Dive Brief:
- Miso Robotics has developed a smaller, more efficient robotic fry station that takes less time to install than previous versions of the Flippy fry cook, according to a press release. White Castle began piloting the new Flippy late 2024.
- The robotics company said that Jack in the Box and White Castle have scheduled additional Flippy installations early this year. As of 2025, Miso had only installed the robotic arm in 13 restaurants across the two brands, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
- Miso said new investments enabled the company to pilot its new models at some White Castles late last year.
Dive Insight:
Miso’s new model of Flippy is faster and takes up about half the floor space of the previous prototype, according to the press release. Miso said its robot can be installed in a few hours in existing kitchens. This is about 75% less time than previous versions, reducing the disruption to operations necessitated by installation.
Flippy’s more compact footprint allows the robot to fit more easily into existing kitchens, reducing potential remodel costs and avoiding some permitting problems, according to the press release.
The company claims that its fry cook, which costs $5,400 a month, is cheaper than hiring an additional worker; this is not necessarily accurate. Flippy’s hourly cost to operate depends on how many hours a day a restaurant uses the machine.
A restaurant that uses Flippy 12 hours a day is paying $14.51 an hour, slightly more than the median wage for fast food cooks, which is $14.31, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The hourly cost of operation falls to $7.25 — the federal minimum wage — for a restaurant that uses the robot 24 hours a day.
However, Miso claims Flippy can process about 100 baskets in an hour, which the company said is more than human employees generally process. The machine can cook various fried foods, including french fries, onion rings, chicken and tacos.
Dennis Lock, Miso’s head of sales,said in the press release that the technology is not necessarily about replacing individual workers. Flippy can lead to “cost reductions and revenue increases per month through labor redeployment to higher value tasks, faster speed of service, and reduced food waste,” Lock said.
Recently, the company signed a new investment deal with EcoLab and a partnership with Nvidia, a tech company specializing in hardware for AI. The company also credited the development of the new Flippy to the leadership of Rich Hull, who joined the company as CEO in 2023.
In 2022, White Castle said it would deploy Flippy at 100 of its restaurants, and re-upped that commitment in October 2023, according to the SEC disclosure, despite the slow roll out of Flippy.
