Page 109 - Southern Oregon Magazine Summer 2019

staff an extra couple of dollars an hour. You leave the restaurant pleased with your experience,
satisfied that your complete lack of service was the perfect service. COME SEE WHY WE HAVE BEEN
VOTED THE BEST
WELCOME TO EATING OUT IN 2040. 5 YEARS RUNNING!

As a restaurant owner, I often think about the evolution of dining. Every industry changes with OPEN 11 AM TUES-SAT
technology and social pressures, and hospitality is no different. Anyone who takes their industry LUNCH & DINNER
seriously should spend time thinking about how things might change, and what the future may (must be over 21 at all times)
hold. Sometimes it’s an interesting adventure to dust off the crystal ball and try to peer inside.

There are a few obvious things to recognize about the scenario I created. There are many fewer
people working in this future restaurant. There is no host or hostess when you enter. That job
has been replaced by a streamlined seating program. You may even be able to list preferences
upon check-in, like a window seat, or a booth. It’s likely that you even used another app or went
online to make your reservation.

There are no servers, at least not as we would understand them today. Nobody takes your order,
and no one is needed to explain anything to you because it’s all right there on your tablet/ 210 SW 6th Street
menu. A few years further out, and you might be doing all of this on an interactive tabletop. Downtown on 6th between G & H
Someone still has to bring you the food, and clear the table, but they probably won’t be very Grants Pass, OR 97526 | 541 295-3094
chatty. If something wasn’t as you ordered, you would just fix it on the tablet and a new one Reservations for Parties of 8 or More Only
would arrive.

As an interesting aside, there are restaurants in Asia experimenting with conveyor belt delivery
service to tables, and there will certainly be other places working on solving the server “prob- www.TheTwistedCorkGrantsPass.com
lem” as well. These places begin to start feeling like the Automats of the early 20th Century.
Southern Oregon’s
Presumably there’s still a kitchen staff similar to our expectations, but depending on the restau- Premier Bistro
rant, much of what you eat may well be set up off site at a commissary kitchen, and delivered
each day to the restaurant. It is generally safe, however, to assume there will always be someone & Wine Bar
there to cook your food.

For the foreseeable future, bartenders will still be around to make your drinks. This area may
definitely experience an automation revolution, although how soon is anyone’s guess. As a busi-
ness owner, you dream of the bartender who always makes every drink exactly the same every
time with no waste. Someone will develop it.

The conspicuous lack of front-of-the-house employees is an important aspect of this future
restaurant. Bar none, the most difficult costs for the hospitality industry to manage and forecast
are employee costs. How many people will show up to eat tonight? How many people do I need
to serve them? How large of a section can each person handle? When do I send people home?
What if Wednesday is twice as busy as Friday? How can I possibly know these things when
scheduling two weeks out?

Whether or not we like it, the only way to increase profits in a business once maximum effi-
ciency has been reached is to eliminate the human component. In short, can a machine do a job
better and less expensively than a human? If the answer to that question is yes, that human job
is ultimately doomed. Outstanding Local
Wine Selections
Here’s an example: the glass washer behind a bar. If you had a busy restaurant or bar 50 years
ago, you probably would have employed a second person to wash glasses by hand, or had a sec-
ond bartender staffed so they could split the duties. If you’re busy enough to require a bar back
in your business, imagine that you now need two of them. For argument’s sake, let’s say that you
only have to employ that extra person three nights a week, four hours a night. That’s 12 hours
a week at minimum wage (Oregon $11.25) for a total of $135 per week—$7,020 per year.
Award Winning Chef

summer 2019 | www.southernoregonmagazine.com 107