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Keith McCord ReportingWhen you go out to eat part of the fun is having someone else serve you. But in our hi-tech world there's a new way to look at that, like a place with no waiters and no cashiers, yet 127 menu choices!
When you walk into the ChefPlex Resturaunt in Orem, no host or hostess will greet you. Instead there are nine computer screens. Just touch them and the menus from four restaurants and an ice cream parlor pop up.
Greg Shepard, Owner, ChefPlex: "OK, let's say I want some Thai food. Sure. OK we press select. So now we have our combo meals, appetizers."
These touch-screens guide you through all the choices and if you want to know more about a particular dish, touch the screen again and you get a list of all the ingredients.
Call it hi-tech gourmet with versatility. How many times have you gone out to dinner with a group of friends, and one person wants a burger, somebody else likes Mexican and someone else wants Italian? Here, that's not a problem.
At ChefPlex there's Buona Vista Italian food, Humdinger's American, Chichia's Mexican, Siam Grill Thai, and the Moo Scoop Ice Cream parlor.
Back to the ordering. Once you've made your choice, you get a receipt with a bar code. You take it to, not a cashier, but an automatic pay machine. Scan the bar code and you can pay by cash, credit card; it'll even take a blank check.
Greg Shepard: "Now your order is complete, and the order now automatically goes back to our chefs."
Chefs from four different restaurants working side by side...
Stewart Hunsaker, Chef, Humdinger's: "We're all in the same kitchen. I have my own section of the kitchen that I work in. I have my own tools and own equipment."
You've heard of multi-plex theatres, now there are multi-plex restaurants. This is the first one in the nation. It’s a new idea in the world of dining, and one that has distinct advantages.
Greg Lyman: "Because we're splitting the costs with four different restaurants, and so we were able to get into this million dollar project with a very small amount."
And each outlet can be made up of completely different restaurants. Another nice thing about a restaurant like this-- no -tipping! Other outlets are planned for Provo, Salt Lake, and 20 other states.
