Contactless dining kit serves re-opening restaurants

A restaurant tech company is offering a free social distancing kit, which includes QR codes for viewing menus and placing orders

Spotted: As restaurants around the world prepare to cautiously open up again, many are wondering how best to organise their business in order to allow for social distancing. American restaurant tech company Presto is hoping to make this process easier by providing a contactless dining kit free to restaurants that request it.

The Presto kit provides QR code stickers and tent cards that allow diners to view the menu and place their order using their phones. For diners who don’t have their phone, or don’t want to use it, orders can also be displayed and placed using a tablet, which is included in the kit. Orders can be sent directly to the restaurant’s own point of sale system, eliminating the need for staff to enter them into the POS systems. 

Diners can add items at any time, again, using the tablet or their phones. When guests are ready to leave, they can pay the check securely using their own phone or the tablet. The kit includes a tablet, 60 display placards, 60 QR code stickers, detailed instructions to set up an online account and a secure web portal with a user-friendly interface for managing menus and other settings. The company claims that it takes less than an hour to set up the kit.

Presto is also keeping track of state and local regulations to make sure that restaurants have the information they need to comply with any new social distancing rules.

Realising that the new normal is likely to look very different from what we are used to, a number of companies are offering tools to help businesses reopen safely. Springwise has recently covered a number of these innovations, including a debit card that allows carers to safely shop for others and a lab in the Cloud that allows scientists to work remotely.

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