At least one local restaurateur is going all-in on tech, even as many Canadian restaurant operators remain cautious about technology adoption.
According to a survey of 234 eateries about tech adoption featured in Restaurants Canada’s third-quarter report, 51 per cent of respondents said high upfront costs kept them from investing in tech, 43 per cent said they were uncertain about the return on investment, and 35 per cent said their business was too uncertain to make long-term investments.
But in Ottawa, Amir Rahim, co-owner of Grounded Kitchen and Coffee Bar on Carling Avenue, is not shying away from using tech to keep his restaurant in a constant state of evolution.
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In fact, when Rahim moved his restaurant from its downtown location to Carling Avenue in 2023, he took the opportunity to push the envelope on what technology could do for his business.
In a bid to increase server productivity, Grounded introduced a new way for customers to order their food: through a QR code. Customers scan the code to order their food on a web-based ordering platform, which was developed in partnership with Ottawa-based App8.
For takeout, Rahim said customers want to spend as little time as possible in the restaurant. To help with that, he launched takeout lockers.
“You don’t have to download another app. It’s all web-based. You go online, order your food, pay for it. When your food is ready, you get a text message with a QR code. Come into the restaurant, scan your QR code and the door swings open and you take your food,” he said, adding that the lockers are similar to those at an Amazon package pick-up centre.
In introducing all this technology, Rahim said he’s been able to increase productivity by 10 per cent since 2023. “Instead of having three servers on the floors during a busy period, I can have two because they aren’t doing some monotonous, useless task. So we’re saving a lot of time.”
He said he views the question of productivity as service versus hospitality.
“Service is exactly what you can imagine. ‘Bring me this, clean my table’ sort of thing. Hospitality is ‘I know what you want. Why don’t you try this? I remember your name. How was your drive here?’ It’s an experience where you’re making people feel at home,” Rahim said.
One concern with adoption of technology in restaurants, Rahim added, is that it reduces servers’ chances to get a tip.
“The bottom line is that we are a tipping culture in Canada and it’s not going away. I actually attempted, when we opened, to have a tipless environment. Everything (was) included in the price … Nine-and-a-half times out of 10, someone would ask where they could tip,” Rahim said. “I think if we’re offering great food, great service, great ambiance, people will tip.”
While he understands restaurant operators’ concerns over high upfront costs, Rahim argues that it’s worth budgeting for.
“The biggest challenge is subscriptions. There is a subscription (fee) for everything now, but you’ve got to find a way to include that in your overhead. That’s where I think, fiscally, it’s important to be responsible and recognize if I’m going to spend x amount of dollars more per month (on tech), how much more productive will I be? How important is it to me? Is it worth it?”
While Rahim said many of his systems are integrated, he would like to see a unified “hub” where he could pay for and control everything from a single source.
“(There are) too many integrations. It’s a quilt and it just doesn’t have the strength and power behind it that can be managed from one central hub … We want an all-in-one system that we can manage ourselves and still be able to embrace technology and everything that comes with it. But it’s a waiting game,” he said.
As a whole, Rahim said he feels the restaurant industry is keeping up with technology.
“I do think we’re a bit on the slow side, but there are a lot of things that have changed in our industry (when it comes to) tech over the past 30 years. Things that may have made things easier, sometimes a little bit more expensive, but if you don’t get on board, you’re slipping back.
“It’s really important to keep an open mind and embrace things that are put in front of us, rather than have contempt before investigation.”
He’d like to see more tech companies look at ways to help the restaurant industry evolve.
“If there are more (tech) companies out there that can sit down with (restaurant) operators and say, ‘You might not want to admit it, but tech is taking over and it’ll make your life easier, not harder. What can we do (to help)?’, then I think we will see a landslide of change,” he said.
