Hello! And welcome to the 26th post of Pizza Rat's Paradise.
So, about 2 days ago, I was thinking about what would be a great way to increase the quantity of high-quality food -- and my mind wandered to a memory I had of trying Spyce Kitchen in Boston, MA around 2018-2019. What was unique about my experience trying Spyce at the time was that it featured these round machine drums that cooked food extremely quickly, and automated the cooking process. It has since been acquired by Sweetgreen.
I love the idea, and the food ingredients were all amazing and tasted great, but the food itself lacked a bit of soul -- and if you know what I mean, it's kind of like, how somewhat traditionally, "soul food" in the South has been revered -- I remember around 2017 when interviewing for medical school, I had interviewed at Tulane in New Orleans, LA -- and by GOD they had the best food of all 10 interviews I actually went on (I believe I was invited to 11, but I only went on 10? because I was just so exhausted touring at that point). I still remember their sausage and gumbo they served.
Anyway, this "tech vs soul" conundrum is sort of parallel to the business flop that Umami Burger in Westwood, CA suffered when I was an undergraduate there -- I remember a couple of my friends complaining that because there was no one physically present in terms of customer service, and a little too "tech-forward," so people didn't really like going in. I see the same kind of patterns that have echoed with the advent of AI in some spaces.
Moving on, I came across a YouTube short on my algorithm feed shortly after I sent my thoughts out into the Universe -- and what do you know! There IS an American-Chinese fast-food style place in LA that serves "elevated Panda-Express"-like food in higher quantities at cheaper prices using those rotational drums, called Tigawok, on Sawtelle Blvd:
I'm looking at Yelp for general reviews -- the good thing about LA is that there are so many people there with a great palate for cuisine, and don't typically mince words, that in general you can trust what the reviews have to say -- everyone's used to having high standards!
The theme is very modern and, in some ways, reminds me of Kura Sushi Bar's business model -- serving good-tasting food at very low-price points. Apparently, one can get full on $5 at this place.
Also looking at the pictures, the food appears to have a general good energy and is high-vibrational -- it looks tasty and is non-robotic, so this is another great example of how tech can be leveraged to serve a great business model.
If you have made it this far, thank you for reading! 💚
Appreciate any suggestions on what I should do next. If you would like to collaborate or support, feel free to comment, share, like below.
Accompanying Song: