Speedy Eats Selects Automated Pizza Assembly System

Picnic Works, Seattle-based innovator of food automation technology, and Baton Rouge, La.-based Speedy Eats are  collaborating to bring Picnic Pizza Station technologies to future Speedy Eats automated kitchens.

Speedy Eats is a new concept from Bancroft Automated Restaurant Services (BARS Inc.) that places fully contained drive-thru operations in empty parking lots where customers can purchase hot and cold food items at any time. The current Speedy Eats menu features five pre-assembled pizza options, chicken entrees, BBQ dishes, sides, cold beverages, and condiments.

“Speedy Eats is the world’s smallest and fastest automated kitchen which allows customers to purchase hot and cold food without leaving their vehicles,” said F. Speed Bancroft, CEO and President of BARS Inc. “By working with Picnic, we can offer future Speedy Eats operators the option to have freshly assembled pizza made on demand to customers’ preferences.”

Partnering with Picnic allows Speedy Eats to integrate the award-winning Picnic Pizza Station technology into its kitchens to enhance production, improve customer experience, and offer fresh-made custom pizzas. Installing the automated pizza assembly makeline enables Speedy Eats operators to customize Speedy Eats pizzas with fresh ingredients made to order exactly how the customers want.

“At Picnic, we are passionate about helping restaurant operators succeed,” said Clayton Wood, CEO of Picnic. “Speedy Eats is an excellent example of new models of kitchen operations where automation adds to the value of the overall guest experience. We’re excited to help Speedy Eats realize its vision of automating the pizza making process and providing fresh, custom-made pizza to all its customers.”

The Picnic Pizza Station is autonomous and completely customizable for each order – after loading the dough, the Picnic station takes care of applying the sauce, cheese, fresh-cut pepperoni, and additional toppings. The finished pizzas are then loaded into the kitchen's ovens for cooking. Each hour, the Picnic station can assemble up to 100 pizzas.

Picnic and Speedy Eats will continue to envision pizza assembly opportunities for upcoming Speedy Eats automated kitchens starting in 2023.