A digitized Automat with no visible workers roughly describes Eatsa, a San Francisco fast-casual eatery for tomorrow that exists today. Tamara Palmer of Vice visited the restaurant and found it “much more reminiscent of an Apple store than a fast food franchise.” Its design may be too cool to work everywhere in America, but I bet some variation of it will. Sooner or later, Labor in the sector will be noticeably dinged by technological unemployment. The opening:

People often muse on a future controlled by machines, but that is already well in motion here in the Bay Area, where hotels are employing robot butlers, Google and Tesla are putting driverless vehicles on the road, and apps that live every aspect of your life for you continue to proliferate. The rush to put an end to human contact is at a fever pitch around these parts, where a monied tech elite has the deep pockets to support increasingly absurd services.

Right on trend, this week marks the debut of Eatsa, a quick-service quinoa bowl “unit” (as one owner called it) billing itself as San Francisco’s premiere “automated cafe.”

I attended a media preview lunch at Eatsa last week to test out the concept before the doors officially opened. Pushing a button to summon an Uber ride to my door, I wondered how good automated food might be.

I realized it doesn’t really matter, because as California inches towards a $15 per hour minimum wage, that’s the direction we’re headed in, starting with a people-free fast food world.•