Saturday, March 21, 2009

The future of dining out? It's all about computers

Posted by Charles Ferruzza on Sat, Mar 21, 2009 at 9:32 AM

CNETUK_thumb_200x156.jpg
CNET UK

The staff at CNET in the United Kingdom checks out the high-tech Inamo Restaurant in London, which is so much more than an Asian Fusion restaurant. Inamo likes to tell customers that "control of your dining experience is firmly in your hand." That's because the restaurant features interactive touch-sensitive tables that take your order (effectively putting waiters and waitresses out of work, but I digress...). According the CNET UK piece on the restaurant, "each table has an overhead projector and mouse trackpad so your dining surface is effectively a PC monitor. You can customize your 'tablecloth,' play a video game against your companion, and order a taxi to get home."

There used to be a chain of restaurants in the United States -- I can't remember the name -- where customers ordered their food from telephones at the table. That was cutting edge technology then! And that's still how customers order their burgers at Fritz's Railroad Restaurant in Kansas City, where "high-tech" means that a little train -- the "skat kat" -- delivers the food. Sorry, it doesn't order a taxi either.

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Jameson: I do remember certain A&W having phones. But this particular restaurant was operated by Host International, the subsidiary of Marriott Corp. The one I'm thinking of may have been a "test" restaurant because my home town of Indianapolis was, like Kansas City, a popular test market for new corporate products.

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Posted by Charles Ferruzza on 03/23/2009 at 9:39 AM

That chain was A&W. There's still a few of them around merged with Long John Silvers, though I think they've stripped out the phones.

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Posted by jw on 03/23/2009 at 8:44 AM
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