Waiter, There’s an iPad in My Soup
By Rick Aristotle Munarriz |
February 18, 2011 |
The two founders of BJ’s Restaurants (Nasdaq: BJRI) are striking out on their own with a new concept called Stacked.
There won’t be waiters taking orders. Every table will have an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad, allowing patrons to scour the menu and send customized food and beverage orders to the kitchen.
A high-tech automated eatery isn’t new. I hit up uWink — a concept dreamed up by the same guy behind Atari and Chuck E. Cheese — three summers ago. Every table had a pair of touchscreen monitors where guests could place orders, play games, or engage in trivia bouts with other diners.
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http://www.fool.com/investing/high-growth/2011/02/18/waiter-theres-an-ipad-in-my-soup.aspx
This really isn’t that new of a concept. Back in the Sixties, when I was sprouting hair in places I didn’t even know existed, we had a steak house that had a push-button system for ordering. It was almost like Sonic – you had a series of push-buttons that you used to order. I’ve got this image of 4 of them, although I don’t know why you’d need so many, since you ordered through a speaker. I want to say that it was a George Lindsey Steakhouse. I also remember a lot of pounded copper in the restaurant.
Strange the things you remember from your childhood.
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So You Want to Be A Waiter
The media loves a good gimick. I can’t see this possibly being worth the expense. The one spin on it that I see as kind of intriguing is the idea of putting a wine list on an IPad. This has tremendous potential if done well. I think it could inform the guest and if properly designed, even help them select the perfect bottle. I could also see this leading to them spending 30 minutes playing with the wine list.
The savvy wine geek uses his or her iPhone or Android device to pull up wine databases or add what they drink to their own databases. Don’t see it often, but it’s increasing.
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This will last until the first guest walks out with an Ipad. I give it 11 minuets. If we can’t hold onto pens, lighters, corckscrews, salt and pepper, candle holders, menus, chairs or anything else how will they protect this. I had a friend who had 3 patio tables taken one summer.