Food joints natural fit for technology

Ordering your food in our techno age is changing pretty rapidly. Some of it’s good, some of it not so good.

Some of the first to get into the act were pizza joints. They thrive on delivery and call-in orders so they’re a natural for online ordering.

I was pretty skeptical at first about ordering my pizza pie without having to repeat it over and over to a teenager over the phone. I gave it a try and sure enough, the first order I made online apparently didn’t make it to the store. Fortunately they quickly made it right and apologized.

I kept at it on my pizza orders and I’ve now become pretty confident in ordering online from any of my three favorite pizzerias. These days they send you a text or email to confirm they’ve received your order and even count down the process.

“Mary just started preparing your pizza.”

“Your pizza is in the oven.”

“Mary just dropped your pizza on the floor.”

“Mary is preparing your pizza again.”

“Mary just handed off your pizza to Donny Delivery Dude, he’ll be there with hot pizza in a flash.”

Some of the drive-ins and diners are getting into the technology too. Wait a minute, we always ordered burgers at a drive-in through a scratchy, screechy speaker on a pole. Yes, but this is better, or at least flashier. Now one joint has a menu board with great graphics, even motion, lights and color. Unfortunately, you still have to guess what the girl inside the box is trying to ask you over the speaker as the exhaust pipes in the pickup in the next stall drown out the critical conversation.

Once you get the order in, this drive-in has adopted the successful pizza ploy of telling you what’s happening with your order on the fancy menu board. Only problem is, often when the message tells you the carhop is on the way, it’s still 10 minutes before you get your food. Keep me posted, but don’t lie to me please.

Some restaurants have tablet devices bolted to your table now. I’ve seen some that allow you to pay with a credit card at the table without sending it off to the back reaches of the restaurant, which is a good thing. I can’t say as I’ve seen one yet that is capable of getting more rolls or ice tea at your table. There used to be a chain Mexican food restaurant where you could raise a little flag to get more food and that worked really well.

I’m all for ordering my food through a device if I can avoid the annoying tick that so many wait staff these days have adopted. I hate it when they say “perfect” after every one of my choices. I want to grab them by the neck and scream “I’ll be the judge of whether or not it’s ‘perfect’ when I get the food in front of me and start eating.”

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: [email protected]