a quick tangent, but it was actually one of the reasons I found the WISK was this. Just the personal side, but I love restauranteurs as, like, entrepreneurs, as risk takers, as their passion for, like, guest experience and hospitality. So, you know, architecture, design. So there's so many things I love. But what I realized, and this is where the passion started, was like, they get into the business because of the passion of hospitality and guest experience and all this stuff, but then they don't realize that there's all these really dull, boring, but super important things, like costing, and it's, like, super dry and excel and, like, but it's, like, so crucial. So there's this kind of juxtaposition of, like, man, it's not why I got into it, but I need to do it. And it's like, can we help them with that? You know?

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Kristen Hawley [00:18:42]:

Yeah. Did you work in restaurants?

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Angelo Esposito [00:18:43]:

Yeah, I worked in restaurants, and then I started before WISK, actually. I had another tech company, but it was more related to nightclubs. It was kind of like. But early, early days, it was basically trying to digitize pen and paper for nightclubs. So it was like, you go to a nightclub, are you on the list? You have a table, whatever. But it was interesting challenges that we faced because the tech was, like, pretty good, whatever, but challenges we face were just the nuances of nightlife that you can't really speak about. But, like, the doorman will look at your appearances. If you're too many men and not too many women, they won't let you in.

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Angelo Esposito [00:19:13]:

There's like, so it wasn't so cut and drive. Like, here's the tag. It was like, there's a lot of nuances. So. But then anyways, that led to eventually finding a bigger problem, which was the WISK. And that's where that came from.

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Kristen Hawley [00:19:24]:

Yeah, I was, I'm asking because I think there's like this new, newer generation of restaurant technology startups and companies that are successful, that have been built by people with really innate hospitality experience. You know, like a chef creating tool that helps chefs. That's really exciting. That's really exciting to me. And in the beginning of my coverage, that was less, that was happening less frequently. It was more like opportunities for disruption and opportunities to make money and opportunities to scale because everybody eats or whatever it is. I put that in air quotes because, like, how many times have you heard that in a pitch? So I think that that is what is most exciting for me right now is the prevalence of technology. Good technology that's built by teams of people that understand the restaurant and hospitality business.

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Kristen Hawley [00:20:14]:

That's where the opportunity is.

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Angelo Esposito [00:20:15]:

I love that. Yeah. And I think it's so important because it's like you can't fake feeling the pain. When you feel the pain, you really understand your customer well, which I think helps with like, you know, product market fit and blah, blah, blah. So it's like, it's such a key. Even if I think about our staff, that's one thing. I don't know if it's been super purposeful in the beginning, but I realized, like, we were talking about this the other week as a team, but like, we're like, oh, wait, this sales rep actually, yeah, she was a manager and, oh, wait, this other sales rep actually used to work in the restaurant. And we realized, like, a good amount of our staff, this support person, our success bird, like a good chunk of it is, came from the restaurant issue, which I think also helps because they can communicate better with restaurant, you know, operators just kind of coming from that industry.

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Angelo Esposito [00:20:56]:

So it's been interesting.

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Kristen Hawley [00:20:58]:

You should mark it up.

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Angelo Esposito [00:20:58]:

Yeah, I think so. You got some juices flowing. I'm like, oh, it's actually pretty. That's awesome. And so, obviously you've seen a lot of things over the last decade. You know, I always joke around that, like, this is like super high level. I know there's a million in one apps now, but I always joke around, like, the coolest thing that happened was kind of like open table, right? It was like, wow, reservations. Cool.

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Angelo Esposito [00:21:17]:

After that, it was like digitizing pos or like cloud poses. And then after that, it was like, now there's a sudden boom. But I'd love to hear from your point of view, what are some tech? And this might be a loaded question. I'd love to hear if you can maybe highlight a few technologies, but that kind of stand out if you think about the last ten years, like, just like some things that, like, hey, this was amazing. I don't know, robotics, whatever it may be, but things that stood out to you.

