Will service styles replace food as focal point?Will service styles replace food as focal point?

Nancy Kruse, president, The Kruse Company

Kruse Company president Nancy Kruse looks at new service models.

Typically, Bret, you and I have a monthly conversation on a food- or beverage-related subject. Last month we broke that mold with our consideration of tipping and its possible elimination from the restaurant landscape, and if it’s okay with you, I’d like to continue in a related vein. I’ve been watching the rapid evolution of alternative service styles, and I’d love to get your take on what it all means.

There was a time not too long ago when service systems were few in number and easy to understand. In the old order that prevailed through the late 20th century, there were quick service and full service with its counter-service variant, and the fading but still regionally viable cafeteria approach. The advent of fast-casual chains, with their hybrid service methods that often combined all these elements, upended convention and opened the door to a whole new world of patron interface. At this moment, operators of all types and in all segments are taking part in a dizzying round of experimentation.

On the quick-service side, the earth shifted slightly on its axis with the revelation that McDonald’s is testing modified table service borrowed from the fast-casual playbook. Chick-fil-A, no stranger to service enhancements, has jumped outside the box with a new “upstream ordering” model introduced in New York City. It facilitates the process by taking the customers’ orders while they wait in line, then directing them to specific, color-coded cash registers. This sounds as though it owes a debt to high-volume, non-commercial operators, who’ve made an art form out of staging and queuing in order to handle large crowds with maximum efficiency.

Kruse outlines the evolution of service styles

In the full-service segment, dining rooms are turning cartwheels. Literally. You’ve written about the dramatic uptick in dim sum cart-style service that has popped up in trendy places like The Church Key in West Hollywood, Calif. Here handcarts laden with food are trundled through the dining room, and guests pick and choose whatever suits their fancy. From the beverage perspective, hipsters have rediscovered the bar cart at hot spots like the Viceroy New York Hotel, where a “cartender” rolls an alcohol-laden welcome wagon through the lobby. Appropriately enough, Bourbon Steak in Washington, D.C., has a bourbon trolley, and imbibers at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Las Vegas can enjoy a two-fer from both a cocktail cart and a tea trolley.

On the subject of golden oldies, continuing reports of the demise of the cafeteria remain a bit premature. Lemonade, based in Los Angeles, does very well with the venerable system; chef-coated servers stand behind the line, dishing up fresh, seasonal items that are the concept’s calling card. In a true blast from the past, Eatsa has burst on the San Francisco dining scene. An NRN Breakout Brand, it’s a digitally driven take on an old-school automat, where diners still open little glass doors to retrieve their food. Self-service beverage taps are breaking out all over, too, dispensing coffee, tea and even wine, as at Atlanta’s Novo Cucina.

Kruse and Thorn discuss Eatsa, the high-tech automat in San Francisco

And there’s lots more innovation, like the dinner-party seating embraced by pop-up restaurants around the country and formalized at super-hot Lazy Bear in San Francisco, or the unexpected tack at newly opened Petit Crenn, also in San Francisco, where cooks and chefs do the serving, moving through the dining room in distinctive blue aprons.

Technology has led to a brave new world of customer service, like the order-entry kiosks and smart-phone apps used by many limited-service chains and the table-top ordering screens appearing at casual- dining establishments. In a real departure, conventional reservations at Alinea and Next in Chicago have been replaced by nonrefundable tickets that are purchased in advance online and, harking back to last month’s topic, are all inclusive — no tipping is allowed. This approach is receiving some play at other high-end restaurants around the country.

So what’s happening here, Bret? While I believe that the basic service models will continue to dominate, it does seem that there’s a tremendous amount of experimentation in the service space. Could we be entering an era in which food is upstaged by service bells and whistles? Put another way, do you think service will replace food as a focal point of operator innovation? 

Service styles have changed, but eating habits haven't

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Bret Thorn, senior food editor, Nation's Restaurant News

NRN senior food editor Bret Thorn responds to Nancy Kruse’s question on the future of service models.

