iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery
Summary: We've seen iPads being used by teachers, pilots and doctors, but what about restaurants? An Atlanta eatery has adopted the iPad to replace menus (and more) at their high-tech restaurant.
Proprietors Christian and Nacasha Ruffin are using iPads to revolutionize their Atlanta restaurant Do Restaurant at The View. Patrons use an iPad to place orders in real-time (in lieu of traditional menus) for everything from drinks to desserts, eliminating the need to wait for a server.
The restaurant also uses iPads to control a series of projectors that display the moving art projected onto the restaurant's walls and a custom back-of-the-house app tracks sales hourly allowing the Ruffins to forecast and purchase raw goods more accurately. Customers can even use the iPad to tell the valet when they're ready for their car.
Now that's what I call a creative use for an iPad.
Video: CNN via Anthony Paladino
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Talkback
Whatever
Not very good according the reviews on Yelp.
RE: iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery
The funniest thing is reading their puffery - "a powder room with no mirrors"
Of course they don't need mirrors in their outside eating areas - the iPads will provide that - pity they won't function as anything else in sunlight ;-)
RE: iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery
RE: iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery
PS. Are hand sanitizers part of their condiments?
No more different than a normal menu
There is a difference, even if "minor"..
RE: iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery
Huh? if you are holding a menu then you re probably holding it in the same place everyone else before you has. Just like the door handle you touch walking into the restaurant.
ROTFL
RE: iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery
RE: iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery
RE: iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery
RE: iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery
Not sure if you have ever ordered print menus before but your way off.basic math shows that 200 menus will run you about $500 designed printed an,d delivered. 200 ipads at $600 is $120,000. You must be doing Obama math. Now figure in cost of extra electricity, time to sanitize and clean the ipads after each customer, cost of sanitizers to do so, programing and web design fees,repair costs as these things are very fragile I repair tons of apple garbage each week for my business. You make angry suggestions at the other commentor then come out of LALA land with garbage and make yourself look like a moron. basic math and business skills show this is not a good idea unless they are cutting corners and not being sanatary. You say all the extar info they add like other restaraunt addresses, porn, stolen credit card info and lets not forget the cost of wi fi.
RE: iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery
I spout off because I do have knowledge which I have demonstrated over and over again. You haven't shown me anything that says the ROI is better. Nutrition can be printed on the back, allergy info is almost always printed next to the menu items. There is no way to upsell through an iPad. How can I ask the iPad how that pumpkin pie tastes, or if it was frozen or freshly made, or does it contain nutmeg? Again, a paper menu is the winner here. This restaurant is going to lose money on those iPads. You shouldn't try to counter what I'm saying when you know I'm right.
RE: iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery
RE: iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery
LD is right, ROI would be hard to prove over the printed menus. My guess is that the restaurant wants to improve the customer experience so that they may be able to charge higher prices. This would help if the food is good (previous comments cast some doubt on that).
I think that this is a concept worth exploring though and will be worthwhile in determining whether there are improvements in the ordering of food, ordering of supplies or the servicing of tables, and if those improvements outweigh the costs of the tablet investment.
RE: iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery
one thing I did not notice anyone mention, the article never said they were using iPad2 devices, you can get a used iPad1 pretty cheap, knocking the cost per unit down from "$600" to <$150 making a huge decrease in costs. Additionally if they were already using a custom back of house app to run things, it would have made sense and cost less to integrate a menu app for the front of the house. not to mention they basically axed waiters out of the entire establishment and only need servers (food delivery people) and bussers (since the servers don't have to be waiters, they can easily double as bussers), no need to order paper order pads, if 90% of the users pay through the iPad with a credit card, then you cut register time and expenses also. you will also increase guest turnover as there is no delay or forgetfulness factor from the waiter taking the order until it gets to the kitchen, also eliminating waiter errors at the same time. The real ROI can only be shown by taking 2 locations of identical size and layout of the same restaurant in similar demographic areas and run one with and one without tablets at the same time and providing a complete break down of all expenses from opening day until 1 year later.
RE: iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery
RE: iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery
@fletchguy That's a cheap paper menu printing. You're not even in the ballpark for a quality laminated multicolored menu. Additionally, menus are printed more than once a year, so over the the course of three years at four printings a year, you are off by a factor of twelve. Also if you printed 200 paper menus you are talking about a 50 table restaurant, given that paper menus need to be replaced as they tare and get wet. So you would not need anywhere near 200 iPads, more like 40 to 60. Still a lot, and a hefty investment. But considering it also replaces the POS, it's getting into the same ballpark. Laminated menu will get wiped down by the hosts during thier down time, so I see no incremental cost for the iPads to be wiped down. As for he porn, Internet, etc. the devices are locked down, so there is no issue with that. restaurants already have to deal with credit card data, which is increasing not stored in the pos, it is sent encrypted to the credit card processor.
Again this does not make sense for everyone, for some it does. The restaraunt is buying a POS anyway, and this replaces the POS, menus, and some labor. There is some ROI here for some operations.
RE: iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery
Must be miserable to be caught up in all that negativity. The whole idea of new tech is to replace paper with electronic devices. With people such as yourself, it's going to be a lot harder to leave the past behind. I'm trying to figure whether you're saying that they shouldn't be using electronic touch devices or that they shouldn't be using iPads to replace paper.
If they can serve more customers in a shorter time and the customers enjoy using those devices, then I think the restaurant is wise in moving forward. They're the ones footing the iPad bill, not you and they seem to think the iPad usage is justified. That should be sufficient enough. Either way, in a short time span, iPads are going to be replacing paper and a lot of other devices whether you agree with it or not.
RE: iPads replace menus at Atlanta eatery