Editor’s Note: This article was updated Oct. 21 to correctly reflect MealMate’s storage capacity and the technology’s origin story.
Can automated vending machines help restaurant brands reach customers in new places and outside typical hours?
The founding team behind New York-based automated hot-food kiosk startup Primepick saw an engineering opportunity in a problem faced by the daughter of CEO Dmitry Vilbaum: while studying nutrition at Columbia University, she noted a lack of access to “real food” during overnight clinical rotations.
Last year, Primepick launched MealMate, a kiosk featuring menu items from local restaurants. MealMate offers ordering for pickup online or via a touchscreen, plus automated inventory updates.
“At the end of the day, it all comes down to great food,” Vilbaum said in an October 15 press release. “We partner with talented chefs and local restaurants who prepare every meal with the same care and creativity you’d expect in their dining rooms. Our goal is to make real, freshly made cuisine accessible to people working late, studying after hours, or caring for others—anyone who deserves a nourishing, chef-made meal whenever they need it.”
Primepick aims to expand MealMate to eight locations by the start of 2027. Upcoming installations at a hospital and a nursing home in the New York tri-state area would become its fourth and fifth sites. Previous installations include manufacturing sites in New Jersey and Connecticut. Additional deployments are slated for Huntsville, Alabama; Chicago and Dallas.
Restaurant partners include single-location Long Island brands like Bobby Q’s Jus Like Mama’s and Flavor Fusion, both of which are on the menu at Molloy University’s on-campus MealMate unit.
Primepick’s MealMate can hold between 90 and 285 meals at sub-zero temperatures.
Vilbaum said factors that make restaurant brands ideal partners for MealMate include proximity to kiosk locations and a tech-forward approach. Meals take an estimated five to seven minutes to heat and dispense. Restaurant partners sometimes need to adapt menu items for the kiosks, which hold between 90 and 285 meals at sub-zero temperatures.
“Innovation comes in all kinds of ways—from recipes to preparation,” Vilbaum said. “For example, we are now testing new meal layouts and susceptor paper with one of such partners. This technique will make certain dishes simply unparalleled as compared to those served in the rest of the vending world.”
Primepick’s software manages merchandising, sales analysis, restocking and customer support. MealMate machines feature two robotic arms that transfer meals between the kiosk’s compartments: frozen storage, three microwave ovens and a warming cabinet that keeps preordered meals ready for pickup for 30 minutes.
Primepick isn’t the only automated hot-food vending company partnering with restaurants to serve guests in nontraditional locations. Brands like White Castle and Wow Bao have teamed up with next-gen food kiosk companies Just Baked and Evolvending to bring their signature dishes to airports and other high-traffic locations for round-the-clock service.
