The food world is wholeheartedly embracing mobile technology, using smartphones and tablets to book tables, take orders, handle inventory, e-mail receipts - and not just to elevate the coolness quotient. They are money-savers in an industry that subsists on low profit margins and high turnover.
Owners Tim Mulvey and Mike Oraschewsky set up the wireless system at Conshohocken Cafe this year, buying an app called POSLavu and installing it on small iPod Touch units and an iPad.
After each dish is tapped onto the screen, the order is sent to a small printer in front of the cooks. "It cuts off a half-step" for servers, Mulvey said. Accuracy has risen dramatically, meaning less food is wasted.
"Everyone is blown away when they see this," said Oraschewsky, pointing out the incongruity of the cafe's kitschy, mix-and-match furnishings and the efficient use of IEEE 802.11, or WiFi. Some customers ask to tap in their own orders.
One table of patrons was turned off. "They assumed [the server] was just texting" and not paying attention, Mulvey said.
A restaurant point-of-sale system - a flat-screen computer system that syncs ordering, operations, and sales - can cost $20,000 or more. Before the volunteer Conshohocken Business Development Commission helped the owners set up their business, Mulvey and Oraschewsky inherited a complex system that they never bothered to set up.
They learned of this new generation of point-of-sale, in which a restaurateur can buy a few tablets or iPod Touch devices, install the apps, attach small printers, and get by for about $3,000. More-advanced systems tie in credit-card processing.
New servers can jump right in. "The learning curve was instantaneous," said Oraschewsky.
Meanwhile, from anywhere in the world, the owners use their iPads to monitor the operation - seeing which tables are turning over when, and noting that, say, cheese omelets are the day's best seller.