Ocean City Restaurant Employs Robot Server Amid Staff Shortage

OCEAN CITY, NJ — With a busy summer season ahead, the owner of Island Grill in Ocean City knew the restaurant was in trouble when only six applications came in to fill 60 jobs in March.

Island Grill is usually overwhelmed with as many as 300 job applications before summer begins.

However, establishments nationwide have reported staffing issues, including the Ocean City restaurant which has been open only four days a week due to its current staff shortage.

Through a Google search, Andrew Yoa found new technology that could remedy his restaurant’s staffing issue — a serving robot known as “Little Peanut.” When Yoa first heard about restaurants using robot waiters, he imagined they would become a trend in the future.

“In March we started calling all the employees and none of them were coming back because they were staying on unemployment, so we’re like ‘Wow, maybe that robot will come in handy sooner than we thought it would,'" Yoa said.

The robot that the restaurant leased is programmed to make frequent stops in the kitchen, where cooks place food on its trays and then it rolls out to customers. It relies on sensors in the ceiling to know which table to stop at.

Little Peanut can hold as many as eight plates on its four trays and it can make multiple stops, carrying an appetizer on its top tray for one table and meals on the bottom trays for another.

When the robot comes by, servers take the meals off its trays and give them to customers. Servers also remove the dirty dishes from tables and place them on the robot’s trays for a trip back to the dishwasher.

“The main goal is to have the servers stay out with the customers and take the drink orders,” said Yoa. “It definitely helps, especially the last couple weekends we’ve been very busy and sometimes the servers are almost at a running pace to keep everything going because right now we just have two servers instead of four or six.”

Yoa said a more advanced version of Little Peanut would be capable of opening doors to bring food outside and taking customers’ orders.

Little Peanut is not meant to replace any staff, according to Yoa. The restaurant is still looking to fill about 60 positions this summer, including servers, hostesses, bussers, dishwashers and employees to prepare food.

Island Grill usually opens seven days a week after Mother’s Day, but this past week they were closed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Starting next week, Island Grill may just offer take-out on Monday and Tuesday until they gain more staff.

“We won’t be able to open on Monday or Tuesday for in-house dining, but at least take-out. You’ll be able to get food at least then. We’ll make sure we have that option available,” Yoa said.

While the owners wait on more job applications, Little Peanut will continue to make its rounds throughout the restaurant.

“The kids love it and everybody thinks it’s a neat thing. It talks and plays some songs," Yoa said. "A server may happen to be in the kitchen and she or he brings food out on a tray, and they (customers) are like ‘Aw, we wanted the robot to bring it out."

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