E La Carte Raises Millions To Spread Tablet Menus To Restaurants

So far, restaurants have mostly used tablets for their novelty. Sommeliers saunter around dining rooms with iPads under their arms, offering to show oenophiles glamour shots of vineyards producing especially expensive wines. One restaurant in Manhattan's West Village, Dos Santos, armed all its waiters with iPads instead of scratch pads to facilitate order-taking.

But now, at least one tech company is now banking on the idea that the trend will go from niche aesthetic decision to mass profit-driver. E La Carte, which was founded in Cambridge, MA but has since moved to Silicon Valley, has been touting its tablet-based ordering system for the past few months. Their system eschews iPads in favor of a something called a "Presto," which is custom designed to survive the wear and tear of restaurant life. Customers at restaurants equipped with E La Carte tablets order and pay for their own food using the touch screen at their tables.

Around 100 restaurants in Boston and the Bay Area are already customers. E La Carte claims that its system increases the amount each table orders and also speeds up table turnover, without increasing technology cost appreciably. The company charges relatively low rates for the use of the tablets -- $200-700, depending on the number of tables. This has led some to be dubious about the company's revenue growth prospects. But that hasn't deterred investors from putting some dollars into the company. E La Carte just announced that Groupon's co-founders just invested $4 million in the company. By the standards of Silicon Valley, it's no huge haul -- but it might be enough to propel tablet menus into the mainstream.

Comments

[Klabb]

06:05 PM on 09/01/2011

I’ve been waiting for something like this – one thing I really hate is waiting for the check when I am ready to leave a restaurant!

Perhaps they could build in a pager system – akin to the flight attendant button on airplanes – so you can get drinks etc faster..?

[Dennis Engish]

04:43 PM on 08/31/2011

Now tell me? If American Ave. Educated can't Keep up with our Technoloy?
What Chance do all those 15+ Million Illegals Have?
We already have some 40 Million Americans On Food Stamps
With all this New Technology? We can Double it in the next 5 yrs!
R they going to make those Tablets In Spanish? And Have to Press # 1 for English...?

We better Get used to not just 5% Ave. Unemployment, but Double it forever!

[Klabb]

06:17 PM on 09/01/2011

Well, the way I understand it is that there will be tablets on the table that communicate with the waiter’s tablet. That way you could communicate with the waiter irrespective of language; say an illegal immigrant from e.g. Germany could order food from a legal Spanish speaker, say from Puerto Rico, and the two would understand each other (close) to perfectly.

I don’t think people would lose jobs over this as the wait staff would still be needed, only with this system they would just be more efficient – and the software industry would in most likelihood create quite a few new jobs. Everybody wins!!!

[Dennis Engish]

04:39 PM on 08/31/2011

And This my Fellow UnEmployed is Why you are Still UnEmployed..
Technology and Geeks have Taken your Jobs away and replaced them with Machines..
And this is the Main Reason for massive layoffs in the 1st place.. as soon as Companies could do it, they did..and they have No intentions of Rehring the Same Amount of people they Fired/Laid off..

Why should they?
Just ask the Auto Makers, they have only Rehired some 40% of ther Workers and added More ROBOTS and Computers instead..

SKYNET is Next..
And for Criminals? HIgh Pitched Sound Direction Units for you people.. Won't Need to Shot Most of you anymore.. Already being tested On Ships off Somolia against the Pirates.. and It's working just Great! Can't wait for a Pocket Size Unit Next..Will Replace the Tazer..

[Laura Walton]

12:03 PM on 08/31/2011

I enjoy talking to the server. Another of lifes little pleasures sent down the toilet by the techno elites.