Plainview Diner goes hi-tech
A touch-screen table display at the Plainview Diner allows you to summon your server and/or request your check in August 2014. Credit: Newsday / Joan Reminick
It was the prospect of airy-light pancakes that drew me, one recent morning, to the Plainview Diner on Old Country Road. My breakfast turned out to be as anticipated.
What was unexpected, though, was the computer screen I found at my booth. It allowed me to instantly summon my waiter — and my check — at the touch of a fingertip.
I later found out that only 10 booths in the diner have this equipment. The software was installed in June, said Nico Papavasilopoulos, who is a partner both at the diner and also at Diner Vision, the start-up company putting out the technology.
The way it works, said Papavasilopoulos, is that when someone summons a server or asks for the check, monitors installed at the front of the restaurant flash, make noise and indicate both the table number and the nature of the customer request.
Papavasilopoulos added that the software features games that diners can play at the table and is capable of live-streaming YouTube videos and of taking (and emailing) “selfies” of everyone at the table.
Manager Dean Leunas said the monitors should soon be installed at every booth and table in the diner. Such technology could prove a boon anyone who has spent what feels like an eternity trying to catch a server’s eye.
Plainview Diner is at 1094 Old Country Rd, Plainview, 516-821-0190, plainviewdiner.com
