Robot barista now serving in SF cafe

The idea came to Henry Hu while he waited in line at a cafe. Baristas do repetitive work and produce inconsistent results, he observed. So why not automate coffee service?

On Monday, he took a step toward doing that with the opening of Cafe X in San Francisco’s Metreon. After a customer enters an order at the kiosk or through an app, a robot does the work of moving the cups around, first from the automated espresso machine and then to where customers can pick them up.

The glassed-in kiosk looks at first glance like a Nespresso machine operated by a robotic arm. But the tall grinders are full of fresh beans from local coffee roasters Verve, AKA and Peet’s, and no pods or powdered milk are used.

After ordering, customers are given an estimated wait time, which is usually a few minutes. The coffee — all of it for espresso drinks — is ground and tamped to order inside the machine. When the drink is ready, the customer enters a code, and the robot places the cup on a small elevator that lowers it to that customer’s individual window.

The robotic arm at Cafe X, the first robotic cafe, serves a latte in San Francisco, Calif. on Monday, January 30, 2017. The robotic arm at Cafe X, the first robotic cafe, serves a latte in San Francisco, Calif. on Monday, January 30, 2017. Photo: Amy Osborne, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Amy Osborne, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 44 Caption Close Robot barista now serving in SF cafe 1 / 44 Back to Gallery

Hu declined to say how much the robot costs.

The three roasters who provide the coffee for Cafe X’s drinks programmed the espresso machines for certain grinds, tamping pressure and extraction time. The milk is stored in a large refrigerated area inside the kiosk. Roasters can also program the milk temperature and froth level for their drinks.

The Metreon is the company’s only location outside of Hong Kong, but Hu, the Cafe X CEO, said the company plans to open other cafes as well as locations in corporate offices. The concept is somewhat reminiscent of Eatsa, a downtown San Francisco restaurant where quinoa lunches are delivered without servers or cashiers (though workers in the back make the food).

Cafe X can produce an average of 120 cups of coffee per hour and soon will offer customers using the app the option of ordering ahead.

Hu says that the plan “is not to replace as many baristas as possible with as many robots as possible” — although this is essentially what he has done. Many of today’s espresso machines are fairly automated already, he points out, and there will always be staff on hand to guide customers through the experience and make coffee recommendations.

“From our experience, the real art part (of coffee) is the ingredients you use,” he said. “Not so much the coffee-making part. That by nature is a repetitive, robotic process.”

Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taraduggan