Inside Eatsa’s first New York City location

Eatsa, the high-tech, better-for-you version of an automat that was founded in San Francisco in 2015, has expanded to the East Coast.

Eatsa opened a location in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, and also provided a media preview of its New York City location, which opens at the end of next week.

The chain, which will have six units when the New York location opens, features customizable quinoa bowls and salads that can be ordered and paid for either at kiosks or via its mobile app. The meal is prepared by a combination of robots and humans in the back of the house, and presented in cubbyholes when ready. The bowls — all vegetarian — start at $6.95.

What exactly happens in the back of the house is a secret, Eatsa co-founder Scott Drummond said.

“We have something that we think is quite proprietary,” Drummond said. “We didn’t start with [the idea of] a restaurant. We started with a blank piece of paper and we designed something completely different. And in doing so, we figured out where we’re automated, where we’re human-influenced, and created that as a new operating model.”

The New York location occupies 2,174 square feet, including a 690-square-foot dining area with 20 seats.

Rows of ordering kiosks are available for customers, who can also order and pay for their meals using the Eatsa app. Eatsa co-founder Scott Drummond said the company is developing personalized choices for customers based on past orders, “so when you come back, you can pull up your [ordering] history, of course, but you’ll also discover little surprises — little things that we think you’ll particularly enjoy based on the food that you’ve had in the past.”

Customers are presented with a full list of ingredients and nutritional information before placing their orders.

Orders are delivered to a bank of cubbyholes at the back of the dining room.

When an order is ready, the customer’s name appears on a cubbyhole door with the meal inside.

Eatsa’s Toscana bowl — warm lemon-herb toasted quinoa, fried spaghetti, parsley, roasted winter squash, Parmesan, roasted roots, basil pesto, minestrone, roasted cauliflower and pumpkin seeds — customized with a truffle egg on top, is priced at $8.90.