Restaurant mogul Danny Meyer wants to enable diners to “get up and go” rather than wait for the check at one of his acclaimed eateries — and he’s turning to technology to make it happen.
The founder of Shake Shack and Union Square Hospitality Group — owner of Manhattan’s posh Union Square Cafe and Gramercy Tavern — is throwing his support behind payment technology that’s similar to ride-sharing apps.
“We should be able to do that” — allowing customers to pay without having to wait for a bill from a server — and “leave whenever you feel like it,” Meyer disclosed at a recent Mansueto Ventures event on artificial intelligence.
Meyer said he is also eyeing technology that allows the coat check staff to get “your coat ready as you finish your meal.”
The restaurant group’s chief technology officer, Kelly MacPherson, has been working on the project and “I think [USHG] is close to” unveiling the proprietary technology, Meyer added.
A spokesperson for USHG, which also owns Blue Smoke, The Modern and mini chain Daily Provisions, declined to comment further.
During the pandemic, restaurants accelerated their use of technology including QR codes to allow customers to order and pay their bills as diners wanted less interaction with staff, according to industry experts.
But many eateries that used QR codes in 2020 and 2021 have since ditched them because the technology is “clunky,” said Ben Leventhal, co-founder and former CEO of Resy, a restaurant reservation app.
“’Get up and go’ is not really an option in fine dining restaurants in 2022 and 2023,” Leventhal, who also founded Eater.com, told The Post.
Eric Seymour, vice president of Australian startup me&u — whose QR-code-based order and payment app has signed up some 200 restaurants in the US including The Dead Rabbit in lower Manhattan — predicts his company’s technology won’t “find it’s way into the full service world.”
“If I’m going to Morton’s I don’t want to scan a QR code,” Seymour said. “It’s something I expect at Chilis, but not a steak house.”
Nevertheless, restaurateurs may seek other creative ways to make “get up and go” happen, according to Leventhal.
“Anyone who has spent time in the hospitality industry over the past 20 years has talked about get-up-and-go technology,” Leventhal said. “Danny and I discussed this many times when he was an investor in Resy.”
Resy, which allows diners to pay their tab with a QR code as well, was acquired by American Express in 2019.
Leventhal, who heads up hospitality technology firm Blackbird Labs today, is also developing a new payment system, he said.
“There will be app-based solutions that don’t require a QR code,” he said. “’Get up and go’ is really a modern version of the old-school house account.”
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