Fully automated food chain Eatsa closes DC locations

Automated fast-casual quinoa company Eatsa is closing its D.C. restaurants.

The San Francisco–based company said in a blog post on Monday that the two locations in the District are closing, along with three others in New York and Berkeley, Calif.

eatsa is making some changes. Read our blog post to find out more. https://t.co/HRVlcCsa8B

— Brightloom (@Brightloom) October 23, 2017

The D.C. restaurants opened within the last year, with glass-door cubbies delivering quinoa-centered meals in a few minutes and just one employee, Technical.ly DC reported.

However, it appears that taking human employees out of the equation did not reduce challenges with scaling. Eatsa’s leaders have now decided that the company expanded “too quickly.”

“In particular, operating in four different markets has made it difficult to quickly test and iterate our food product — something that is critical in any restaurant business, but is even more important when it comes to introducing a new type of nutritious fare,” the blog post said.

The company is keeping its San Francisco locations open to help with that testing, and is exploring partnerships to introduce its technology with larger restaurants chains.

“We believe that partnering with established brands will allow us to get the eatsa experience people love into more restaurants, faster,” the post states.