POLL: Would you come to my restaurant?

[yllus]

I've been lazily thinking up a concept restaurant for downtown Toronto that would combine a chic, bluesy atmosphere with high tech for the ultimate young adult dinner date establishment (try saying that ten times fast). Location-wise I'd try to place it near a movie theatre or in the club district, but that's not the issue right now.

RESTAURANT NAME: Still thinking of one. It's likely to contain at least one 'X'.

RESTAURANT THEME: Low lighting with non-vocal blues and jazz playing in the background, a pleasant hum of people talking around you with table dividers high enough for privacy, but not too high as to make yourself and your date feel isolated and forced to converse. Upon entering, the cute perky hostess welcomes you to ________. She doesn't ask if you'd like smoking or non-smoking, because Toronto's banned smoking in restaurants (hell yeah).

You specify the number of people to be seated, and she looks down at her touchpad electronic seating chart and selects a free table. You follow the hostess to your seats and are seated, at which point she asks if you'd like something to drink right away. If not, you and your date scroll through the drinks list on the electronic touchpad built into the table together - which lists the prices, ingredients and some random quirky trivia/history about each drink. Of course, the hostess stays nearby if you're mentioned you're new to _______ and helps you through the simple menu interface. Your drinks are ordered to the kitchen through the menu system, electronically.

RESTAURANT CUISINE: This is where it starts getting interesting. I'm thinking five separate themes. Regular American-style cuisine like burgers, steak and french fries. Chinese/Japanese food. Indian food. Thai food. Greek food. A good selection of food from each ethnicity is available through the menu system and you simply pick off what you like and order a la Amazon.com, though to be classy money is requested and your bill is paid at the very end of your meal.

RESTAURANT ENTERTAINMENT: After food is ordered, the menu system allows you to access an 'Entertainment' tab which has a huge selection of music available to play. Conspire with your date to choose some music to play during your meal (pretty slick, neh?). Music plays via a speaker built into the wall in the middle and beside your table (I'm thinking booths wherever possible) with the volume able to be lowered/raised/muted at will.

Hmm. Possibly during big sports games or the Olympics or something, watching sports events via the menu LCD is enabled. Shouldn't be that hard to implement...

MISC. NOTES: That sums up the basic idea. Automating the dinner experience completely is, pardon the pun, a recipe for disaster. The human element will still be there, this just technofies it a little. Actually I think that one positive side effect of all this technology will be that the restaurant workers will be able to track how long people have been seated at a table, how long it's been since they ordered food/drinks, how much they've spent so far...

Oh, and one last note. It may be a no-kids establishment. 17 or older maybe? You want to cater to the dinner-and-movie crowd, but if you diminish the style by allowing loud babies to enter the mix, well...

Okay, any comments or suggestions? Who knows, one day...

 

[yllus]

I forgot the poll. Oh well.

 

[zer0burn]

I didnt read the whole thng but Im from the Toronto area and theres already so many restaurants itd be about 5 yrs before u saw any money expect to lose a lot before u turn a profit

 

[Kev]

i would go to it, i don't know how long it would last if you had so many different styles of food. you would also need to employee a lot of different cooks

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: zer0burn
I didnt read the whole thng but Im from the Toronto area and theres already so many restaurants itd be about 5 yrs before u saw any money expect to lose a lot before u turn a profit

From a friend whose family runs a successful Greek restaurant, I know that's part of the game. But the thing is...there's always room for a clever innovator.

Originally posted by: Kev
i would go to it, i don't know how long it would last if you had so many different styles of food. you would also need to employee a lot of different cooks

Yeah, that is the bitch of it. Problem is if you have this amazingly techie restaurant and the food is what you can get ANYWHERE, well, you're not really anywhere are you?

 

[notfred]

You ever worked in a restaurant before?

 

[FoBoT]

no, i am an old fart with kids

sounds less like a restaraunt and more like a bar/club

 

[FrustratedUser]

On the entertainment tab, can I select pr0n for me and my date?

 

[N8Magic]

Hell yeah!

Sounds like quite the investment up front, but I think it would go over quite well.

 

[bootymac]

Whoa! Nice concept you have! If you opened that in Vancouver, I'd be sure as hell to go!

PS: is porn available on the LCD?

 

[Scarpozzi]

Electronics + Drinks = Broken Electronics

Plus, you'll find that many servers tend to stall when they take orders because the kitchen/bartenders need them to. Just an observation to your "customer-ordering" plan.

 

[nativesunshine]

i'll go because i love sully.

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: notfred
You ever worked in a restaurant before?

I once got coffee for my coworkers from the local Starbucks...

Originally posted by: FoBoT
no, i am an old fart with kids

sounds less like a restaraunt and more like a bar/club

All current/previous member of the armed forces get an automatic 25% off.

 

[notfred]

I think your plan needs more work... it leaves out a lot of stuff. Mainly, special orders and custom items. Also, what happens if someone comes in, is seated, and asks the waitress "Can I have XYZ drink?" I mean, you can't have her tell him to order it himself, so she's going to have to order it for him. Does her PDA thingy do that?

Do waiters still come by and check on you? What about when you want to ask the waiter's opinion on something... like how spicy a certain dish is?

