Technology
Technology more intuitive, cost efficient than ever
Technology reigned at the 2023 National Restaurant Association's annual show.
May 25, 2023 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group
I attended my second National Restaurant Show earlier last week repping Networld Media Group and my sites QSRweb.com and PizzaMarketplace.com. Amongst the new hardware and software were sustainable products and foods and current flavor profiles that are more accessible than ever.
This year's show had 11 football fields worth of exbibit space featuring more than 2,100 manufacturers and suppliers. I visited a few of those and stuffed myself full of Nathan's Famous hot dogs, slushies, caramel popcorn, Eli's cheesecake and ice cream (obviously I have a sweet tooth).
It was the tech pavilion where I spent most of my time. I sat down with a few exhibitors to learn what they were showing off in 2023.
Guest relationship management
Fishbowl, formerly Personica, started when guests would visit a restaurant and would put a business card in a fishbowl to keep in contact with the restaurant. Today's Fishbowl users are savvier than ever.
The brand now uses email marketing to keep track of customers' records. "It also leverages loyalty offers, SMS marketing (and) marketing services," Alex Wereminsky, a spokesperson for Fishbowl, said.
During the show, Fishbowl showed off a new program, Delightable. "Everybody knows we're this marketing program from a long time ago, but we've got a guest relationship management system, a GRM.
"What we've done now is we have a software that integrates when you make reservations as a restaurant, you order online at a restaurant, you swipe your card at the register, you get delivery, that's a lot of different (versions of the same name). We integrate all of that and then we aggregate that data," Wereminsky said. "Now (restaurants are) using that data to market to you.
"The program can tell if the guest comes in with kids or comes in late. Does she order Happy Hours? How many people spent money last year but haven't spent money this year? It's things to really know their customer base. Restaurants want to know who their guests are going to be" in order to tailor orders to those customers.
Back-of-the-house help
Restaurant Technologies takes the danger out of the messiest part of the back-of-house — changing fryer oil.
"It's a closed loop oil system that … automates the worst and most dangerous job in the back of house, which is handling cooking oil," said a spokesperson for the company. "Right now for any restaurant that is not using us, when the fryer's got to be empty, somebody has to handle that hot oil. Typically, they'll carry it in a shuttle, take it out back and dump it into a nasty rendering tank. It's dangerous, it's manual and its messy.
"With our system, you can empty and fill the fryers with the push of a button. They're directly connected to our tanks. You've got fresh oil and waste oil. It's cleaner and safer and more sustainable, and the employees love it."
Shari McCauley, manager of training and documentation for QSR Automations, showed off the ConnectSmart Kitchen system, a back-of-house solution to improve kitchen workflow and communication, which leads to a better work environment for employees.
The system automates operations, which cuts down on food waste. Delayed routing allows for orders to be paced efficiently so employees aren't wasting time or inventory remaking inaccuracies. The system also increases service speed, eliminates old paper tickets (if you're still using them, we need to talk.) and improves food quality.
"We're a plussed-up kitchen video system," McCauley said. "The things that we do better and differently than other kitchen solutions are we have a bin management system. Bins are something that restaurants really need to help them manage inventory, waste, product quality … It helps to make sure they've got enough of something available but not so much that they're wasting it or that during peak times they run out of it. We learn their history and then we fire off information to the cooks to let them know. … We also have time-delay routing, and that's very unique."
The system sends the longest cook-time order to the employees in the kitchen and then the shorter cook-time orders after those for a more efficient kitchen and to ensure food is delivered to the table perfectly cooked and hot. Everything gets to the window at the same time.
Custom dashboards offer scorecards and metrics. "We can report on everything that's happening in the kitchen," McCauley said. "Once they route it from the point of sale, we know how long it sat on the screen. We know how long they cooked it. We know how long it sat at the expo window. We know everything about that menu item in between."
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Middleby showed off its Carter-Hoffman food locker systems. Photo by Mandy Wolf Detwiler |
Pick-up cabinets hit the big time
Middleby showed off its Carter-Hoffman food locker system, which had huge crowds around it watching how it worked and placing orders for burgers and fries prepared on the spot.
Gwen Bialas, president of Carter-Hoffman, gave me a rundown of the lockers' operations.
"It's a way to support the segment of off-premise diners," Bialas said, "whether it be through third-party systems — they can use this as well — or the consumer. So I can order via DoorDash and say I want to pick it up myself and if I do that and put my phone number in, I will get the message directly. If I say I want delivery, the DoorDash driver then gets instructions from their central control center to go pick up the order at the locker."
Customers place the order either in person, at a kiosk, online or via app. The order shows up in the kitchen in a KDS system and the order's processed. When it's done and the order is complete in the kitchen, it shows up on the back of the pick-up locker. That means it's in the queue. The cashier goes to the back of the unit, scans the QR code that's on the order and a message goes straight to the customer or DoorDash driver that it's ready for pick up.
"You go up to the pick-up locker, scan your code, and boom — you're out in five seconds," Bialas said, adding that Del Taco has begun using the system. "They're heated and ambient. Every day, KPIs are sent to a restaurant using the system to learn how many lockers were used by hour and daypart, how many orders were picked up in less than five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes etc."
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Bear Robotics showed off its Servi restaurant robot. Photo by Mandy Wolf Detwiler |
Robotics shine on the show floor
Last year, only a handful of robotics companies showed their wares at the NRA show, but this year there were several. I stopped by Bear Robotics and talked to Spencer Hodnett, event coordinator, to learn about Servi, its dining room robot that I saw tooling around Bear's booth.
The company is also rolling out Servi Plus, which can hold 88 pounds and Servi Lift, a robot that integrates with elevators.
"Our robots have different features than our competitors. You can program them to say whatever you'd like them to say and change the music. Our (robots) come with tech support," Hodnett said.
When asked what Hodnett thinks is the future of robotics, he said the market is growing quickly.
"It's definitely going to grow in a good way more quickly than we expect, but I definitely see robots helping more," he said. "It's definitely the way of the future with more tools we can integrate with as technology advances."
I think within the next few years we'll see many of them items and solutions lower in cost, integrate into restaurants more effectively and become more intuitive.
About Mandy Wolf Detwiler
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.
An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.
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