Robots Will Soon Flip the Burgers at Caliburger (and More Updates)

Welcome back to Eater News, a semi-regular round-up of mini news bites. Have info to share? Email intel to seattle@eater.com.

• Bellevue-based Nathan Myhrvold (Modernist Cuisine) is taking the stage at the Egyptian Theater October 26 to preview his latest game-changing book, Modernist Bread, which goes on sale November 7. Tickets for the talk are only $5.
• Despite a growing boycott of the NFL, SLU’s Bar Harbor relaunches Sunday brunch September 17 from 10 a.m. to at least 5 p.m. with football on both TVs. Menu items could include Maine lobster or Dungeness crab eggs Benedict and Bloody Marys (with or without lobster), as well as specials on drinks and oysters during all New England Patriots games.
• Governor Jay Inslee is pushing for a high-speed rail line between Washington and British Columbia, and fans of Richmond, B.C.’s amazing dim sum should be getting behind this idea in a big way.
• Fast-food chain Caliburger plans to install a burger-flipping robot named “Flippy” at 50 of its stores. There’s no word yet on which locations, but it’s a safe bet that the University District outpost will get the technology due to Seattle’s high minimum wage. The company’s founder and CEO said recently, “The kitchen can be entirely automated. We really think of ourselves as a technology company that happens to sell cheeseburgers.”
• Inspired by (or perhaps driven mad by) Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte, one writer went full-on scary spice, using more than 40 pumpkin spice products in her investigation of the phenomenon.
• But for anyone who embraces the pumpkin spice trend like a heat-resistant cardboard sleeve around a PSL, Cheesecake Factory has re-released its pumpkin cheesecake and pumpkin pecan cheesecake.
• Over the next few weeks, there’s a design review meeting for the development in Greenwood that will replace the explosion site where Mr. Gyros and Neptune Coffee were leveled and a review meeting for the development in Ballard where Mexican restaurant El Camión currently lives.
• Here are 13 Japanese chains making big moves in the U.S., including familiar sights in Seattle: Hokkaido Ramen Santouka, Tentenyu, and Beard Papa’s.