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Kristen Hawley [00:21:40]:

Yeah. What is most interesting to me, if you, like, look back, I think obviously, resi's entry into the market was a huge deal, and they came at a time where there were some other competitors trying to challenge open table, but to completely rethink the way that the model. Right, the model for. Well, originally it was a different model for consumers, but it then changed into just reservations and talked also, to some extent, just challenging the transaction of a restaurant reservation with new technology. I think the stories like that are really interesting to me. I think that obviously, third party delivery. What's happened with Doordash, love it, hate it, whatever, has fundamentally changed the business. And we're just.

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Kristen Hawley [00:22:31]:

We're in the early days of seeing and Doordash, which I think on their earnings, they said they were like, we are in, like, early innings. And they've been saying this for years. And it's true of e commerce and online commerce and online local commerce. The stories that I love are the ones that can show technology really changing the trajectory of a business like Doordash. You know, plenty of people hate them for what they did. I'm putting that in air quotes, too. During COVID They have a robust network. They helped a lot of businesses.

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Kristen Hawley [00:23:04]:

They have a lot of money. They've given a lot of money to businesses. They've made new opportunities in the restaurant industry for people. And that I'm interested to see how things like that evolve. I don't know. Does that answer your question? I think I'm very pro tech and pro progress, but I'm also a storyteller, and I am not like, I don't see the future. I can tell you what I think is going to happen, but what's interesting to me is when big changes happen because of technology. And I think that there are forces that, you know, like, obviously, a big tech company that needs to turn a profit for its shareholders has their own interests, but there are so many people working in hospitality to preserve restaurants and hospitality that it's like watching those forces balance, and watching the balance over the last three years has been really interesting.

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Angelo Esposito [00:23:55]:

That is interesting. Yeah. Because when I think about this space, it's like, obviously there's a lot of different apps and tech and whatnot, but I almost think of them in big chunks. And like I said, open table, right. Or just reservation in general was like a big thing. And then digital pos, and then to your point, third party deliveries is another big one. So sometimes I just wonder what would be the next, let's say big one. Like, there's a lot of mini ones.

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Angelo Esposito [00:24:16]:

Like, don't get me wrong, scheduling, even what we do, cost of goods sold like they're important. But I'm wondering, what's the next one that you maybe see coming if you had to throw, throw a prediction.

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Kristen Hawley [00:24:29]:

Hiring, training, retention. This kind of technology that helps employs employers, connect with staff. I think that there's like, yeah, I think there's a lot of opportunity there, just given the turnover in the business you did. You mentioned robotics. I've traditionally stayed away from covering.

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Angelo Esposito [00:24:50]:

There's a lot of noise.

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Kristen Hawley [00:24:51]:

Robotics. I know I found it a bit overblown. But what I am extremely interested in is, you know, forays from, like, Chipotle and white castle and sweetgreen into robotic. They call it kobotics, which would mean robots that help people, which is always, that's like, that's always the headline in the restaurant and hospitality business. Like, we are not.

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Angelo Esposito [00:25:14]:

We're gonna replace you.

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Kristen Hawley [00:25:16]:

Yeah. Even though, like, if you, have you seen the videos of what Chipotle's doing and sweet Green's doing, that they are basically replacing. That's crazy human labor to some extent. But I think that, that, I mean, that's obvious. That's a huge one. And what that means for fast casual and fast, quick surface restaurants is pretty remarkable. And what that means for labor in those businesses is pretty remarkable, because those are, you could call those unskilled jobs. I'm doing air quotes again for the third time.

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Kristen Hawley [00:25:44]:

But how that changes entry level work in restaurants and hospitality is going to be something that's very important to watch. And I know a lot of people are thinking about, too, and I know the restaurants are thinking about that. They're saying, like, oh, we can train on hospitality instead of training on, like, a deep fryer. And I think that's great. So that's for the next big one. Yes, that's obviously. Yeah, it's pretty clear.

