Robot cat offers service with a smile to Kelowna diners

Families dining at Kelowna’s Smitty’s Restaurant have been getting service with a smile and a friendly meow since Mother’s Day weekend.

A dish-carrying, rolling tower topped with a cute digital kitty face is the first robot worker to arrive in the Okanagan and it didn’t seem to set off any dystopian rise-of-the-machines-style fantasies Tuesday as it rolled around the dining room.

“People loved it,” Smitty’s owner Pavel Prygounov said.

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As BellaBot, a non-human helper, served dishes, camera phones were whipped out and selfies and videos aplenty were taken.

Serving staff, Prygounov said, were saved the backache that comes from carrying heavy dishes in and out of the kitchen.

BellaBot, he stressed, will not replace human workers – something he admitted are in short supply. A help wanted ad for a line cook has drawn zero interest for two weeks, he noted.

That said, if he chooses to purchase the robotic set of paws to help out around the restaurant this week, it will simply augment what his servers already do, allowing them more time to help diners, rather than running around.

Ionut Bordieanu is the rep for the machine built by Greenco Robotics and said it’s the first time a robot server has been put to work in the Okanagan.

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“It’s the first one in the Okanagan and we think there will be many more,” Bordieanu said.

“We feel it’s a tool. It’s a helping hand for the servers to perform their job, not carry all the heavy plates, staying on the floor talking to people.”

After all, he said, dining in restaurants is an experience.

“It’s not like eating at home, right?” he said.

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“When you go to a restaurant, it’s an experience and you need the server to talk with you, explain the menu and bring you a glass of wine,” he said. “If they don’t have that kind of time, then it will not be an experience. So that’s why we try to give the tools to the servers to help.”

BellaBot features an innovative bionic design language, cute modelling, AI voice interaction and a unique dining experience, according to the company — all of which are things Prygounov can attest to.

The only question that’s lingering is whether BellaBot will be back once the trial period is over.