Hwy 55 team welcomes Rosie the robot

Jun. 9—LENOIR

Hwy 55 has taken the first small step into the new age of technology by introducing Rosie the robot to their service team.

Rosie (or Servi, as her model is called) supports the staff at the retro-themed diner by running food. She gives their employees more time to spend with guests and still avoid burnout, while also providing quicker and more efficient service all around.

Rosie joined the Hwy 55 team in mid-April to start training with the staff immediately.

"It was important to us that the staff understood Rosie was not here to take their jobs," said April Dennis, who owns the restaurant along with her husband, Neal. "Rosie was here to assist them and to help them with the volume that we anticipated."

Dennis and her husband opened the Hwy 55 restaurant, located at 1095 Hickory Blvd., on May 4. The couple has been with Hwy 55 for 30 years, with Neal serving as the chief operating officer (COO) for the last 20 years. Prior to owning the restaurant on 321, they worked at the home office located in Mount Olive.

Hwy 55 was founded by Kenney Moore in 1991, and was originally called Andy's Cheeseburgers and Cheesesteaks. When the decision was made that the western part of the state needed to grow just as the eastern part had, Moore met with April and Neal to discuss an opportunity for expansion.

"Kenney knew that Neal and I wanted to retire at some point to the western part of the state because all of my family is in Wilkes County," Dennis said. "So we of course graciously accepted the offer to do that, and we moved here."

Dennis and her husband began looking in Wilkes and surrounding counties for the perfect location not only to launch the new restaurant, but also to join and live in a small community.

"We settled on Lenoir," said Dennis. "It's like everywhere we would go to look at houses or land for buildings, we kept coming to this intersection. We found a house here in Lenoir and decided that this is going to be home, this is where we're going to live. We fell in love with the small town; we're both from small towns in eastern North Carolina, so the small-town feel was very comfortable for us."

In order to form a strong bond between the server robot and the rest of the staff, Dennis decided to nickname her Rosie, just like Rosie the Robot from the TV show "The Jetsons."

"We wanted to personalize her," Dennis said. "One of the big things that Hwy 55 is known for is making a connection with our guests and our 'love your neighbor' culture. By doing that, by giving her a name and talking to her, she became part of the team ... She has to be able to love her neighbor, too."

The employees regularly talk to Rosie just like she is a fellow team member.

"When Rosie delivers food, we tell her thank you," Dennis said. "We say 'go on back home, we'll see you in a minute.' We actually carry on a conversation with Rosie, and doing that during training, the employees realized Rosie's just one of us."

Dennis said both her employees and customers love Rosie.

"Every child of course wants to see Rosie," she said. "But it doesn't stop there. People are coming just to see Rosie ... we try to pay real close attention to the customers' reactions when seeing her, and if it's something that they have an interest in, we definitely make sure that Rosie takes a trip to their table. There are times when we send Rosie over with nothing but a menu because we've already delivered the food but they wanted to see Rosie come."

Rosie can also sing Happy Birthday. Dennis said that more personalizations are soon to come, such as stickers to decorate her just like Rosie the Robot from "The Jetsons," as well as programming voices and songs for her.

"We're going to see if we can't take some of the things that Rosie said on 'The Jetsons,' " said Dennis. "She was a bit sassy on the show, and Hwy 55's Rosie is sassy, too. We tell people if they ever see Rosie just spinning around out here, she's rolling her eyes at us, because we've sent her and she's not quite sure where she's supposed to be going ... She beeps at you and talks back."

Dennis feels truly blessed to be living and working in Lenoir.

"We appreciate all the support the community has given us," she said. "Lenoir has a big heart. Neal and I have been here for two years, and we can see it was the right place to call home. It's a heartfelt community."

During training week, Hwy 55 offered free meals to every guest who donated to the Hwy 55 Foundation, which provides financial support to organizations that are dedicated to improving the communities they serve.

In just two days, Hwy 55 in Lenoir raised $2,300.

"I'm very honored to say that the Lenoir community supported us," said Dennis.

Join the rewards program on the Hwy 55 app and earn points for every $1 spent.

Visit hwy55.com and follow Hwy 55 on all social media for more information.

Servi robots are programmed to travel from the food prep area to any table in the restaurant. When an order is complete, the server can place the food on Servi, hit the table number, and Servi will deliver the food. A server will then perform another task or two and hustle to meet Servi at the table so they can place the food on the table for the customer. Servi has a motion sensor, so she'll stop if something moves in front of her.

To learn more about Servi units and other models, visit www.bearrobotics.ai.