 

[Gunbuster]

I really doubt you can have "burgers, steak and french fries. Chinese/Japanese food. Indian food. Thai food. Greek food" without it ending up whiteyized

but yea if you could pull it all together I would give the place a try

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: yllus

Originally posted by: notfred
You ever worked in a restaurant before?

I once got coffee for my coworkers from the local Starbucks...

Originally posted by: FoBoT
no, i am an old fart with kids

sounds less like a restaraunt and more like a bar/club

All current/previous member of the armed forces get an automatic 25% off.

oh, well in that case, i will find babysitter for the kids and just bring the wife

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: notfred
I think your plan needs more work... it leaves out a lot of stuff. Mainly, special orders and custom items. Also, what happens if someone comes in, is seated, and asks the waitress "Can I have XYZ drink?" I mean, you can't have her tell him to order it himself, so she's going to have to order it for him. Does her PDA thingy do that?

Definitely needs more work. But yeah, your hostess takes care of drinks via her own little wireless PDA-type thingy, or she could really just write it down and put in the order when she gets back to a console.

Do waiters still come by and check on you? What about when you want to ask the waiter's opinion on something... like how spicy a certain dish is?

At the risk of getting anal on the poor waiters/waitresses, as I went into a little bit earlier the tracking system would let workers monitor how long it's been since people have ordered or received their food, so the waitresses could go by every...what, five minutes or so?

I suppose there would have to be a "Call" button to summon a waitress for personal opinions on dishes.

Originally posted by: nativesunshine
i'll go because i love sully.

I wuv you too baby.

 

[kranky]

You roll a 4 and land on Pick a Confused Customer Card. "What's this? Filet? I didn't order a filet! I ordered swordfish! I know I pushed swordfish!" yllus is -$15.
Next turn you land on Tech-NO world. "My menu terminal shorted out when I spilled my drink." yllus is -$150 for repairs.
Next turn you land on Jerky Boys Invasion. "Uh, no, we didn't order fifteen appetizers. Uh, your system must be screwed up. Yeah, that's it <snicker> it's your system. I swear, we didn't order those <snicker>." yllus is -$30
Next turn you land on Pick a Cheating Customer Card. "I'm not paying that. When I picked salmon, the screen said it was $5.95. It absolutely did not say $25.95. I refuse to pay more than $5.95 because that's what the screen said it was. You're just trying to cheat me." yllus is down $20.

But it's a cool idea, though.

 

[bootymac]

Originally posted by: yllus
All current/previous member of the armed forces get an automatic 25% off.

Even the janitors!?

 

[bootymac]

Originally posted by: kranky
You roll a 4 and land on Pick a Confused Customer Card. "What's this? Filet? I didn't order a filet! I ordered swordfish! I know I pushed swordfish!" yllus is -$15.
Next turn you land on Tech-NO world. "My menu terminal shorted out when I spilled my drink." yllus is -$150 for repairs.
Next turn you land on Jerky Boys Invasion. "Uh, no, we didn't order fifteen appetizers. Uh, your system must be screwed up. Yeah, that's it <snicker> it's your system. I swear, we didn't order those <snicker>." yllus is -$30
Next turn you land on Pick a Cheating Customer Card. "I'm not paying that. When I picked salmon, the screen said it was $5.95. It absolutely did not say $25.95. I refuse to pay more than $5.95 because that's what the screen said it was. You're just trying to cheat me." yllus is down $20.

But it's a cool idea, though.

Good points.

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: kranky
You roll a 4 and land on Pick a Confused Customer Card. "What's this? Filet? I didn't order a filet! I ordered swordfish! I know I pushed swordfish!" yllus is -$15.

Next turn you land on Tech-NO world. "My menu terminal shorted out when I spilled my drink." yllus is -$150 for repairs.

Next turn you land on Jerky Boys Invasion. "Uh, no, we didn't order fifteen appetizers. Uh, your system must be screwed up. Yeah, that's it <snicker> it's your system. I swear, we didn't order those <snicker>." yllus is -$30

Next turn you land on Pick a Cheating Customer Card. "I'm not paying that. When I picked salmon, the screen said it was $5.95. It absolutely did not say $25.95. I refuse to pay more than $5.95 because that's what the screen said it was. You're just trying to cheat me." yllus is down $20.

But it's a cool idea, though.

Numbers one and four could possibly be minimized by a 'Confirm Order' screen with a big "Are you SUUURE you want to order this, beatch?" prompt.

Two, the terminal will be encased under glass built into the table. Shorts won't happen, but repair costs will definitely factor in somewhere, somehow.

Three, hmm. Can't think of an elegant solution...maybe just send a cute waitress over to babysit them? I'd doubt they'd mind and it'd probably spur them to order more and increase her tips as well.

 

[FoBoT]

maybe once the order is placed, the waiter dude could take it to the table and confirm it and ask about how they want their meat cooked and stuff like that

 

[FrustratedUser]

So, can we choose pr0n for entertainment?

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: FrustratedUser
So, can we choose pr0n for entertainment?

Depends. How likely am I to get sued for sexual harassment for that? unno:

 

[Cyberian]

Originally posted by: Kev
i would go to it, i don't know how long it would last if you had so many different styles of food. you would also need to employee a lot of different cooks

Or when someone ordered Thai, a waiter could just run down the block and pick it up at a Thai place.