One robot makes cocktails from 25 bottles hanging upside-down from the ceiling, another carves perfect ice balls in the fraction of the time it takes a human with a knife and an ice pick.
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.
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.
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.
