Technology impact seen in eateries

The last five years have seen some dramatic changes in the way we dine out, the expectations we have of our favorite restaurants and even what we like to eat. In addition, the culture surrounding technology has changed the dining-out experience in some subtle and some very noticeable ways:
• Immediate gratification. Restaurateurs are having to change their systems both in the front and back of the house to accommodate larger numbers of people who show up at the restaurant without a reservation, expect to be seated and served with no wait. Sylvia Moubayed of CAV Restaurant told me that on a recent Friday night, there were reservations for only 16 when the night started, but by the end of the evening, the place was packed. CAV seats more than 150 patrons.
This means the restaurant management has to reconfigure its staffing needs for the evening with servers on call to cover later rush hours. Multiunit restaurant operations can shift staffers between or among locations as traffic flow dictates.
• Social media dictating choice and price. Paul Shire, chef and proprietor of 2 Pauls City Grille in East Providence has a different take on technology, specifically the growth of online and social media marketing. He said, “It used to be food writers and columnists were the primary way a restaurant would be reviewed. Now anyone with a computer can write anything and have a platform.”
The groundswell surrounding on-line review websites such as Yelp has affected the restaurant industry right down to the daily operation of an individual place. At a minimum, virtually every restaurant makes it a daily practice to check the review sites for feedback. Some restaurateurs in other parts of the country have attempted “best defense is a good offense” approach to blunt the effects of potentially damaging reviews. One West Coast operator after such a negative review on a consumer-driven site ironically was on the receiving end of even more bad publicity when he responded aggressively to the reviewer, whom he suspected of being a competitor.
Shire also acknowledges the discount and rewards programs that have become so prevalent. On my radio show, he said such come-ons can give chains and larger restaurants an advantage over standalone places like his. The challenge with the half-price couponing programs is meeting the expectation of those consumers who are frequent users. Those customers will patronize only the business offering such a coupon or other temporary price-cutting promotion. This makes building loyalty that much more difficult. Shire has had success in his neighborhood by offering music and other entertainment, from karaoke to the popular trivia nights.
Fine dining has become “casual fine dining.” We just don’t get dressed up very often these days, if at all. And we want our restaurants to be a reflection of our fashion freedom. From a resurgence of the bare-bones school of restaurant design, the so-called “industrial look” that favors open ceilings, concrete floors and hard surfaces to servers who never learned how to serve from the left and pick up from the right – not that diners seem to care.
Exposed brick walls, open duct work and open spaces such as the new Tavern On Broadway in Newport and birch in downtown Providence are on the cutting edge. Eateries that have been known as landmarks for intimate romantic dinners have joined the crowd, literally.
• The restaurant with a bar or the bar with a restaurant. Newer spots and retooled mainstay eateries alike are expanding their bar space. Tavern On Broadway and birch are examples of this, as is Cook & Brown Public House and Harry’s Bar and Burger. Interestingly enough, at the beginning of the restaurant boom in the mid-1990s, many if not most restaurants actually minimized their bars. The idea was to maximize the dining space. At the former Sunflower Café in Cranston, the proprietor had such a following for his food that he maintained just a service bar – no stools, bottle displays or so much as a mirror behind it – from where wine, beer and cocktails were dispensed to the diners. Very few patrons complained or even noticed.
Dining out itself, however, is one of the few things relatively untouched by technology. We can’t actually dine out online. Food must be cooked by an actual person, brought to the table and consumed by us who appreciate advances in technology but admire even more the creative advances of chefs and restaurateurs here in this dining-destination state. •


Bruce Newbury’s “Dining Out” food and wine talk radio show is heard Saturdays and Sundays on WPRV-AM 790, weekdays on WADK-AM 1540 and on line and mobile app on iHeartRadio. He can be reached by email at bruce@brucenewbury.com.

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