Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NATCHEZ — Speedy Eats, the only restaurant vending machine of its kind, is now open in Natchez and ready to serve up ready-made meals to hungry patrons.

Natchez entrepreneur Tance Hughes, who manages the restaurant machine patented by Speed Bancroft and his company based in Baton Rouge, said it had a quiet opening on Monday and has since picked up over 50 orders, Hughes said Tuesday afternoon.

He added, “We wanted to ease into it because it’s a different situation than PJ’s,” the coffee and breakfast chain with a location that Hughes operates on Highway 61 South. “Since it’s a new concept, we wanted to give it a stress test to see how well it operates. (Monday) went well and since then we’ve been really advertising it more and pushing it harder to people. It has been a lot busier today.”

Unlike most restaurants or convenience stores, the machine runs 24-7 on its own without a person there to man it full time. With that, there have been a few small kinks to work through, Hughes said.

Number one is “people not realizing that you can only order from the app,” he said.

All orders are made through the Speedy Eats mobile phone app, which must be downloaded and on which orders must be made prior to picking them up at the machine. Once an order is made, the machine reads a QR code on the mobile phone screen that tells it what has been ordered.

Hughes also said the pickup window can only fit up to 10 items and larger orders can cause it to malfunction. Any larger orders need to be separated as more than one order, he said.

The food — which includes canned and bottled drinks, cold-serve wraps, sandwiches and salads, and meals meant to be heated up in a microwave — comes delivered to the customer in seconds.

“Some of it is locally sourced and some comes from a commercial kitchen we’ve partnered with in New Orleans,” Hughes said.

The most popular items so far have been the chicken teriyaki, chicken alfredo and chicken Caesar salad, he said.

“Everything is restocked two or three times a week, so it’s all fresh in the machine,” Hughes said.

He added the menu is not permanent as more requests are being taken for things people would like to see added.

“We’ve had some requests for things like spaghetti, vegetarian-friendly items and sushi,” he said. “We’re working on the ability to heat up items for you in the future. That will come later this year.”

Hughes welcomes any feedback from the people using the machine, whether good or bad.

“It’s a new concept so we may have kinks or quirks here and there. Share that feedback with us. If something should be done differently or you know of a better way to do it, share that with us. If you don’t tell me about your problem, then I can’t fix it. We knew that it wasn’t going to be perfect on day one. We have to tweak it to get it perfect.”

Feedback can be shared via social media or inside the Speedy Eats app, he said.