By Anastacia Mott Austin
Perhaps the era of the slow and grouchy waiter and waitress is coming to an end, and the only way our food won't be coming quickly to our tables is if the "server" is down.
Tech companies in Israel and Japan have already installed the new touch screens at diners' tables, and say that they're very popular.
Japanese company Aska T3 and Israel's startup Conceptic have contracted with restaurants in those countries as well as parts of Europe to begin tabletop ordering. Enthusiasts of the devices say that ordering is easier, faster, and more fun, and restaurants tell reporters that people are ordering more than they ever would from a human waitperson.
U.S. company Microsoft told Associated Press reporters that its tabletop Surface system, which debuted last year after much anticipation, will begin appearing this spring in Harrah's casinos and Sheraton Hotels. While the Surface system is more than just an e-menu, its users will be able to order food from their tabletops, as well as play games and music.
The e-menu functions as a wireless computer linked, along with all the other tables in the restaurant, to a central computer accessed by the owner and kitchen staff. It also offers games to keep the kids occupied while waiting for their dinners.
It has some other cool tricks, too. Each tabletop menu is linked to every other table, so diners can communicate with other tables if they wish. A whole new take on asking the waiter to pass a note to that cute girl at the next table to see if she would like a drink.
Much is being made of the fact that the e-menu offers pictures of the entrees and desserts, and restaurant owners claim that diners are ordering more food than they typically would, since they are attracted to the mouth-watering pictures. I guess they've never been to a restaurant whose regular menus feature photos of the food.
The idea has some pros and cons. A definite benefit is that patrons won't have to desperately try to catch the eye of their reluctant server across the room to ask, for the third time, for a dessert menu or more wine. And let's face it, there are a lot of sullen waitpeople out there. The system could be responsible for a decrease in waiter-diner hostilities, until now the primary source for spit or other unmentionables making their way into restaurant patrons' filet mignons.
But what will happen to all of those out-of-work actors? According to the National Restaurant Association, food service is the nation's second-largest private sector employer, with a current workforce of 12.8 million. Restaurants still welcome the news of electronic servers, though, because the industry is growing faster than it can fill positions.
Still, working as a waiter/waitress is a time-honored rite of passage in this country, and not everyone is quite so excited about the idea of replacing actual human beings with the e-menus.
Technophobes, for example, are wary of the idea. What's next, they whine, e-entrees, digital dessert, wiki-wine? What's the point of going out to a restaurant if you don't even want to be bothered interacting with the people who work there? That's called takeout, and you don't even have to leave your house.
One disgruntled diner who will not be taking advantage of the e-menus is Yoash Torkman, who was eating at sushi restaurant Frame in Tel Aviv. "I don't believe in screens, I believe in humans," grumped Torkman. "I'll wait for 15 minutes for a waitress instead of using this. It's a gimmick and gimmicks have very short lives."
Maybe so, but it's a gimmick that seems to be attracting a lot of interest from folks who can't wait to try it.
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