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Taco Bell wants you to order food from a chat bot
We've seen some clever ways to order food online in our day, but this one is decidedly off the wall. Taco Bell is testing TacoBot, a chat AI that helps you order (what else?) tacos in a Slack conversation. Think of it as a tasty text adventure -- you can ask questions about the menu, customize your order and check your cart. It's only in a private beta with a few companies at the moment, but you can sign up for a waiting list to have your Slack team give TacoBot a try. Just think -- you could have tacos sent your way while you're stuck in a planning session.
Wendy's looks into claims of a credit card data breach
If you grabbed a bite to eat at a Wendy's (you know, the other other big burger chain) using a credit or debit card, you might want to check your financial statements. The restaurant tells security guru Brian Krebs that it's investigating reports of a possible card data breach that let fraudsters go on spending sprees. It's not clear just how far-reaching the incident might have been, but Wendy's says that it did get reports of "unusual activity" on cards that had recently been used at "some" of its locations. Let's just hope the damage is limited -- the last thing Americans need is yet another large-scale intrusion that leaves millions of people vulnerable. [Image credit: AP Photo/Michael Dwyer]
Amazon Echo links with Yelp to find info on local restaurants
It's such an obvious feature it's hard to believe it wasn't already there, but the latest update for Amazon's Echo lets it pull up Yelp recommendations for restaurants and other local businesses. Just ask about info on where to get Chinese food or pizza delivery, and it will send the Yelp-powered results to the Echo app on your phone or tablet. For it to work you'll need to have your local address set up in the Echo app, but that's it. Amazon says more local search results are coming soon, but for now you should also know it can help you easily stock up on Halloween candy. Just ask the speaker to "order Halloween candy" or "order Halloween chocolate" and it will -- provided you have voice purchasing enabled (read: disable voice purchasing before your kids find out about this feature).
Groupon's food delivery service brings discounts with every order
You're about to get a fresh alternative to internet-based restaurant delivery services like GrubHub and Seamless. Groupon has just launched the simply-titled Groupon To Go, an order-in service that focuses on (what else?) discounts for your food. The company promises that you'll get at least 10 percent cash back on every order, which could add up if you're ordering pizza every week. The offering is only available in Chicago right now, but there are over 500 included restaurants ranging from big chains like Subway to local eateries like Al's Beef and Ditka's Restaurant. And don't worry about waiting long to give it a shot -- Groupon is expanding the service later this year, with Austin and Boston among the early highlights. It'll eventually be available nationwide.
Woman uses Pizza Hut's mobile app to escape a hostage crisis
It's sometimes too dangerous to call 911, but one Florida woman just found a potentially life-saving alternative: a food delivery app. When Cheryl Treadway's boyfriend threatened to hurt her and her family if they left home, she used Pizza Hut's mobile app to send a request for help under the pretext of ordering food. Thankfully, staff caught the message and sent police to Treadway's home, getting the hostages out safely. This kind of stealthy, app-based plea won't be as necessary once text-to-911 rolls out in earnest, but it's good to know that it's an option in dire circumstances. [Image credit: AP Photo/Alan Diaz]
Square's restaurant delivery service arrives on Android
You no longer have to carry an iPhone just to check out Square's restaurant delivery service, Caviar -- it's now available for Android. Like before, you can both order fine meals and track the couriers in real-time as they bring that dining to your door. You'll still have to live in one of Caviar's few eligible cities (New York City, LA and San Francisco are particularly well-covered) to give it a shot, but you'll at least get to use your device of choice when splurging on a Mediterranean feast.
Crowd-based shipping service lets you use Waffle House for pickups
If you're running a crowd-driven shipping startup that delivers packages through helpful travelers, where would you have people pick up their goods? A restaurant, apparently. Roadie has forged a deal that will have Waffle House locations serve as some of its pickup points -- yes, you can get pecan waffles at the same time as you're collecting your new food mixer. The theory goes that you're meeting at a safe, friendly place instead of taking chances with your rendezvous. It's a strange move, but it makes sense. Roadie doesn't have (or need) the store network of a big courier like FedEx or UPS, so it might as well choose a nationwide retail chain that you probably know well.