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Angelo Esposito [00:26:04]:

That's probably it.

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Kristen Hawley [00:26:04]:

That's what it is. Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:26:05]:

No, it's an interesting one, because it's like, I guess, two things. One is like, what things that we don't know, that we don't know that will kind of come up, and it's like, you know, every time there's a big tech, you know, revolution, you know, at first there's jobs that are taken over, but then eventually there's jobs that are created that we don't know. So it's hard for me to give an example because I can't. I don't know what. I don't know. It's hard to just, like, make up a job. But there's going to be jobs that come up that probably. But for people listening just to shed some light.

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Angelo Esposito [00:26:35]:

Can you explain? Because maybe they're hearing, oh, cool, robotics. Oh, cool, Chipotle. But maybe they're not as familiar. Can you just kind of briefly help them visualize what's going on with Chipotle or Switzerland?

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Kristen Hawley [00:26:45]:

So Chipotle has a couple. Yeah. So Chipotle has a couple initiatives. The one that is most top of mind is they have an investment arm of their company, and they invested in a company last year called Hyphen, which is a digital Makeline. A makeline is that line at Chipotle that you see either in the front in the store if you're. If you're inside, or there's another one in the back that does digital and delivery and pickup orders. So it works under the counter.

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Angelo Esposito [00:27:13]:

Okay.

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Kristen Hawley [00:27:14]:

This is not in a restaurant yet. They're testing it. It works under the counter to make burrito bowls and. Yeah, bowls. And I think some stat, like 65%, I think, of digital chipotle orders contain a salad or a bowl, and they can be made, ostensibly by this. Under the counter. There's a video of this line, and then the bowl goes through and gets all this stuff, and then it pops up. Person puts a person, a human employee puts a lid on it and can put it in the bag, and they supplement it with what they're building on the top, the things that the robots can't do, folding burritos, kids meals, quesadillas, stuff like that.

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Kristen Hawley [00:27:49]:

They also have a avocado peeling and pitting robot, which is huge deal. Right. Repetitive tasks and potentially dangerous tasks. It's called the autocado.

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Angelo Esposito [00:27:59]:

That's a great name because it's difficult.

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Kristen Hawley [00:28:01]:

Yeah, it really, really is. They have a tortilla making bot called Chippy, who does work in one store in southern California. And Chippy was programmed to make tortilla chips like a human. That is, they are imperfect and seasoned differently. So, like, they, you know, didn't want to make them all uniform. They trained the bot to make them imperfect chips. So that's that initiative. Sweetgreen has a salad making and, well, notably about Chipotle.

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Kristen Hawley [00:28:27]:

Those all live in the kitchen. They are not visible to guests. I think they've said. Their executive has said those will always live in it. Sweetgreen, on the other hand, is building restaurants around its salad producing robots that are huge. You should look up photos of this, too, because it's very pretty. There's one store now there's another coming, and then up to 14 next year, we'll have these robotic salad dispensers, essentially, that help human employees. I think they can make 50% more, 400 to 500 salads an hour.

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Kristen Hawley [00:28:58]:

A lot. A lot of salad. And they are designing new sweet greens around these robots. One, because they help with labor and costs and throughput, like, how much they're producing, and two, because they are really impressive looking. So, yeah, same thing. Like, robots that help people summer in the kitchen. Some are front and center.

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Angelo Esposito [00:29:22]:

That's super.

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Kristen Hawley [00:29:23]:

That's what's going on.

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Angelo Esposito [00:29:24]:

Yeah. Fast casual. Yeah, it's super interesting. We had the founder of Tiny Mile on the show, Ignacio. So Ignacio, shout out, and they're doing something interesting. I mean, I know there's a lot of different robotic companies, but they're doing last mile delivery, specifically Miami. So they're, like, in Brickell, I think they have, like, 100 plus robots. And it's.

