Foodable Network’s William Bender Visits Volanti To Discuss Display Technology For Restaurant Applications
Rock My Restaurant Host ( part of the Foodable WebTV Network ) William Bender, Founder & Principal of W.H. Bender & Associates, a restaurant & foodservice consulting firm stopped by the Volanti Displays office to discuss the future of displays and restaurant-based applications. William Bender is a Member of the Board of Directors for the California Restaurant Association and an active FCSI member.
The show Rock My Restaurant documents the work of William Bender and Eric Norman, two consultants who go in-depth on everything you need to know about starting a restaurant — from location, to furniture and equipment, to operations consulting — to take your concept to the next level. Presented in partnership with FCSI Foodservice Consultant Society International.
Fast Casual Dining
“The focus of our meeting was to discuss ways to enhance and improve the overall guest experience in ‘Fast Casual’ dining establishments.” explains Volanti Displays Art Director Billy Barnes.
Fast Casual, a phrase coined by Foodable Network’s very own Paul Barron, writer of The Chipotle Effect , is a type of restaurant in the United States that does not offer guests full table service, but promises a higher quality of food with fewer frozen or processed ingredients than a fast food restaurant.
“The meeting was very insightful,” continues Barnes. “The topics we discussed ranged from; how to properly network displays in a restaurant chain like Chipotle to software based applications that could help ‘speed’ up the queuing of lines.”
Digital Menus:
We have all become accustomed to seeing large printed food menus above registers in our favorite Fast Casual restaurants. The difficulty with this is that if a menu item changes or a restaurant decides to adopt a no GMO food policy, the entire organization has to modify and then roll out all new printed menu boards. This could add thousands of dollars of costs whereas if large format UHD Displays were implemented and then controlled via server based networks, one person could In essence, make the digital changes and then send out the new ‘updated’ menu and have it up and running within minutes. Thus drastically cutting down on cost and time lost.
Food Based Applications:
One of the other major topics discussed was the rolling out of durable, high-grade touch displays in restaurants that could be controlled with self-check out style software applications. The thought was how to speed up the queuing process while providing restaurant goers with an application that had a very minimal learning curve. Currently fast food restaurants are toying with the idea of utilizing such techniques but the main focus would be how to keep it simple and functional.
Cube Display Table:
Perhaps one of the more conceptual ideas that was discussed was how to encourage more guest-type interaction and engagement. One of the ideas that was discussed was how to turn tables into interactive devices. One idea was to add a touch interface to the top display of the CUBE that would allow guests to scroll through ‘brand stories’ or to order menu items right from their seats while the other displays shared various social media feeds.
Contact Volanti Displays
For more information or if you would like to set up some time to discuss your display ideas with our design team feel free to contact Volanti Displays.
Office: 408.579.1620
Hours: 8AM – 5PM PST