5 tech things: Legends allies with food tech firm C3 on “elevated” food hall concept

In this special edition of its 5 Things series, Food Management highlights five recent technology-related developments affecting the foodservice world.

Here’s your list for today:

Hospitality and concessions firm Legends Hospitality is partnering with food tech platform C3 to launch an "elevated" food hall concept, starting with a 25,000-sq.ft. Citizens Market set to open in April at Phipps Plaza in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood. Through the partnership, Legends, which operates venue concessions and catering for the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys among others, plans to offer C3’s culinary brands to its clients at sports and entertainment venues around the world.  "Our partnership with C3 will further expand our in-venue offerings for our partners and their fans, reinforcing our commitment to providing an innovative, customized and delicious culinary experience,” said Legends CEO Shervin Mirhashemi.

Read more: Citizens Market to Open  An Elevated Food Hall Concept at Phipps Plaza

Seeing the potential of robots, the Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing launched a Bear Robotics ‘Servi’ pilot in June 2022. The pilot focused on Front Porch communities at San Francisco Towers and Casa de Mañana, and their newly released report highlights important findings the senior care industry can learn from.

Related:5 things: CDC report finds many preschoolers lack daily produce intake

Read more: Could Dining Robots Be the Next Big Thing for Senior Care?

Here’s a list of 22 companies driving innovation in the food industry. They include Aromyx, a biotech company building a quantitative system that measures crowd favorite tastes and smells to craft a precisely curated shopping experience; Creator, which has developed and programmed a culinary robot to serve up gourmet, made-to-order burgers with no human intervention necessary; Evoware, a sustainable packaging company that’s rethinking plastic with its biodegradable, seaweed-based packaging solutions that is not only home compostable but edible; and  Fyto, an agricultural tech company developing “superplants” that generate a smaller carbon footprint as well as a protein-per-acre yield 10 to 20 times higher with five to 10 times less water required of conventional feed ingredients.

See the whole list at: 22 Innovative Food Companies to Know

QR codes may have only started popping up a few years ago as a pandemic-era contactless technology, but customers are already starting to age out of the original static experience that’s no different than picking up a paper menu. Why not take advantage of opportunities to learn more about your customers through data provided by QR code ordering and payment? Olo CEO Noah Glass discusses the new features being added and expanded to the Olo technology platform, including Borderless technology that remembers guest login details and enhanced QR code ordering capabilities that improve communications between the server and guest.

Related:5 things: Study suggests school meal reforms helped decrease child BMI

Read more: Tech Tracker: Restaurant QR codes are evolving and so should yours

Supermarket chain Fresh Market is launching what the company said is a first-of-its kind retail media network for vendors seeking to post shoppable ads during the retailer’s livestreamed online cooking shows. Viewers can click on products that are used in the videos and livestreams to purchase them directly from The Fresh Market’s e-commerce site.

Read more: The Fresh Market launches first retail media network for shoppable livestreams

Bonus: AI-powered machines replace bar-code scanners in on-campus markets at Texas State

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]