Manhattan's Union Square Cafe Will Outfit Managers With Apple Watches to Improve Hospitality

Union Square Hospitality Group and Resy, a restaurant reservation startup, tonight announced at the TechTable Summit that every manager and sommelier at the Union Square Cafe will be outfitted with an Apple Watch to help improve customer service, reports Eater. The Union Square Cafe is set to reopen in late October and is the flagship restaurant of Danny Meyer, founder of Shake Shack.

unionsquarecafe

Photo via Union Square Cafe
The Apple Watches will be outfitted with restaurant "control center" app ResyOS. Floor managers and sommeliers wearing the watches will receive notifications when VIPs enter the restaurant, when new tables are seated, when guests have waited too long to order, when menu items run out and more.

An iPad running ResyOS will act as the command center at Union Square Cafe's host's stand while the Apple Watches will pull the info inputted into the iPad in real-time. The Apple Watch's function will be focused on cutting out steps and increasing response time. For instance, when a guest is finished dining a manager will get a notification, allowing them to ping a server for the check or the guest's coat. Sommeliers will get wine orders sent to their Watch, rather than having to wait for a manager to relay the information to them.

Maureen Cushing, Union Square Hospitality's VP of Technology, tells Eater that ResyOS and the Apple Watches are "another way to respond and listen to our guests." She also notes that the Apple Watch will not replace communication between servers and management, as servers will not be receiving Apple Watches with ResyOS.

This isn't the first time that the food and beverage industry has embraced Apple products to improve hospitality. Many smaller restaurants and food trucks have opted to use iPads or iPhones as POS systems in lieu of more traditional options.

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Top Rated Comments

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lolkthxbai

34 months ago

First world solution. You would never trust a waiter with payments in South Africa, as you can be pretty damn sure the restaurant won't see the money. Card skimming devices are all over the place here, used by waiters. Now you're asking me to pay a third part OS via a device on the waiter's arm? How will I know it's not a fake third party app? Am I missing something here?

Unless I missed something, they Apple Watch won't be used to take payments. It'll be used to supplement the ways the someliers and managers can communicate.

Rating: 4 Votes

maxsix

34 months ago

What's with everyone giving these things away?

Never underestimate how clever Apple is at marketing it's products.

Apple Watch is a somewhat nascent product requiring plenty of internal help to keep it selling. Fortunately Apple's so wealthy they can keep the watch on life support forever.

Rating: 3 Votes

theheadguy

34 months ago

Now that the 7/7+ deliveries are speeding up, we're back to scrambling for news...

Rating: 2 Votes

truthertech

34 months ago

You are misunderstanding how Apple Pay works. It is the customer, not the business who wears their Apple Watch that is tied to the customer's iPhone. The ones worn by employees are for communicating among employees
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It sounds good but feels unnecessary in a well-managed restaurant with happy, motivated staff.

Maybe I'm old but I wouldn't appreciate working in a restaurant and having alerts going off on my wrist like I was a kind of automaton telling me my next task.

You aren't old. You just can't envision how technology can be useful in these types of environments. They aren't telling you your next task; they are updating you and other team members with important information so you don't have to waste time and quiet with constant repetition of info.

Rating: 2 Votes

maxsix

34 months ago

Life support?
It's Samsung that packs a free smartwatch in seemingly every dish washer or smartphone in order to look less bad in market stats.

What's interesting is Apple Devotees insecurities surface during a routine discussion of the product causing fear to make them bash Samsung for relief.

Rating: 2 Votes

djcerla

34 months ago

Life support? Yesterday night I was in a bar, saw many Watches on real people .This thing is reaching critical mass, not "life support"!

The fact that institutions give away Apple Watches doesn't mean they obtained them for free. It's Samsung that packs a free smartwatch in seemingly every dish washer or smartphone in order to look less bad in market stats.

Rating: 2 Votes

Taz Mangus

34 months ago

Said the guy that brought the thought about Apple Watch being able to be kept on life support forever into a "routine discussion" about a potential new market for it.

A lot of your posts remind me of a fisherman. You throw out the bait, and then when someone bites, you reel them right in.

LOL! Touche'. Some people come across like they want an Apple product to fail. FUD rears its ugly head.

Rating: 1 Votes

aristobrat

34 months ago

In other words, ApplePay talks to an unknown app to make payment happen. And that unknown app may or may not belong to the restaurant. Sure, Apple will try to filter out illegitimate apps, but the organisations behind these scams will also have ways to bypass it, guaranteed.

Is that right?

Seems like you'd be using the "PAY WITH RESYPAY" part of the official Resy app, not some unknown app. Screen shot of the (below) from the App Store shows that ApplePay integrates directly into that app.

Not saying it's impossible for someone to scam an app, but that scam app will have to be able to connect to the ResyOS system within the restaurant that you're sitting in and know how to pull down the check for your table. That seems like a pretty tall order for a scam app, IMO.

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What's interesting is Apple Devotees insecurities surface during a routine discussion of the product causing fear to make them bash Samsung for relief.