Sweetgreen opens automation assisted restaurant in Huntington Beach
Sweetgreen’s new fast-casual restaurant in Huntington Beach will bring Surf City patrons plenty of salads, bowls or plates to choose from.
It also brings them a glimpse into the future.
The Huntington Beach location, which opened on Dec. 12, is just the second of 224 Sweetgreen eateries nationwide to use what the company calls its “Infinite Kitchen” automated technology. The first opened in Naperville, Ill. in May.
Human employees prepare the food, performing tasks like marinating proteins, cooking and chopping vegetables and making dressings. They also provide the finishing touches, but the Infinite Kitchen does the rest of the work.
“How can we enhance the team member and customer experience, and get fresh, healthy food to more people?” Sweetgreen director of concept automation Kale Rogers said. “We hope this is going to be a big unlock for us as we continue to scale this brand and compete with fast food.”
Customers order off one of six tablets located in the middle of the store, or they can order on the app. Once the order is in, their estimated wait time appears on a screen to the right — usually no longer than three to five minutes.
After a team member places a bowl on the Infinite Kitchen conveyor belt, it moves station to station under temperature-controlled tubes, each filled with a food item such as a protein, rice, green or other topping. The tubes automatically dispense the ordered ingredients into the bowl as it passes underneath.
Rogers was a co-founder of Spyce Food Co., which also had an automated kitchen and was acquired by Sweetgreen two years ago. He said the Sweetgreen Infinite Kitchen system can make up to 500 bowls per hour — about 50% more than humans could — which allows the restaurant employees to focus more on hospitality.
A host greets customers as they enter and is there to answer any questions.
“That’s huge, because that allows us to compete with the fast food industry,” Rogers said. “It’s real food, but made really quickly, which we think is a huge benefit for our guests … Our stores are normally more like a Chipotle, with a line that you go down. We have a really big lunch peak. A lot of times, you’ll go into a store that’s really busy and you’re yelling your order over the glass. This allows for a little more intimate, one-on-one connection.”
The new location at Five Points Plaza is Sweetgreen’s third store in Orange County, following locations at the Irvine Spectrum and in Tustin that opened earlier this year. It also includes an outdoor patio that can seat up to 36 diners.
Known for its salads, Sweetgreen recently introduced protein plates like miso glazed salmon, southwest chicken fajitas and hot honey chicken to its menu.
The restaurant company was founded in 2006 in Washington, D.C., by three then-college students at Georgetown who were looking for quick and healthy options. One of them, Nicolas Jammet, was at the new Surf City location last week for the opening.
He said it’s important for Sweetgreen to know the communities it serves and feature local ingredients. The Huntington Beach store features bread from Santa Ana-based bakery Bread Artisan, goat cheese from Ontario-based Drake Family Farms and romaine lettuce and cilantro from Coastal Fresh Farms.
“This is our second Infinite Kitchen, so we’re still very much in the learning phase,” Jammet said. “But it’s been really exciting to see the reception from both customers and team members, and just the quality of the food that’s coming out of it.”
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