Mezli: Tasty, affordable grain bowls made by robots

Hi folks, Alex K here from Mezli. As broke and busy grad students at Stanford, we (Alex G, Max and I) wished we didn’t have to choose between paying $10+ for a decent meal out or having to spend time every day cooking. When we looked into why Chipotle, Sweetgreen etc. are so expensive, it turned out that it costs a lot to build and run a physical restaurant, and those costs get passed on to customers. So, we decided to build a mass-producible, fully autonomous “auto-kitchen” that can make great meals at much lower cost. Our first full-sized auto-kitchen is under construction and should be up and running in a few weeks. But, we’re already serving our automation-friendly menu of Mediterranean grain bowls designed by chef Eric Minnich, our Mezli teammate who’s also a Michelin-starred chef. For now, Eric and Edwin (our cook) are making the bowls themselves using the same process our auto-kitchen follows. In a few weeks, they’ll be starting to turn the prep over to the auto-kitchen. If you’re near San Mateo, CA, come check us out for lunch! (order.mezli.com) You can use the coupon code HUNTER2 (******* won’t work) for 20% off your first order. If you stop by, please let us know what you think!