An app for farfalle? An Apple iPad with that apple crisp à la mode? At tech blog Switched, Amar Toor says, c'est vrai! It turns out that the iPad isn't just popular with kids, it's a hit with cooks, restaurateurs, and their clientele. Across the country, the electronic pad is showing up alongside menus and wine lists, and changing the dining experience for the better.
At Chicago Cut, an upscale steakhouse, customers use iPads to pair wines. A custom app allows patrons to peruse the restaurant's 750 wines, search by price, variety, and regions, and review detailed descriptions of wine taste. Especially inquisitive connoisseurs can even pin the winery on a Google Map.
David Flom, the restaurant's managing partner, sees material gain from the virtual integration. "I've already seen an increase of wine per customer of 20 percent," Flom told AP. "I can't say that the iPad commanded 100-percent, but I can say it commanded a significant portion of that."
For a second course, consider Au Bon Pain: six of the chain's 220 locations already sport the pad with more to come. Rather than transcribing orders with pen and paper, servers submit customer selections directly from the device. There's even an electronic copy of the menu, alongside the old fashioned laminated offerings.
Bringing the iPad to dinner isn't just about streamlining ordering. "It's about getting to know your customer in a way that you can't get to know them from the waiter or waitress," Patrick Eldon, chief executive of orderTALK Inc., a company that specializes in online ordering systems for restaurants, told AP. Promotional offers, online outreach, and customer surveys promise restaurants a better insight into customer preferences—an entrée for which every business wants a recipe.