Reserve's forget-the-bill restaurant concierge arrives on Android
Reserve's concierge service is a clever idea -- you book a table at a top-flight restaurant based on when and what you're hoping to eat, and chow down knowing that your bill is already covered. It's only been available for iPhone-toting foodies, however, so today's launch of a Reserve app for Android is a big deal. So long as you're dining in Boston, Los Angeles, New York or San Francisco, you can now secure that deluxe Mediterranean feast from your Moto X. There are a couple of helpful additions coming with the new app, too -- you can browse restaurants with a built-in map, and it's easier to both tack on extra restaurant choices or share the service with your friends (who get a $25 first-meal credit) if you want to get them hooked. This reservation app remains overkill if you're only looking for a quick bite, but it might be just the ticket if you're focused on upscale eating.
Square's new restaurant delivery app lets you track your meal
Square's seemingly odd decision to buy a restaurant delivery service is starting to make sense. The company has just released Caviar's first mobile app for iOS, letting you order high-quality cooking from your iPhone in eligible cities like Chicago, New York and San Francisco. You've probably seen the basic concept of a delivery app before, but there's a clever twist here. This is more like Uber for haute cuisine; you can not only check the status of your order, but follow couriers as they bring your meal. In theory, you won't be caught off-guard when your food arrives.
Jon Taffer's BarHQ app wants to increase your profits
Jon Taffer took the business of bar consulting to a new level when SpikeTV decided to run the show Bar Rescue, featuring Taffer as the irascible host. Since then he's had season after season of showing the public how sharp he is at turning around even the most hopeless bars (when the owners actually take his advice, anyway). He's now bringing his expertise to owners everywhere thanks to his BarHQ app, which he hopes will raise any bar's revenues 20-30%. I spoke to Mr. Taffer about the app and his approach. Because of his show Bar Rescue, and book, Raise the Bar, Taffer is in demand more than he can actually help. He even has a road show and continues to consult privately for clients, but can't address the myriad requests. Out of the frustration of seeing so many well-meaning bar owners begging for his help, Taffer decided to create something to help. BarHQ was the answer, and it is free (on iPad and iPhone). Taffer's goal is to help raise revenues up to 30%, which is very often what is needed to push an establishment back in the black and operating at a sustainable rate. How does BarHQ work? A bar owner or manager sets up the app, which includes taking a brief quiz on what type of bar you are and what sort of things you do. The survey is quite short, and afterwards you create a login and get a unique code for your business. That code is used for every employee who will be using the app (the app is iOS and Android compatible, but obviously employees need smartphones to use it). Your settings, communications, schedules, etc. are all synced through a cloud service (which is also free). Once the initial setup is done, BarHQ works in three key areas: Sales, Marketing and Scheduling. For sales, you input your sales each day and track trends. Individual employees can do this as well. Ultimately this can give you an idea what promotions are working. I found the input fairly easy to use, although being able to import raw data from other systems would likely be helpful. You can also track guest count and sales per hour, both vital stats in the bar/restaurant game. For marketing, the app provides a slightly clunky but usable customized promo tool, but I found it was easier to go into the "sponsored" promotions (promotions list) and see what these entail. BarHQ provides a few examples, like Treasure Chest (where patrons are given keys to a chest with prizes, and at the end of the night one person opens it) or Nickel Beer, where you sell custom mugs for nickel beers. While I was told these would generate PDF marketing materials, unfortunately I didn't find a way to generate these. What is included is an automated way to post these promotions to your social media, which is honestly a godsend for most harried small bar owners. It does seem there is room for growth in this part of the app, and I'm figuring Taffer will build this out over time. He noted that he's built a facility in Las Vegas to continue making content for the app, and that includes training and marketing materials. Finally there's employee management, and that studio in Vegas will be the scene of ongoing training films Taffer is producing for this app. You'll eventually be able to train employees on demand, having them earn badges and rewards for training (like a "Whiskey Master" badge upon viewing a video and taking a quiz). Until then there's a simple list of tips (all good), a how to on using the app, and a scheduler. I think the scheduler is quite powerful for smallish bars. You input your weekly schedule, and employees do the same on their devices. All of this is shown in the manager's scheduler, but employees can do things like blast a request out to pick up a shift, or request a change and a manager can easily see who might cover it. Those sorts of intra-team communications are a pain otherwise. Speaking of communications, there's also a message system built into the app. It's no Slack, but pre-shift messages are specifically called out, a testament to Taffer's expertise. I wasn't able to test this, but it's one way to ensure all employees who use the app are getting those messages. Taffer's BarHQ is sponsored in that there are some ads at the bottom, but none ever overtake the interface or really get in the way. I did find a few quirks and bugs in the app, although nothing particularly show-stopping besides "Clone Week" in the Scheduler, which forced me to fully close the app and start my week over. Also, a lot of the tools in the app are hidden in the upper left "hamburger" menu, something designers are realizing isn't a great user experience. The design is still leagues above most industry apps, but that's not a high bar to rise above. BarHQ, for a first version, is an ambitious start to what will likely become a powerful tool for small bars. More importantly, Taffer's expertise and willingness to continue to build this app out should not be underestimated -- there's even a Q&A section in the app. Far too many bars simply suffer from a lack of the basics, and BarHQ aims to help them with promotions and social media, sales tracking and employee management. Having seen quite a few episodes of Bar Rescue, I can admit that very few failing bars do well in any of those areas. I'm hopeful that BarHQ delivers on its promise for bar owners, but since it's free there's really very little to lose by seeing if it works for you.
