TECH: 5 Fun Digital Activities Guests Want at Restaurants & Bars
A great way for restaurants & bars to stand out from the crowd is utilizing digital technology to entertain guests. Things like digital photo booths, electronic darts, pool & foosball, and interactive tabletop light shows can make for a memorable occasion.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Trump's Turnover
Turnover in presidential advisor teams is inevitable, and reshuffling is often needed to assemble a functioning executive. However, in President Trump's team there has been more movement than was the case during previous presidents' first years. Kathryn Dunn Tenpas has tracked these changes for the Brookings Institute in what she calls the presidential “A Teams,” which on average consist of 60 people in decisive positions. Here’s how Trump stacks up.
RIP Kuvée
Kuvée, “the world’s first smart wine bottle” ceased operations last week. The Kuvée also fancied itself the “Keurig of wine” and was basically a $178 WiFi-enabled touchscreen bottle sleeve that kept wine fresh to up to 60 days. Sales started off hot but quickly petered out when people realized they didn’t need two months to kill off a bottle of wine. We don’t want to speak ill of the dead, yet…
ESPN to F1 Fans: Our B
ESPN had a bit of a rough debut with their F1 coverage over the weekend. Incorrect advertising, technical difficulties, and broadcasters being cut-off were the highlights of the event. Honestly, cutting broadcasters off is actually probably plus, not a minus. Anyways, it was a rough go for ESPN and they’re apologizing to F1 fans.
NO SKIMMING OFF OF THE TOP
Why it matters to you: Restaurants cannot skim off of the top when it comes to tips.
Few actually noticed but Congress just banned restaurants from skimming their employees’ tips. When the Department of Labor first introduced their new tip pooling policy, it was met with outrage (for good reason) because it made it so anyone who makes minimum wage ($7.25/hour) was subject to having their tips potentially stolen by their workplace and divvied up. These restaurants could’ve kept the tips for themselves. Under this new bill, however, that won’t be the case. The new spending bill that president Trump signed into law on Friday included a section that made it clear that employers may not keep any portion of tips that diners leave for workers.
Labor advocates at the National Employment Law Project originally said that pooling tips was a way to create wage-equality as the tips were distributed evenly, creating an even playing field. We believe that there is zero chance these people have ever worked in the industry, and thus are clueless. Everyone in the industry knows that, tip wise, you earn what you earn; having someone step in and divvy tips just incentivizes people to be lazy. So good on Congress for making sure that tips are staying where they should. For once, good job, government.
FOOD FOR OUR LIVES
Why it matters to you: DC area restaurants were giving protestors free meals to show support.
March for Our Lives is a massive cultural campaign by the young Gen Z generation. Students got tired of being mowed down by guns at school setting, spawning the movement. That said, during the march this past weekend, DC-area restaurants supported the teens by offering free or discounted food as the demonstrators walked. It’s almost like people support these children not wanting to be shot by war weapons in school as well. Crazy.
When all was said and done, the march was a huge success. It seems like for the first time, the US is (slowly) starting to make some progress when it comes to gun laws and hopefully we’ll see it become a reality. We think the craziest part is that these kids aren’t even asking for anything out of line, just some reasonable laws…. With any luck, some common sense legislation will be passed and with proper law execution we can take the first step forward as a culture. Good job, kids; we stand with you in support.
