Robot server? Rochester's Tilda's Pizzeria serves the future

Nov. 3—ROCHESTER — The workload has been less stressful for servers at Tilda's Pizzeria for almost 10 months now as they have had a helping hand from something that has no hands.

Back in January, Linda Black, co-owner of Tilda's, purchased a smart delivery robot made by Pudu Robotics to help provide more time for her servers to interact with customers and stress less on getting food and drinks to tables.

"I started researching this three years ago as I am always up to date on the latest technology trends," said Black. "My goal is to have the waitstaff interact more with the guests on a personal basis rather than stressing on delivering food, and this was a great opportunity to do so."

The robot, designated as BellaBot, has four tray slots, motion cameras at its base, and a computer system that helps it navigate through Tilda's restaurant floor with ease.

"Sixteen-thousand dollars is a lot, and it (Bella) could have been a bust, but I would have rather tried it out with little success and learned from the experience than not at all," said Black on why she purchased BellaBot for her business.

In a sense, a long-awaited American idea of robot workers serving people is finally arriving into the hospitality scene. The cost of a BellaBot could potentially be allocated to a part-time front of house employee. Black said between differentiating hours for her employees and tips. There's no way to truly quantify the difference with the money going to an employee rather than acquiring a robot.

Furthermore, the cost of such a robot has had no negative impact on the employees of Tilda's or the customers, Black said.

"Bella is such a help," said Tilda's shift lead, Megan Bakken. "Pizza pans can be really hot out of the oven and having her helps from making burns less likely and keeping more hands free when we have large parties that order a ton of drinks. Bella is also really entertaining for the guests to interact with."

Many guests who have been served by BellaBot enjoyed the experience as the bot is interactive with a cat-like personality built into its system.

"People love being served by Bella, kids run up to give her a hug when nothing is being carried. Adults try to yell and grab her attention to come over, and sometimes people are a little sad when they don't get served by her but still have a good time interacting," said Black.

BellaBot also helps with takeout orders as Black understands those ordering takeout pizza are more likely wanting to have minimal interaction with people when ordering pizza to bring home.

While BellaBot and other robots designed for hospitality service are still new to the scene, Tilda's is not the only restaurant in the state of Minnesota that has one in service. New Fresh Work, an Asian Cuisine restaurant in Falcon Heights, a suburb directly north of St. Paul,

has a BellaBot of its own that was brought in earlier this year.

As of now, New Fresh Work and Tilda's are the only known restaurants to have a BellaBot in service in the state.

Black believes that BellaBots will become more common across the restaurant industry in the years to come, adding, "If restaurants are not already looking into these, they are falling behind on the industry trends that could really boost their business."