Places I eat, servers tell me they have to ask. They go to the kitchen and come back with an answer. Sometimes favorable, sometimes not, in which case I make another selection.

Same. If it isn't listed in the menu description, servers go into the kitchen and come back with an answer. In some cases, they send the manager or the chef to talk to me.

While I agree it could be programmed to do this, I haven't seen this yet the few times I've used ipad ordering. Seems like for places where menus change, it would be hard to keep up, but would work fairly well for restaurant chains where someone at corporate could update all at once.

Since I don't have allergies, my menu questions might be harder for an ipad to answer. Granted, I don't have questions all that often. But as an example - I see a $15 salad on the menu. Is that entree sized? All of that can be programmed of course, but since someone will likely have to carry the food out anyway why can't they first stop by and ask if I have any questions? And if they're going to answer the question and carry out my food, the ipad doesn't really save the restaurant much money.

Now, if we're going to a model where robots deliver the food and bus tables, that could work. But I can't see that as the type of restaurant I frequent. Maybe everyone should move to the sushi conveyor belt model :).

How about an iPad / tablet that has a “more questions? We can send out a live person” button. That could work.
just like old phone trees had a directory with that “0” option for Operator…

Except that isn't really saving much money if you still have someone there to answer questions and deliver food.

Depending on the locale, a hamburger and a glass of Bordeaux (Cru Simple) can easily run $25 with tax and tip at a fast casual restaurant, perhaps 40 at a "fine dining" restaurant (presuming they would even serve a hamburger).

The same meal costs at most $5 at home, of which $3 is for the one-sixth bottle of Bordeaux. The other two bucks pay for the ingredients to the hamburger.

This multiplier (5x) seems to be the norm at restaurants versus dining at home. That adds up quickly, meal after meal.

When I was a kid, we were financially sound (my Mom even had some help) and lived near a large city, but we RARELY ate out. Neither my parents alone or with another couple, nor as a family. Only when on vacations or on rare special occasions did we go out to eat. This was in the 1970s. There were weekly dinner/ bridge parties with neighbors/ colleagues, but eating at a restaurant was once per quarter at most. The restaurants were accordingly more rarefied -- liveried staff, formal service, etc. Sometime in the late 1980s the whole US disposition toward eating out changed, and it became MUCH more commonplace. Even today, my 90-something parents treat going out to eat as unusual.

I will surmise that spending money freely (on expenditures such as dining out) was probably rare for those who either lived through the great depression a.k.a dirty '30s (few in numbers these days) - probbly such as your parents - or their children and perhaps even grandchildren. The event made a very profound and lasting impression, instilling a great sense of thrift for a couple of generations. The great recession some 80 years later brought some of that back which resulted in some restaurant bankruptcies. Perhaps good times and easy credit (through credit cards, the use of which was still a bit of a rarity in the early '70s?) precipitated the right environment for a new slew of restaurants to cater to the mass market, much as cruises used to be exclusive.

Yes they both vividly remember The Great Depression and talk about it every day. St. Louis for one and Kansas City for the other, but the tune is much the same.

My parents both had "charge cards" from the mid-1960s onward, but those were issued by the local department stores. For times when there was something big planned, my Dad would go to the bank and withdraw many hundred dollars in cash. He once received a $500 bill in such a withdrawal, which I had never seen before (and haven't seen since now that I think about it). Restaurants of course would accept local checks in those days. The cash situations were when we were travelling out-of-town as a family.

When I first started to travel as a teenager, I did not have a credit card; I would take American Express travelers cheques -- this was the early 1980s. You would countersign your own signature at the redeeming bank. I first noticed credit cards in the late 1980s, my own was in 1987.

Along Highway 101 by CA-156 which is the road to carmel:


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0ce916eb1.jpeg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8c4d6c4e7.jpeg

So frugality was their driving philosophy in life? Understandable for those who experienced poverty and hunger (not that there was a food shortage let alone a famine).

As a matter of historical interest, any U.S. bank notes greater than $100 have long been withdrawn from circulation (a least for 20 years if not longer, probably 30+) in an attempt to curtail money laundering. Any such are collector's items.

TCs. Haven't seen any for a while (couple of decades of not more) but I do seem to recall observing people still using them in the past decade. Like rotary dial telephones, a lot of younger people probably have never seen one.

That was around the era (or maybe later) when credit cards were being heavily promoted on U.S. university campii, certainly it was in 1988. Even Amex (but not DC/Diner's Club IIRC) was in the game (get young people hooked on branded credit, I guess).

In recent years, I've ob served CCs being heavily promoted in places like Thailand and Malaysia which used to be very cash-oriented (perhaps still are). Competing bank issuers provide goodies for using the card at certain merchants and some even have exclusive lounges in department stores.


Back to the subject of server shortages. Was always an issue north of the border and not getting any better.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opin...m-restaurants/

LOL...ah, while I can appreciate the efficiency automation would bring to many industries, robotic servers ain't gonna do it for me. The only bright side would be one would be spared having to tip, but I'd rather continue our tipping culture in return for human service. While I know very little about restaurant wages, I'd imagine a server in a nice restaurant would earn about $500 per night in tips? All things considered, that's not a bad living, in my view.

By the way, was watching Chairman Powell's testimony this morning, and when asked if eliminating unemployment benefits would increase labor participation, he replied that it was too early to tell.

Zuni is a nice restaurant in Sf and they pondered a zero tip situation. One longtime server really objected and their tips-based compensation was about 80k/year although maybe not 40 hours a week.

I would object too. Not making any judgements or assumptions here, but that's probably a very tax efficient $80k too. I recall some momentum about making a transition to zero-tip dining, but no idea how that's working out.

If I understand correctly, servers have to share a substantial portion of their tips with the backroom (bell, kitchen, etc.). In addition the IRS presumes there is a certain amount of tip income based on bill total: A tip-stiffed wait person may have to pay taxes on presumed income even if they got stiff ed the tip (unless it can be proven).

Lots of rules here
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small...-and-reporting

But, servers, if the tip is received in cash, might lie about what they received when it comes time to file taxes.