So my roommate, our friend Amanda, and I were out to dinner on Friday night. We were at a pretty fancy Italian restaurant in NY and the decor and atmosphere were elegant and modern. I was pretty impressed. When the frazzled waiter came over to take our orders, I watched as he feverishly scribbled some words down on a notepad. Yes, a notepad. That's when it dawned on me...in this age of modern technology, what in the world is a waiter doing writing down orders with old fashioned pen and paper? Perhaps this was particularly noticeable to me since this antiquated method was such a paradox to the modern vibe of the restaurant. When he had taken our orders and scurried off, I said to my friends "I can't believe waiters are still using pen and paper to take orders! I bet you the iPad will soon replace that." They informed me that the iPad has, in fact, replaced the conventional method of taking orders in some restaurants already! I was shocked that I had not known of this; so I decided to do some research on the matter.
Here is an article I found: http://nrn.com/article/ipad-pos-use-rising-among-restaurants (dated December 2010, none the less!) that confirms what my friends had told me. Some restaurants, like Buffalo Wild Wings, have started to adopt the iPad and have found that it speeds up the ordering process in the restaurant; "The orders are in the kitchen or bar while the server is still at the table," said Chris Wishart, owner of Trio restaurant. Furthermore, Chris says "You don't have to worry about servers coming back into the kitchen 10 or 15 times a night asking questions, and all the recipes for all the bar drinks are there, too."
No doubt the iPad can make the food service industry more convenient and efficient. Be on the lookout in the near future for iPads to make an appearance in restaurants! What will they take over next??
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