As restaurant critic Pete Wells concluded his career writing for The New York Times, I closely followed the editorials that were his curtain call. Reflective, inviting, and vulnerable, his words carried all the grace of a final bow, but his conclusive column, I Reviewed Restaurants for 12 Years. They’ve Changed, and Not for the Better, struck an unexpected chord with me—specifically, how the foodservice scene is stepping further away from human contact and into technology.
It did not make me roll my Millennial eyes toward a generation fighting the wave of what is new. It made me think of what made me proud to be a server during my own restaurant days. How hard I worked to ensure the extra dollars patrons put toward a meal were well spent because they felt cared for, attended, and satisfied. If I succeeded, the return was immediate and gratifying—if not in the tip, then in notes left there for me to read on the receipts.
This was why people went out. To relax. To be served. To connect.
So, when I am told to scan a QR code to order and pay, with a server being redefined as more of a technical support agent, like Wells, my love of the experience constricts. I question why I’m providing a tip. Where is the service?
I am privy to more than the average customer, both from my waitstaff days and now as a writer for the industry. I know exactly where the service is and what the dollars go toward. But the question still bubbles up in me when I am sitting in the chair as a consumer, so how can we answer it for those who can’t know better?
A situation where I am enthusiastic about technological streamlining is at the airport. Minutes count to a different degree when you have a plane to catch, and I’m glad not to fight my temper toward a server who has more to do than bring me my check. I can simply handle ordering and paying from the convenience of my phone, and I am thrilled.
Others are on lunch breaks when our team has to be plugged back in at a specific time and can’t spare the 15 extra minutes (minimum) allotted to the human component of eating out. So, there is absolutely a space for these shifts toward technology. And there is one for good old-fashioned human care as well.
It is my belief the key is in knowing your space and communicating it clearly to your audience. Hybrids and balance would be ideal, but when not available, there can be no substitution for the effort and clarity of managing expectations. Foodservice is a valuable and critical component of our industry—and the suffix is “service.” 
