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Robo-bartenders are shaking up South Korea's cafe and bar
culture as the country transitions from intensive social
distancing to what the government calls "distancing in daily
life".
And they look snazzy doing it too.
In a tailored vest and bow tie, six-foot-tall Cabo narrates his
actions as he carves ice for a whisky on the rocks behind the
bar at Coffee Bar K in Seoul.
"Do you see this? A beautiful ice ball has been made. Enjoy some
cold whisky," he says in Korean.
Cabo made his debut in 2017, but his presence is particularly
reassuring now as the bar looks to encourage customers to return
to entertainment facilities after the coronavirus outbreak.
"Since this space is usually filled with people, customers tend
to feel very anxious," said Choi Won-woo, a human bartender who
assembles the drinks. "I think they would feel safer if the
robot makes and serves the ice rather than if we were to do it
ourselves."
At the Cafe Bot Bot Bot coffee bar, where the robot arm shakes
up mojitos and other cocktails, manager Kim Tae-wan also pointed
out that the 'drink bot' can provide a consistent quality to
their mixes that human bartenders can't.
Customers seemed encouraged by the safety the robots provided,
though one pointed out a critical quality the robo-bartenders
lacked.
"It's a little disappointing that you can't talk to the
bartenders," said 21-year-old university student Moon Seong-eun.
"One of the good things about going to a bar to drink is that
you can chat to them about the drinks or about my worries."
(Reporting by Hyunyoung Yi, Minwoo Park, Daewoung Kim, Writing
by Minwoo Park and Karishma Singh, Editing by Raju
Gopalakrishnan)
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