Some restaurant owners have found a technological solution to the labor shortage currently hitting the industry: robots. La Duni, a Latin American restaurant in Dallas, has employed three robots to help keep the place running.
Don’t start envisioning a robot in a chef's hat, though — these bots are not manning the kitchens. Instead, their tasks are on the front end of the restaurant. A robot named Coqueta acts as a host assistant, greeting and seating customers, while two others — Panchita and Alexcita — are food and beverage runners, respectively.
The restaurant leased the robots from American Robotech for $15 a day for 48 months, which will cost a lot less than employing three human workers for that amount of time. Owner Espartaco Borga said he has been able to use those savings to pay his human employees more while also reducing their hours.
