Just came across this tiny story about a new piano bar opening in Dayton, Ohio next week. What does this have to do with wireless?, you may ask. Well, it turns out that the waitresses will be taking orders on PDAs which will in turn be sent to the kitchen via a WiFi connection.
It's amazing to me that we're not seeing more restaurants employ wireless technology in order to get orders into the kitchen and/or bar quicker. It seems like such a natural fit.
Obviously, it would take a significant investment to deploy a wireless system in a restaurant and, as we well know, eating establishments come and go rather quickly.
However, one of the keys to a successful restaurant (besides the food) is the quality of service, and if customers see that they get their food and beverage orders quickly (and correctly), they're going to come back. So, wireless technology and food do go together!
1. This has been happening at NY restaurant Republic (http://http://www.thinknoodles.com/) for years! The wait staff send orders wirelessly to the open kitchen, where a cadre of cooks whip up your noodles in no time. Now, if I could only pay for and download music off their soundsystem on my cell, that would be a real innovation!
Posted at 1:19PM on Jul 20th 2006 by Julia