Last month, we hosted our first ever Pre Shift on Tour event, a spinoff of our “High Touch” series, in which we explored how restaurant owners and operators are reshaping hospitality. Many of those conversations centered around restaurant tech. To extend the discussion in real life, we brought together a panel of New York pros—Ryan Hardy, chef-owner of Legacy Records, Charlie Bird, and Pasquale Jones; Hillary Sterling, chef-partner of Ci Siamo; Chris Lemperle, bar director of Crane Club; and moderator Jeff Katz, partner and GM of Crane Club—to discuss how technology is changing the way they operate their spaces, and how guests experience them. Here, we share four key takeaways from the conversation.
—The editors of Eater and Punch |
From left: Jeff Katz, Ryan Hardy, Chris Lemperle, and Hillary Sterling. (Credit: Steven Eloiseau) |
As much as tech has advanced, it still lacks nuance.
Jeffrey Katz: What gets really tricky is, our restaurants get lumped in with all the other kinds of restaurants out there: extra fancy, super casual counter service. We’re just restaurants to most platforms. There’s no way that we both have the same needs as it relates to managing that revenue and the guests that walk through the door. One of my dreams is figuring out how to create something that is easier to use. The more complicated [platforms] get, the more steps, the, like, higher-level Ph.D. you need to be able to use the tool. So it’s a real balance between, how do we make this thing easy enough for my host who has very little experience, but also [make it] powerful enough to work.
Chris Lemperle: Most people dine out as a group. How can we capture all that information when your reservation might not be under your name? You’re dining with other people, so how can we track everybody that’s at that table to make sure that we’re acknowledging those repeat guests? One thing that I don’t love about technology is it sometimes is like you have horse blinders on. You’re looking at the VIP chip, the handle with care, the recovery table, the big spender, the reviewer—whatever it might be that, like, it’s easy to forget about the people that might not have all the tags, the bells and whistles attached to their profile. And those guests are just as important.
Hillary Sterling: The data that I really want to know is, how did that person walk in the door? You’re from Tennessee, Alabama, the Midwest and you’re coming to New York City, and you found yourself in this neighborhood. Why? Is there a questionnaire they fill out right before they get there? Would love to know how they got through our doors and how we get their friends to come back next time they visit New York.
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Punch founder and general manager Talia Baiocchi introduces the panel. (Credit: Steven Eloiseau) |
There is still a desire to anticipate human needs.
Ryan Hardy: As much as tech plays such a huge role in all the things that we do, the hospitality industry at its core is people serving people. It’s about human connections. If not, people would just stay home and order takeout. We want to use technology as a tool, but I think the idea of “high-touch” is exactly that—touch. I’m looking at Lauren in the corner here, and she saw me the other day. I was at Lodi with my son and it was one of those, like, 4-degree days outside. And I walked in—I think we got him a hot chocolate and I had a coffee—and Lauren walked over. I told her we’re gonna stand in line at FAO Schwarz and she said, “You’re gonna need these,” and she pulled out a pair of hand warmers. I don’t even know where you pulled those out from, and it was great. That’s what we’re talking about: How do you integrate technology with what people actually need?
HS: I definitely took my regulars with me when I left Vic’s to come to Ci Siamo. I printed out my sheets so the new team knew that this guest liked a Grey Goose Martini because they spent seven years drinking them. I’m not going to fail them when we get to the next thing. You’re creating that next round of regulars in a different location. And our staff is going out there every day looking for dots to connect. That’s their job. They’re going out there to find why people are here, what brought them here, why did they come back? And then they gather all that data and we put it back in the system. It’s still by hand, really old school. I’m sure every maître d’ hates this system to this day, but every guest that we touch gets recorded, and an email gets sent to us every day. If I’m not there, I know that so-and-so was in and we sent them a gnocco. Cool, I won’t send them that next time. But that’s not technology, essentially—that’s our human interaction that we need so dearly.
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Technology has revealed harsh realities when it comes to staffing. JK: We all want high-touch hospitality, but we don’t have high-touch payroll. That’s the tricky balance. Are there places in your operations where you’ve decided to make a change? Where you no longer employ a human because of tech? We’ve, unfortunately, all been faced with those decisions.
HS: When you were talking about the book, it’s all an algorithm and SevenRooms moves things around, implying that the maître d’ will eventually not be there anymore. But isn’t that such an important part? They’re the person that controls your world, and the person that actually takes the book seriously and remembers people’s faces. We had the pleasure of opening Ci Siamo with a maître d’ that worked at Becco and Babbo and Otto, and he wouldn’t leave that front door until Pete Wells finished his rounds. He studied. Could he do the book as well as some of the newer people? No. But he had a different presence that is sometimes lacking in that role. You somehow have to do both.
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JK: We talk about maître d’s and we talk about how that role is a dying breed. I’ve come across a similar problem when it comes to sommeliers. But those two positions actually generate a ton of money. Like, they basically are the flow of cash, yet those two positions are ones that we all quickly start to think about replacing, with either an iPad that has a description of a wine, or a host at the door who is not getting paid all that much to run a 15-seat dining room. I don’t know how to turn that around, but I think a lot of restaurant operators have those two roles with a bull’s-eye on them.
RH: I hate to say this because I know there are probably some in the crowd, but pastry chefs have been a real challenge over the years. When we opened Pasquale Jones, we started doing the math at Charlie Bird pretty fast, calculating revenue per square foot to understand where and when people spend their money. What we noticed at Charlie Bird was [that] people would take their time and order one dessert for four people. Like, I just gave you the table for an extra half-hour, 40 minutes, and you spent four bucks a person. You try to sell them a dessert wine, but they’re still finishing a bottle. It became this thing, like, wow, this is a math problem and we’ve got to solve that. Pastry and coffee and wine are all critical parts of the meal. How do we make sure we don’t leave those things by the roadside in these cuts?
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Let tech do the admin so hospitality can be more flexible. CL: If there was a way to avoid a human Googling every single client and compiling all the information and typing and consolidating all of those notes in order to really allow people on the floor and in the kitchen. Anything to avoid being behind a computer for hours and hours to prepare for the next day’s service.
JK: I would love to be able, at the end of someone’s meal, to have real analytics as to what happened on that table. What time did the order get taken at the table, what time did it get into the computer? What time did the first dish hit the table? What time did we clear that dish? And I would love some AI tool to give me an analysis of that meal after, and then take every other meal that’s happening and give me something back that I can use to figure out where I can improve or what could get better.
HS: It would be great to understand how our turn times are determined by what’s happening outside of the restaurant. Let’s say Billy Joel is at [Madison Square] Garden or the Rangers play at 7—how do all those things come together to affect our turn times? If technology could help us match everything that’s happening outside and inside the restaurant, I think we could keep the maître d’, keep the somm. Like, guests could let us know they only have a babysitter for two hours and that could be a part of their note. So even as guests, we could also communicate better and let the algorithms figure themselves out; we’d be able to feed more people, touch more people, and be more present.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. |
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Imagine greeting every guest by name, knowing their favorite table, and serving their go-to drink before they ask. SevenRooms CRM, marketing & operations platform gives you the tech and data to personalize every experience, increase sales, and deliver unforgettable hospitality that keeps guests coming back. |
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