Kernel made a splash when it opened its first New York City restaurant in early 2024. The then-vegan restaurant’s star employee was a robotic arm tasked with moving food in and out of the oven, assisting human workers by handling much of the heavy lifting. But the robot, along with Kernel’s name and one-time signature green paint in stores, have been retired. Instead, Kernel Foods is working on a new sandwich concept: Counter Service. Chief operating officer Tom Cortese, also a co-founder of hit fitness platform Peloton, still has an eye on how tech will take this burgeoning restaurant brand to new heights.
Topic Time Stamps:
1:17: News: Kristen talks about covering the launch of Sweetgreen’s ripple fries and her visit to the chain’s test kitchen.
6:13: More news: Brandon on fast food’s AI investments
8:30: Welcome Tom Cortese, chief operating officer at Kernel Foods.
11:18: Tom’s early observations about how Kernel operates and will evolve
14:50: More on the challenges of adding a multi-access robot to foodservice in historic New York City buildings. (A particularly unique challenge.)
18:37: To be clear: There are no robots in Kernel 2.0. (Yet.) But Counter Service does have a modern model.
23:36: Kristen loves Peloton. But how does the experience running a fitness company translate to running a restaurant?
31:05: Tom talks working with — and being inspired by — Steve Ells, Chipotle’s founder, who is also Kernel’s founder. In one memorable trip, they drove to a chicken farm to meet the meat the chain would use.
35:53: To Tom, there are three buckets of innovation at Kernel: supply chain, the restaurant make line, and quality control, a.k.a., customer happiness.
45:00: What’s next for Kernel’s robots? Are they permanently retired?