PayPal now lets you pay for packages days after you order them
Wish you didn't have to pay for online orders before they showed up? You won't have to, if you've loaded up a PayPal account. In the wake of a trial run, the company has formally rolled out Pay After Delivery, a service that gives you up to 14 days after your order to cough up the necessary funds. PayPal gives retailers money right away -- it's just waiting for you to pay the difference. Suffice it to say that this will come in handy if you have a high-priority order (say, a holiday gift) that can't wait until you have the necessary funds.
Reserve's restaurant concierge app lets you forget about the bill
You can already organize fine dining excursions through a single app like OpenTable, but you still have to pull out your phone or wallet to pay when the night's over. You won't have to worry about the bill with Reserve's new concierge service, though. The currently iOS-only platform lets you not only find and book tables based on your preferences, but automatically bills you after each meal (tip and all); you'll be charged a $5 fee for the convenience, but that's tiny in the world of haute cuisine. If your favorite eatery is busy, you can even offer to pay more than usual in hopes of securing a spot. Want to give it a whirl? You'll have to eat in Boston, New York City or Los Angeles during the current beta testing phase, although San Franciscans will get to try it relatively soon.
A restaurant in China lets robots do a lot of the work
Let's face it, the Robot Apocalypse is near. Just a few days ago, we met A.L.O Botlr, a robot from the high-tech Aloft Hotel in Cupertino, California that acts as a butler. Naturally, the food industry, as important as it is, couldn't stay behind, so here's where a new restaurant in China comes in. Simply called Robot Restaurant, the place, located in Kunshan, China, has over a dozen androids in its staff. Some of them are waiters, others cook and a couple greet customers as they come in -- sorry, everyone, no booze-carting servers here. Robot Restaurant's owner and founder, Song Yugang, that his peculiar staff members can understand about 40 "everyday sentences," making them smart enough to interact with human customers. Most importantly, he adds, "They can't get sick or ask for vacation. After charging up for two hours they can work for five hours."
Android now lets you search for hotels and restaurants you can actually afford
So far, Android search hasn't been very discriminating when it comes to hotels and restaurants; finding a posh eatery one block away is no use if you can't afford it. Google is about to provide relief to wallets everywhere, though, as it just updated the mobile search app to include filters à la Foursquare or Yelp. Ask for a place to eat or stay and you can narrow the results by price range, cuisine style, rating and hours. The upgraded search only works in the US at the moment, but it should eventually be a boon to anyone who's looking for a cheap bite or a late-night crash pad.
The concept restaurant of the future: iBeacons, motion detection and smartglass service (video)
An invitation to see a "future restaurant" covered in highfalutin tech concepts was shaping up to be a highlight of our week. According to Recruit Advanced Technology Lab's teaser, it was going to encompass smartglasses, augmented reality, gesture interfaces, customer face identification, avatars, seamless wireless payments and more, all hosted at Eggcellent, a Tokyo restaurant that... specializes in egg cuisine. The demonstrations might not have reached the polished levels of the dreamy intro video, but the concept restaurant at least attempted to keep all of its demos grounded in reality. iBeacons through Bluetooth for food orders and payments, iPads that interacted with a conveyor-belt order projection, Wii Remotes that transform normal TVs into interactive ones and a Kinect sensor to upgrade Japan's maid café waitresses into goddesses -- well, at least that's one idea.
Applebee's putting a tablet on every table, hopes to engage grease-covered fingers nationwide
'Who hasn't felt like they've been held hostage waiting for a check to arrive?" That's a question posed by Applebee's president, Mike Archer. Frankly, we're having some trouble imagining that the home of desserts served in shot glasses would have find it difficult keeping customers entertained, but, well, that's the ever-shrinking national attention span for you. Thankfully, your local massive neighborhood grill chain has just the answer: a tablet on every table across the country, following similar plans from restaurants like Chili's. That's nearly 100,000 in all, letting customers pay for the check, order desserts and appetizers and play, say, Fruit Ninja, while waiting for that bacon cheddar cheeseburger to arrive. The tablets won't be replacing wait staff or physical menus, but the company hopes they'll go a ways toward engaging a a younger audience -- assuming anyone can see the seven-inch screens through the layers of onion ring grease. Update: Applebee's has revealed more information about its new technology, and the E la Carte Presto tablets (pictured above) that it's using. They have Intel processors inside, an "all-day" battery, light up card reader and ruggedized design, plus a camera, Bluetooth and NFC for future capabilities. At launch they'll let customers pay at the table, order additional dinner items and drinks or play a few games, with plans to add video streaming, music, more games and social media hooks over the next 18 months.
KFC gets free UK WiFi through The Cloud: get some data with your drumsticks
Hey, it worked for McDonald's, didn't it? KFC would certainly prefer that its British customers hang around for long enough to justify a bucket of chicken rather than a Snack Box, so it's teaming up with The Cloud to offer free WiFi in all of its UK restaurants. The gradual rollout will just ask that visitors face a KFC landing page before they wander over to cat videos and ex-partners' status updates. We're glad to have one more avenue for internet access when we're feeling peckish, although we may question our path in life when we're Instagramming a Boneless Banquet For One.
No Comment: Elements restaurant installs iPads for customers to play with during meals
I'm guessing most folks my age or older grew up in a house with a "no toys at the table policy"... And I'll just leave it at that. Our own Michael Grothaus snapped this pic at Elements in London. Feel free to leave your own thoughts on whether or not this is a good idea. Think back to the last time a group of friends met at a restaurant and everyone whipped out their phones. It never happens, right?
Google announces simplified Zagat ratings, launches new application for Android
Avid Zagat users may or may not tell you that the Google-owned restaurant finder service hasn't exactly been offering the best rating system possible. With the most recent update, however, the hard-working devs from Mountain View are aiming to fix those woes, announcing that it's now "easier than ever" to publish reviews on the platform. The new rating system, as you can see above, will let users in on a more simplified scoring method, with the ability to simply rate as "poor-fair," "good," "very good" or "excellent." Meanwhile, Google also launched a revamped, free-of-charge Zagat app for Android, which brings all the features you love to both handsets and slates. You'll find the fresh application at the Google Play link below.
Corkbin updated, lets you buy wine right from the app
Corkbin is probably my favorite app on the App Store that I don't actually use that much. I've wanted to learn more about wine for a long time. Corkbin, which lets you track and rate the wines you drink, seems like a great way to do that. Unfortunately, whenever I end up at the bar or restaurant, a beer always sounds more appetizing than trying a new wine. But that's my problem, not the app's. Corkbin does a great job of cataloging your wines, and it's about to do even better, with an update that partners with two other sites for cool new features. First off, Corkbin will now allow you to buy wine. They've hooked up with wine.com to send you from the app straight into a mobile shopping cart. That means if you try a new wine and love it, you can buy some for your home right away. There's also a connection to Sincerely.com, which will send a physical postcard straight from the app, so you can send a note or picture to anyone else who might be interested in what you're drinking. There are more features coming soon, such as the ability to rate your friends' wines and get push notifications when someone you're following tries a new vintage. Corkbin is a really impressive app for such a specific purpose. Now it's up to me, I guess, to actually try some new tastes next time I'm out and about.
