Bar introduces iPads for patron orders

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Anyone who frequents the Rellik Tavern has seen the leatherbound drink menus sporting the bar’s logo embossed on a metal plate.

Lately, though, those menus have been conspicuously absent — replaced by new technology.

Rather than one of the bulky traditional menus, Rellik cocktail waitresses and bartenders now hand patrons an iPad that contains the bar’s complete drink menu. The interface is simple and easy to navigate, co-owner Delando Pegan said.

“Let’s say you’re a scotch drinker. You can actually see all of the scotches, click on them, give you ideas, describes the actual scotch …”

Explaining the decision to go high-tech with their menus, Pegan said: “You can find out so much more about the actual drinks this way than just looking at a menu and seeing a word.”

Consider another feature of the iPad menus: the “consider” feature. “Let’s say you are looking at red wines by the glass,” Pegan said. By clicking on the consider button on a selection, a customer stores that wine to ask about later.

“And, if you find something you really like but you’ve never seen before, you can email it to yourself,” Pegan said.

He said the new menus are especially useful since the Rellik has many of its own signature cocktails: Now, patrons can see what they’re ordering before they order it. “It’s better for them to physically see what the cocktail looks like.”

And the iPad menus, powered by the Tastevin app created by Labrador OmniMedia, can be updated much easier than traditional print menus.

“The wine menu is linked directly to my inventory, so when we pour our last glass of something, it physically takes it off the menu. So then you’re not ordering anything that’s not here,” Pegan said.

“Before, it could take days, if not a week, to get a new menu printed.”

Tastevin is gradually making its way to establishments in the Bay Area, he said, but the Rellik currently sports one of the largest setups. “There’s a place in Walnut Creek that does it just for the wine list. I think we’re probably one of the larger programs they’ve ever done as far as all of the different liqueurs and cocktails, because we have such a huge list.

“The nice thing is it is being constantly updated and changed. It’s a fairly new company.”

And coming soon, the iPads will list all of the Rellik’s events, and may even contain a food tab.

“In the long run,” Pegan said, “this is going to be more cost-effective than the traditional menu. Especially with the size of menus we have kept in the past.”