76 JULY 2020
TechnicallyFraught
Tech writer Kristen Hawley imagines a better
relationship between restaurants and technology.WE ARE GOING TO SEE a big loss
of what I call the ‘human factor’ of
hospitality. Staff having to wear
masks and gloves during service
really takes away from delivering
that feeling of warmth and being
taken care of to the guests. How
do you know if someone is smiling
from behind a mask? How do you
convey feelings? We are going tohave to reimagine everything.”
—Markus Carter, ma”tre dÕ at Comedor,
AustinI’VE BEEN ENCOURAGED BY and
am hoping to see a further reduc-
tion of greed and exploitation, a
return to the cultivation of experi-
ence and feeling over trends andaesthetics, and an increased
emphasis on organizational
horizontality and transparency.”
—Brady Williams, executive chef at
Canlis, SeattlePEOPLE CRAVE CONNECTION and
will want it more than ever after the
pandemic ends. I see a strong pushEVEN BEFORE SHUTDOWN ORDERS, technology companies had
profoundly changed the way restaurants operate. In recent years,
we’ve seen centralized commissary-style ghost kitchens that rely
on apps for customers and a new crop of fast-casual businesses
that promote mobile ordering for in-store pickup. In the early days
of the coronavirus pandemic, it looked like technology would be
the hospitality industry’s savior: Overnight, online ordering and
delivery became a lifeline after dining rooms shut down and social
networks maintained connections with customers.
Delivery companies in particular became virtual front doors
to restaurants. In March, Grubhub
reported a record number of launches
on the platform. Unlike reservation
tech companies OpenTable and Resy,
which gave restaurants a break on
fees, Grubhub continued to charge
commissions of up to 30% per order.
Unsurprisingly, chefs are speaking
out against these commissions and
encouraging guests to order food
directly from the source. Some local
governments banned excessive fees.
Still, Grubhub’s current success
exposes our true priorities: Our desire
for convenience outranks restaurants’
bottom lines. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the
pandemic, it’s that new ideas can be just as convenient, without
coming at the expense of a restaurant’s profit margin. ChowNow
charges restaurants a flat fee for online ordering and can facilitate
delivery. Point-of-sale system Toast, website provider BentoBox,
and customer relationship management system SevenRooms can
also be configured for online ordering. These players work largely
behind the scenes, and they’re gaining in popularity.
Technology alone won’t rebuild restaurants in the future, but
new and thoughtful technology can make them stronger. As we
rethink business models now, trading the old status quo for an
unknown future, restaurants will need to make careful decisions
about the tech they use—and more importantly, the tech they don’t.Kristen Hawley writes about the intersection of restaurants and technology
in a weekly newsletter called Expedite.ON THE WEEKEND OF MARCH 15, almost overnight, restaurants across
the country closed their doors—including my own, west~bourne,
in New York City. Behind the pain of shuttering, anxiety brewed
for our teams. As of press time, more than 8 million hospitality
workers have been laid off or furloughed. We represent the lion’s
share of the staggering unemployment figures, and that’s not
including millions who are unaccounted for in those stats.
As we were gutted, word spread that exclusively large food
chains were consulted formally for the Coronavirus Aid, Relief,
and Economic Security (CARES) Act as it was being drafted. It was
infuriating: Two-thirds of restaurants
are independently owned, but we
were not offered a seat at the table.
We’ve been underestimated for as
long as I can recall, considered passion
projects. But we’re the backbone of
an industry that represents 4% of our
GDP and is the second-largest private
employer in the U.S. We needed to act.
Wednesday, March 18, I received a
call from Tom Colicchio: Would I help
launch the Independent Restaurant
Coalition (IRC)? It was a rally to arms,
and although independent restaurants
have generally been solo operators,
the crisis brought us together in ways both unprecedented and
profound. Early on, the IRC worked on impacting the CARES Act
before it was signed into law. We called on Congress to establish
an independent restaurant stabilization fund of $120 billion and
crafted a restructuring plan that would let restaurants reopen while
rehiring as many people as possible. None of this would have been
possible were we acting alone. Our coalition today includes more
than 55,000 members. We represent a beautiful cross-section of our
country; we seek to be the voice for millions who cannot speak up.
What will we look like on the other side? We have built organizing
power. Next, we must look ahead to a time when our newfound
unification can help us forge a more equitable industry that reflects
what restaurants truly are: the heart of the nation.Camilla Marcus is the chef-owner of west~bourne in NYC, as well as one of
the founders of the Independent Restaurant Coalition.1,000 ChefsGo toWashington
For the first time in our country’s history, independent
restaurants came together as a political force.