That’s an interesting question, Nancy, and my first thought is: No, silly. We’re in a golden age of food, with more skilled chefs and cooks making more great dishes across the country for customers who are more interested in food than ever. Service styles might be evolving, but it’s still all about the food.

Yet now that you mention it, there is a certain sameness to the food we’re eating these days.

Most of the fastest growing chain restaurant concepts are hardly revolutionary. Burger chains continue to proliferate. Another fast-casual pizza chain seems to be launching every ten minutes. We’re eating chicken fingers and wings, drinking smoothies and chomping on burritos (though a bit less so than last year, mostly due to the food poisoning woes of Chipotle customers, although Qdoba’s sales are down, too).

We also eat salad sometimes.

Sure, all of it’s customizable, but it’s still burgers and pizza and burritos. And other sandwiches, too, mostly with chicken in them.

Thorn and Kruse discuss whether service innovation is outpacing food innovation

Meanwhile people are squirting Sriracha sauce on just about everything, and spreading hummus on just about everything else, or Greek yogurt. If there’s an “ancient grain” in something it’s quinoa. If there’s a leafy green, it’s kale. In the fall, every coffee shop has a pumpkin spice latte.

Independent restaurants are using local ingredients to serve with fried chicken — quite possibly Nashville-style hot chicken — or avocado toast. Meanwhile, anything original that a chef does will be shared on social media the minute it lands on a dining room table for the first time, free for everyone to copy.

I’m exaggerating, of course. And I’ve neglected to mention the proliferation of cuisines from around the world showing up in restaurant dining rooms from coast to coast.

But still, chain restaurants are increasingly leaving menu choices in the hands of their customers in response to demands for customization. And independent restaurateurs remain focused on local and seasonal products, leaving menu choices, to a certain extent, in the hands of Mother Nature.

That’s actually a good thing. Sourcing local ingredients is a great way to serve delicious food with an appealing back story and, ideally, a low carbon footprint. It means regional cuisine in the United States will actually become more distinctive from one place to the next. Local businesses should thrive.

But if the food in each community is going to be the same, or similar, in most restaurants, then the restaurateurs have to be creative operationally. Of course, first and foremost the food has to be consistent and safe to eat, and that’s certainly no easy task, but as a point of distinction now they have to provide inviting ambience and an engaging service style.

Thorn discusses service innovations he enjoys

It seems like we’re still trying to figure out what exactly that means — and I’m sure it means different things to different people, or even different things to the same people on different occasions. They might still want to be pampered on a special occasion in a fine-dining restaurant, but at 4pm when they’re in a hurry and have a craving for something sweet, a Sprinkles Cupcakes ATM might be just what they’re looking for.

As you point out, much of this diversification has to do with technology and how we figure out how to interact with it. Mobile apps let people order easily in advance and pick up their food when they want it. Electronic kiosks give customers the ability not to speak with anyone if they don’t want to. Of course, restaurants are still working out the kinks. Panera Bread is working on spreading ordering kiosks throughout its system but, at least initially, labor costs are going up as customers need to be trained on the kiosks (and also because Panera’s experimenting with delivering food to people’s tables).

But other service changes aren’t really technology-dependent. Eatsa’s getting attention for being high-tech, which it is, but as you point out, automats are hardly anything new. And although the digital revolution has made it easier for restaurants like Alinea and Lazy Bear to sell non-refundable tickets, I think the real driving force is the fact that those restaurants are so popular that they can make such demands on their customers. And that speaks to the growing fashionableness of restaurants.

But it also speaks to a broader societal shift as we explore the possibilities of new service models in other arenas, such as Uber and Airbnb. It stands to reason that we’d see them in restaurants, too.

Thorn steals a term from Kruse and she calls him on it

Nancy Kruse, president of the Kruse Company, is a menu trends analyst based in Atlanta and a regular contributor to Nation’s Restaurant News. E-mail her at [email protected].

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]
Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary