NAPLES, FL / ACCESSWIRE / February 18, 2020 / Uptown Network today released the next generation of F&B Easy Menu, an iPad app that empowers food and beverage professionals to easily transform paper menus to fully digital and then update them across the business in real-time. The new version now makes menus available on guest's smartphones and restaurant websites in real-time. F&B Easy Menu is available now on the App Store, with a 21-day free trial and a $10 a month per iPad fee once live.
"I have found wonderful value in F&B Easy Menu," said Sydney Grims, Director of Development of Fearless Restaurants & Hospitality. "It has taken work off of my management team and has allowed them to focus on the guest experience and sales."
F&B Easy Menu provides an effective, affordable solution for digitally transforming menus. It's easy to implement and operate for F&B professionals, enabling hospitality brands of all sizes to improve their guest experiences with iPad menus and reduce paper consumption.
Hospitality brands have rightfully been focusing tremendous attention on sustainability and technology-everything from eliminating plastic straws to engaging the guest experience. However, an effective solution for eliminating paper menus hasn't been available outside of enterprise IT solutions, limiting its benefits for restaurants and the environment.
Now, brands of any size can use and benefit from F&B Easy Menu. Larger enterprises can use a combination of Uptown Network's enterprise solution and F&B Easy Menu.
F&B Easy Menu is the culmination of almost five years of R&D and collaboration with hospitality industry leaders. Highlights of the app include:
- Transformation of any paper menu into an iPad interactive menu in about an hour. No coding or software skills are required. As F&B professionals check boxes and upload images, all of their iPad menus change in real time.
- The menu integrates with the restaurant's web site in real time, so if an item is 86'd it disappears from the restaurant's web site also.
- An iPhone app is available to 86 items in about 15 seconds, with F&B Easy Menu redrawing the menu on all the iPads and web sites in real time.
- More than 100,000 curated, cloud-based beverage tasting notes on wines, microbrews, waters, cordials, tequilas, cognacs and other items allow for rapid creation of beverage books, with the check of a box.
- The resulting menus actually look like menus, not apps. Guests can use the iPad just like they would a paper menu (without the need for reading glasses or penlights) or choose to use it interactively.
- Menus can easily be translated into any language.
Other benefits of F&B Easy Menu include staff empowerment, increased revenue, a social media boost, and improved restaurant operations.
Restaurants that use F&B Easy Menu benefit from an integrated sustainability approach that eliminates paper menus that otherwise end up in our landfills and oceans. With an estimated 3 million restaurants in the world-some with 10 menus and some with 200 - it's estimated that F&B Easy Menu could eliminate 150 million paper menus by using iPads to help our environment (based on an average of 50 menus/restaurant).
The ability to seamlessly share menus across smartphones, iPads and websites has been in open beta for about a year. With this next generation those capabilities are now production ready.
iOS on the tablet, messaging for any smartphone
"We really believe that iOS and iPad give us the best environment to deliver tablet menus to the hospitality industry," said Jack Serfass, CEO and co-founder of Uptown Network. "We couldn't be the company that we are without our Apple Business Solution Partner relationship. Their support and superior device experiences bring hospitality brands to life. Using messaging technology allows menus to be shared across any smartphone. We are also already engaged in what iOS is 'bringing to the table' with augmented reality for F&B."
Imagine dynamic F&B menus going viral
An example of messaging a menu can be found here. Click the share button to share with friends. Simply type in a smartphone number and message any food or beverage menu to anyone in the world. Recipients can message the dynamic menu, once received, to any of their friends or post the link on social media. Paper menus that once were locked in the confines of a restaurant are now global, and viral.
Changes are effortless
With a click of a button, new items can be added or deleted. Menu designs can be changed on the fly and colors, fonts and specials can be modified. Menus can look different for different parts of a venue. For example, menus in a lounge can look different than menus in the dining room.
Revolutionizing retail
While the launch of F&B Easy Menu is focused on hospitality and restaurants, any retail operation can customize it for their purposes. This includes spas, clothing stores, auto supply shops, and repair services. You can download F&B Easy Menu onto your iPad here.
About Uptown Network
Uptown Network is an innovator in using iPads and iOS to help the most prominent hospitality brands operate more efficiently and deliver engaging guest experiences that help build brand loyalty and increase revenues. Its solutions include iPad wine lists and food and beverage menus, virtual wine lockers, product inventory software, social media photo boost and kitchen management software for hospitality businesses.
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Media Contact:
Chrissy Serfass
[email protected]
855-577-7555
SOURCE: Uptown Network