The elemental premises of going to a cafe haven’t changed tremendously throughout history. You sit. You order. It shows up. Maybe it’s good. But new, high tech establishments around the globe are putting a innovative spin on eating out.
1. Inamo, London
Inamo’s claim to fame is its sophisticated ordering system-no waiters to be found, be they cranky or hospitable, but rather a projection interface that turns all the table into a touchable menu. The eatery’s Asian fusion fare is visualized on the tabletop itself-just touch and go. But visuals aren’t just for the menu-the projector can help you customize your dining experience with various virtual ” table cloths,” distract your screaming children and/or younger siblings with games, or maybe watch a chef prepare your meal via cam. This all could be bit on the sensory overload side, but perhaps perfect for a clumsy blind date where neither party could have much to assert.
” Hey! Study.. the table. You’ll be able to touch it, and it changes.”
” Yes. It does.”
” …”
2. 4food, New York
4food a new burger spot in midtown Manhattan, attempts to smash every norm you’d expect from a lunch break burger joint. The menus? iPads. The decor? an incredible wall of cascading tweets. The patties? A sci-fi ring shape. 4food even tacks on a social networking element of your dining experience, allowing you to customize and share your individual burger combo and earn store credit if other diners order it-a neat incentive to get you back to filling your jaws. While you stop by, you’ll want to try the mac & cheese option.
3. Bones, Atlanta
Famed steakhouse Bones earned its geek cred for upping wine sales by 11% in exactly three weeks as soon as it ported over its list to a fleet of iPads. In case you’re anything like me, navigating a standard paper wine list is an exercise in being both ignorant and broke and not wishing to look as this stuff-and customarily will become a nervous guessing game. But Bones lets diners act as their own sommeliers by browsing reviews paired with the restaurant’s staggering 1,350 label list. Bones rakes within the dough, and you’re making an informed choice (and don’t seem like a clueless putz). Everyone wins!
wd-50, New York
4. Though some decry its methods as pure gimmickry, molecular gastronomy landmark wd-50 is a food nerd’s dream (and just a typical nerd’s dream too, probably. We all gotta eat!) The establishment embraces fine cooking as chemistry-and it truly is, really-turning familiar dishes into visually striking (and rather yummy) foams, gels, and other foreign forms. Eggs benedict cubed says it all. Chef and owner (and molecular gastronomy poster boy) Wylie Dufresne says ” within the last 15 years we’ve learned more about cooking than we now have inside the 15,000 years ahead of that.” The speculation of the kitchen as a laboratory is unquestionably an concept we will get behind. In the case of the delicious, let’s never be frightened of progress.
5. FoodParc, New York
FoodParc’s main techie draw is its ordering system , that is simple, efficient, and sleek-letting wonderful sounding treats like sugar and spiced bacon (DEAR GOD) and dim sum stand out all alone. Patrons select their food from an enormous touchscreen menu at one of four themed food stalls, and are then informed via text when the meal is able to pick out up-and be at liberty to monitor a progress bar charting your order’s pace in the event you’re feeling impatient. Or, while waiting, other than salivating, one can soak up some video entertainment, because of a bevy of mounted televisions.
6. `s Baggers, Nuremberg
It feels like something from a Rube Goldberg diagram. Plates on rails-a dizzying network of them, that spans the total restaurant-send orders flying about. Except kitchen staff, the full fast food joint is automated and mechanized, sending out touchscreen-selected traditional German cuisine on demand-without the will for any staff at all. Somewhere, Karl Marx sheds a single tear.
7. Flip Burger, Atlanta
This Atlanta spot aims, like 4food, to modernize the burger. No easy task! And while the burgers themselves are scrumptious, the genuine techno-dazzler of the menu are the liquid nitrogen infused shakes that arrive smoking cold, and frozen right through.
8. Alinea, Chicago
So fine, these types of places are fiddling with the notion of ways our food is getting to us, maybe not always the food itself. Unimpressed thus far? How about chef Grant Achatz Chicago dining mecca Alinea. Forget flame, you neanderthal-they do their cooking with powerful magnetic fields . The super efficient (and transportable) induction burners do the heavy lifting in Achatz’s stunningly sleek kitchen, where deconstructed delicacies are made with assistance from another Giz-approved tech toy-the vaporizer .
9. Hajime, Bangkok
Take your touchscreen menus, chic foodie enclaves of latest York. Bangkok’s Hajime BBQ restaurant has robot waiters. Dressed as samurais. Maybe not essentially the mostsome of the most tasteful place for, say, a wedding reception, but on the subject of sheer awesomeness, this idea is difficult to top. The warrior humanoids have a relaxed tenure at Hajime, working both the kitchen and the front of the house, at a value of nearly $1,000,000 to owner Lapassarad Thanaphant. But can you truly put a value on having your food prepared and delivered by four samurai bots? No. The answer to that query isn’t any.
Illustration+Composite by Sam Spratt. Investigate Sam’s portfolio and become partial to his Facebook Artist’s Page .
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