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Angelo Esposito [00:29:41]:

At first I was like, yeah, robot like. But then once he kind of started walking me through, is pretty interesting of, you know, really focused on a core area. So, like, a downtown core, the idea of, like, maybe you don't need the driver labor. Right. And then things are too expensive. So, yeah, I'd love to hear your thoughts on, like, something. It doesn't have to be specifically tiny mile, but the idea of that last mile delivery in the restaurant space, what do you think about that?

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Kristen Hawley [00:30:05]:

Well, I think there are certain circumstances for which it makes a lot of sense to use robotics college campuses. I know they've been really successful cities. Less successful people don't. People are like, get out of the bike lane. Get off the sidewalk. What are you doing? What I do find very interesting, and I moderated a panel about this a couple weeks ago, but it was the push for e bikes and other forms of micro mobility restaurant delivery.

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Angelo Esposito [00:30:28]:

Interesting.

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Kristen Hawley [00:30:29]:

So, like, fewer cars in, like, urban settings. More bikes, more e bikes, more battery powered vehicles, more like small three wheel whatever it is, because of how delivery can then be better woven into, like, urban interesting. Instead of a car pulling over and blocking the bike lane or bike blocking the bus lane, or, like, I live in San Francisco on Valencia street, they just put a bike lane down the middle of the road, and you can no longer. They had to get rid of a bunch of parking spots on the street, which I support as a cyclist, so that delivery drivers had a place to pull over and pick up food. But the effect of that is that in an extremely commercial corridor with a lot of restaurants and a lot of people in a busy city, no one can find parking. And when you say, don't drive, take an Uber, whatever, it doesn't matter. You can't find parking, you're not going to eat the restaurant. Restaurants are saying that their reservations are being canceled at the last second because people literally can't find a place to put their car.

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Kristen Hawley [00:31:31]:

So finding better ways to accommodate delivery, which is not going, and delivery drivers in cities, whether that's robotics or that's e bikes, training a workforce on e bikes and e bike safety, whatever it is, I think that's really. That's more interesting to me than the sidewalk robots.

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Angelo Esposito [00:31:52]:

No, but that is interesting. And I'd love to hear what are your thoughts, if you have any on. So, you know, that's a bit on the QSR side and the fast casual, which is obviously super interesting. Where do you maybe see the tech? Or what have you seen? You know, you mentioned Chipotle and Sweetgreen. Have you seen any interesting kind of tech on the full service side? Any kind of. That stands out?

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Kristen Hawley [00:32:11]:

You know, they've been. I mean, there's been some tries at serving robots that didn't really take off. They're more of a novelty.

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Angelo Esposito [00:32:19]:

Oh, you mean like the robots that, like, go to the tables kind of thing?

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Kristen Hawley [00:32:23]:

It's in full service. I think there was like a, like a minute where it was like, oh, this is like, could this help us? And then it was like, no, this is not what we need. So I think any kind of automation that you see there would be back of house. Not necessarily robotics, but we could be eventually, like food prep, you know, if something like the autocado is eventually small enough and affordable enough. I know, I know, right? Just anything that helps with food prep. So repetitive tasks, dangerous tasks again, or, like, you know, there are plenty of AI and smart services that can help with, like, actual food prep and the, like, forecasting, measuring and. Well, yeah, forecasting and then actually, like, creating dishes and stuff. So makes sense.

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Angelo Esposito [00:33:12]:

So, yeah, and I love to hear just quickly, you know. I know, I know. Running a long time, so real quick as a speaker, as a presenter, you know, when you go to these industry events, I'd love to just hear your take on, like, what do you love most about you? Know, engaging with the community in person because you, you know, you're typically doing a lot of newsletter stuff behind the scenes. But then on the flip side, oh, it's so good. Yeah, I'd love to hear about that.

