The Flip was an amazing gadget once upon a million years ago because it was stupid simple. So it’s kind of mind-blowing that Flip creator Jonathan Kaplan’s next project is a weirdly techno-gimmicky grilled cheese restaurant called The Melt.
The rundown: You order the grilled cheese using The Melt’s mobile site. (The listed grilled cheeses seem OK. Free idea: grilled mac and cheese.) You receive a QR code. Walk into the restaurant, wave your phone around, and your order comes out.
Is waving your phone around with a weird block of graphics easier than just giving a human being a name for your order? I don’t know! Things I do know: Basically every other restaurant I’ve been to that is predicated or leans heavily on a technological gimmick for its concept or to order food is at best mediocre, but probably fucking awful. Or has a played-out food concept. Hmmm.
I genuinely hope Kaplan’s grilled cheeses are delicious! But then I remember where his last thing wound up (even if it was through no fault of his own). [The Melt via VentureBeat]