The Waiter of the Future is Here Today

Image Source: David Castillo Dominici

It was on this very list last year that we speculated iPads would one day replace restaurant waitstaffs everywhere. Now, De Santos in New York City has already moved to a fully iPad-controlled system but is keeping the servers. The nearly three-year-old restaurant this summer swapped out pen and paper for a legion of iPad 2 tablets that display the menu, take orders and swipe credit cards. The rustic atmosphere of De Santos is in stark contrast to the iPad’s contemporary look, sleek contours and glowing screen. The highly customized software, which functions as an app, one-ups traditional menus, with detailed descriptions and even images of each dish. Most important, the digital menus bear a cost and efficiency benefit: waiters shuffle around less because the system wirelessly sends orders to the kitchen, meaning they can serve more tables in less time and dishes are started and served more quickly. The iPad also allows for receipts via email, allowing paper waste to drop drastically. Maybe humans and machines can live in harmony, after all. —Eva Meszaros

0 comments