BAY AREA INNOVATION CENTER KITCHENTOWN OFFICIALLY ROLLS FIRST FULLY AUTONOMOUS RESTAURANT OUT OF ITS 30,000 SQ FOOT CAMPUS AND INTO THE PUBLIC

After Building and Incubating at KitchenTown, Mezli's Modular Restaurant is Now Parked in Mission Bay's Spark Social; Begins Robotic Service to the Public Later This Month

SAN MATEO, Calif., Aug. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today KitchenTown, a Bay Area innovation center that helps entrepreneurs make their mark on the future of food, announced Mezli, the first fully autonomous restaurant, rolled out from its 30,000 square foot San Mateo campus and is now parked at Mission Bay's Spark Social ready to open to the public.

The cutting-edge idea was brought to KitchenTown by three Stanford engineering students who wanted to democratize access to healthy, delicious, convenient food and needed tools, infrastructure and culinary expertise to transform their technology into a viable modular restaurant model.

KitchenTown put the full weight of its resources and talent behind Mezli's development. In addition to investing in the start-up's seed round, it created a customized 'homebase' for founders Alex Gruebele, Alex Kolchinski and Maxwell Perham to grow their ground-breaking concept into a consumer-ready operation. Specifically, KitchenTown:

• Created a 5,000 square foot workspace in its Innovation Garage for the robot to be built
• Dedicated Culinary Director Eric Minnich to develop, test and refine the Mediterranean Bowl recips in its Culinary and Food Development Facility
• Hosted a year-long, Mezli pop-up restaurant where locals could purchase the Mezli bowls to provide real-time feedback on the food
• Advised the founders on critical food safety and regulatory matters and introduced them to investors, product and experience designers and other industry consultants from its network

"As a lifelong entrepreneur myself, I know that driving positive change in our food system has to happen from the ground up; from emerging innovators who are sustainability-minded, tech-savvy, eager to collaborate and hungry to scale," says Schwartz. "To play a critical role in making their visions a reality, KitchenTown had to provide the capability, infrastructure, mentorship and ecosystem. We are proud to see our mission pay off in being part of the development and growth of Mezli."

Mezli is currently parked in Spark Social and expects to be fully operational to the public by the end of August or early September. Click here for more information on KitchenTown and visit Mezli for more details on the robotic restaurant's menu and opening date.

About KitchenTown

KitchenTown is a Bay Area innovation hub uniquely equipped to drive change in the food system with expertise across the supply chain and a range of production facilities, and innovation services. They fuel start-ups with groundbreaking ideas in food, technology, and sustainability, help grow them to their potential, and get them ready to be introduced into the world. The multi-disciplinary team of food scientists, top chefs, operations specialists, technology experts, consumer analysts, and marketing strategists has the vision and agility to flex with the dynamic needs of early-stage companies. Hundreds of companies have come through their 30,000 square foot San Mateo campus since their founding in 2014.

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SOURCE KitchenTown

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