Post Valentine’s Tech: do (dough) Pizza – iPad Menus and More

This year it was Mrs. Tech’s turn to plan our Valentine’s Day outing. She was beside herself with pride in the plans she made for us this past weekend. She wouldn’t tell me all the details, but she knew I would like this place. Low and behold, the spot she picked, was a swanky pizza place (they had a dress code) just west of downtown Atlanta with a touch of tech that I, in fact, liked.

The spot is called do (pronounced “dough”) pizza and when Mrs. Tech looked up the place on the internet, the deets stated that it was family-friendly spot with a “smart casual” dress-code. Maybe that applies right when the spot opens, because at the time of our reservations, the place was clearly transformed into a hot-spot just short of a bar/night club where folks get “casket sharp” just to be seen. Honestly, that’s what I expected on a Saturday night in Atlanta, so no surprise there.

I was taken aback by the level of technology the place employed. As you enter, you’re greeted with a large wall where a projector presents a welcome mat of sorts that gives you the low-down on the place. Greeters are armed with iPads to check your reservations and check for available seats.

Moving into the bar/lounge/restaurant area, all of the tables have iPads as the centerpieces that the patrons can use to order their food. The concept is all that – At anytime, you can order drinks, appetizers, the main course, and desserts without grabbing the very next staff member who happened by…whether they were assigned to your table or not (we’ve all done it). But, I wish there was a little more interact-ability with the iPads outside of ordering food and queueing up the valet (which is complimentary) when it’s time to leave. For instance, after you submit your order, it would been cool if you could keep a running tab of what you ordered, just in case there are some issues with your order (in our case, we ordered desserts at the same time of our main course, but the desserts were somehow omitted from the order, chalk it up to a busy Saturday Valentine’s weekend Night?).

Speaking of interact-ability (I hope that’s a word), do pizza made it real easy for patrons to join in on the fun. More projectors displayed music videos across the walls of eating area that iPhone users could control by connecting to the open WiFi, download the Remote app from iTunes, access the music library where you could make music selections and vote for what’s playing next. Think of it as a new-age Jukebox. Again, it would’ve been stupid-cool if the iPad-menus let you access the Jukebox as well. That way, more than just iPhone users could join in on all the fun (I don’t discriminate).

Even still, this was one of the first places i’ve been to that has found a cool way to adopt technology to entertain visitors as well as run a smoother operation. Check out the video to see how do pizza integrates technology into more aspects of the business.

Add that with the fact that the Scoutmob offered 50% off when I checked in using Foursquare, I will definitely make do pizza one of my go-to spots to take Mrs. Tech, or just hang out with other friends in Atlanta.