Technology

The latest news and trends in restaurant technology
Technology

Today's restaurant tech may need some catch-up

Imagine if the course of food trends was reversed and home kitchens suddenly became the source of the best and most interesting culinary ideas. In that alternate reality, restaurants would be the followers, not the innovators, hoping to catch up with customers who were routinely more inventive and advanced.

Technology

How a failing guest feedback program helped Texas Steakhouse improve

What happens when your guest feedback programs insist your customers love you, but your restaurant is empty? That was Terry Smith’s dilemma when he was brought on board as consultant for Texas Steakhouse in 2008.

The 100 or so chain executives attending Chicago researcher Technomic’s 2015 Consumer Insights and Planning Program this January learned how the perplexing consumer is evolving under such influences as a tepid economy and rapid-fire technical advances. Some revelations had pens scratching across notepads in a frenzy, including these.

Attendees of FSTEC 2015 were able to answer some of the questions that have kept operators wringing their hands instead of plotting a tech strategy.

This year’s class of social media standouts found surprising ways to break through on popular platforms, reinvent their voice on established ones and gain footing in the “brand”-new worlds of Snapchat, Instagram and more.

A handful of restaurant operators are tricking out their apps by teaming up.

The marketing play is the latest in the chain’s cinema verite-style of viral videos.

Good intentions don't always yield anything approximating good results. And reason doesn't stand a chance against a juicy though absolutely crazy rumor, as Starbucks can attest.

Jeffrey Gates gets a $12,000 monthly bill from OpenTable for accepting online reservations for the seven Boston-area restaurants in the Aquitaine Group.

Chef Robert Irvine is better known for his performances before a stove or TV camera than for what he does at a computer keyboard. But the celebrity chef will reveal his ease at the digital screen when he delivers a keynote address at the upcoming FSTEC NexGen conference on paperless restaurant and bar management.

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