Spyce, the fast-casual downtown Boston eatery that closed in November to revamp the back of the house, has reopened its doors — and unveiled its new, robot-powered “Infinite Kitchen,” as well as a delivery service using Somerville startup SomEV’s electric mopeds.
Spun out of MIT in 2015, Spyce is known for its globally inspired bowls with a technological twist: Each one is assembled by a robot. Now, the process has been automated even further. Spyce’s new kitchen is reminiscent of an assembly line with each lane able to be customized to fit certain ingredients. Brussels sprouts in one lane can cook at one temperature, while tofu can cook at another temperature just one lane over. Once the hot ingredients are prepared to order and added to a bowl, sauce is squirted onto the bowl from a robot overhead, then another deposits cold ingredients and other toppings to finish off the meal.
With the change to its kitchen comes a change to its ordering process. Spyce has revamped the user interface on its ordering platform so diners can more easily customize their bowls to fit dietary preferences.
“There’s really three things that have changed,” Jeff Tenner, Spyce’s vice president of food and beverage, said during a virtual press event in October. “We have added this killer salad menu. We’ve created this dynamic menu that gives you the ability to personalize every meal. And we’ve leaned into the tech to cook to order the food as fresh as possible.”
Before the automated kitchen was introduced, Spyce had several human employees working behind the counter alongside the robots. Michael Farid, CEO and co-founder, maintains that people are still integral to Spyce’s operation; in fact, he said, the startup’s headcount has actually increased. Spyce now employs 51 part-time and full-time workers, up from 30 in April, and has rehired three of the four employees it laid off due to Covid-19 earlier this year.
“We prep all our ingredients by hand, shredding cabbage, marinating, creating the seasoning, toasting the spices and nuts,” Farid said. “There’s so much more in the restaurant that we do that we didn’t used to do.”
Spyce is now leaning heavily into delivery. In a local B2B partnership, Spyce has secured a fleet of electric mopeds — 12 of them purchased, eight of them leased — from Somerville-based SomEV, a fellow Greentown Labs startup that began selling its electric vehicles earlier this year. Each moped driver is an employee on Spyce’s payroll, not a contractor, Farid said.
For SomEV, the partnership represents the startup’s foray into B2B sales. Co-founder Natasha George said the pandemic forced her to pivot as well, as the pandemic canceled out SomEV’s ability to do pop-up stores designed for direct-to-consumer sales. (George also said SomEV sold out its first D2C batch of electric mopeds and kick scooters this fall.)
“I definitely see a pathway to expanding our B2B partnerships,” George said. “We really feel like what the pandemic has shown us is micromobility is here to stay. A lot more people are adopting micromobility vehicles, especially in the delivery space. They want to deliver this experience. We think other restaurants can also adapt this idea of delivering an experience, versus just someone dropping off food at your door.”
Take a look at Spyce’s new kitchen and SomEV mopeds in the gallery below.