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Kristen Hawley [00:33:31]:

It is always a delight to talk to the people that are thinking about the future of hospitality and restaurants because there is so much heart in the business, in a way, even in the biggest trade shows. Like, you go to the NRA National Restaurant association show in Chicago, huge. It takes over the whole town. Like, trade show floor smacks you in the face. Right? Like it is. It is a trade show and the people there just care so deeply. It's. I love it.

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Kristen Hawley [00:34:01]:

I love it. That's awesome. And that one in particular is interesting because it's open to the public and it's quite affordable to come. And so people who like just like restaurants show up and walk around and that's like, what other industry trade show can appeal to, just like an on the street person.

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Angelo Esposito [00:34:17]:

Yeah, that's true.

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Kristen Hawley [00:34:18]:

There's just this, like, real, like, level of real realism and like, it's awesome. It's awesome. And so I really love doing all of that speaking because it is extremely interesting to hear what people leading the space are doing, but it's almost more interesting to hear what people who are like just learning about it are interesting.

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Angelo Esposito [00:34:40]:

Super cool. Well said. And so I guess maybe to wrap up, I'd love to, you know, help people understand where they can find you all that good stuff. So before we link all those things, are there any upcoming projects or collaborations you're excited about that you can share with us or just any.

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Kristen Hawley [00:34:56]:

I have my first magazine feature coming out soon in fast company magazine in print about a, I'll say a startup in the space that failed failure stories. Always to learn about failure stories. So that's exciting. But expedite evolves fast, and so you can find it at Expedite News. I am constantly inspired by the news and by new ideas and what people are talking about. I usually write it the day before I send it because I want to make sure that it's extremely relevant to everything that's happening. And so that is the best way to keep up with me. Expedite news, I put everything in there, but yeah, you can look out for some other fun stuff.

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Angelo Esposito [00:35:43]:

I love that.

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Kristen Hawley [00:35:43]:

So that feature is a big one.

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Angelo Esposito [00:35:45]:

No, no, it's awesome. So Expedite.news, you can find some great content there. Sign up to the newsletter and then are you pretty active on other social, like, do you want to plug your, I don't know, Instagram, LinkedIn, or pretty much expedite.news is the place to go?

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Kristen Hawley [00:35:57]:

You tell me. Oh, man. You know, I was real active on Twitter for a real long time, and I'm still mourning the loss of that network. I don't know. I know, I know. I'm married to an early Twitter. So my handle was KH. It still is.

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Angelo Esposito [00:36:12]:

That's a good handle.

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Kristen Hawley [00:36:14]:

It is.

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Angelo Esposito [00:36:15]:

Yeah.

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Kristen Hawley [00:36:15]:

Yeah. I use Instagram. My Instagram handle is my first name. Kristen. K R I S T E N. That I got because I was a tech reporter.

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Angelo Esposito [00:36:23]:

Wait, it's just Kristen. Wow, you got good handles.

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Kristen Hawley [00:36:27]:

Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:36:28]:

Damn.

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Kristen Hawley [00:36:29]:

Well, that one. Yeah, that was no nepotism. That was just right place, right time, first day sign up, I was covering the tech industry as a reporter. That's really cool. So you can find me there if you like pictures of food and kids. I'm a parent and yeah, I am pretty active on LinkedIn, and that's where I'm posting most of my professionals. My professionals, all of my professional stuff, including the freelance and including amazing.

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Angelo Esposito [00:36:56]:

So we'll make sure to link all that. So for people listening, we'll post this on Spotify, on YouTube, on Apple. So we'll put the links in there, Instagram, LinkedIn, and obviously expedite news. Kristen, with that said, thank you so much for joining the Wisking It All podcast. Your insight is super valuable. So thank you for your time today.

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Kristen Hawley [00:37:15]:

Thanks for having me. Great to be here.

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Angelo Esposito [00:37:17]:

Beautiful. Feel free to check out WISK.ai for more resources and schedule a demo with one of our product specialists to see if it's a fit for you.

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