Beef and Beer

Well, after recovering from a long trip to London, I've finally have enough energy to write about one of my service encounters there.  The place I want to talk about was called Beef and Beer.  Let me start by saying that this place was set up like an Irish Pub, but 3 times the size of any normal pub. 

As you probably guessed, the specials of Beef and Beer were....well, Beef and Beer, or a Burger and Beer for 6 pounds or $12.  Side note:  I love the value of the dollar right now (note the sarcasm).  So, myself and 5 other students that went abroad for this trip, decided to stop here for lunch in between meetings, since it was close to where our next meeting's location.  We soon found out, like many other places to eat in London, that you need to go to the bar to place your order.  Mind you, it is around noon (London time), and everyone, I mean everyone is having an alcoholic beverage (this was on a Tuesday).  So, going to the bar itself to get a drink would have been difficult, not to mention placing an order.  After the order was placed and you told the barmaid your table number (I had to go back to my table to get this), they delivered your order.  Once the order was delivered, you then needed to get up and get an condiments that you needed.  Nothing was on the table besides the menu's. 

The reason I wanted to talk about this is because it relates to what we talked about in class...which was how industries are really starting move towards self-service.  Although it was not convenient for me (i.e. getting up to make my order and then getting up to get my beer and my condiments), it had to be cutting down on the restaurants operating costs.  It was amazing to see how everyone that lived in London was accustomed to this way of living.  I sat down and waited about 20 mintues before I realized, I actually had to do some work to get my food and drink.  Needless to say, this wasn't the last time I had to do this during my trip.  Almost every place I went to did not have a serving staff and relied more on the customer to do the work.  London is known for being first in setting trends, especially in the U.S. (similar to how Los Angeles sets trends for the rest of the U.S).  It makes me think if this is something that we will soon adopt in our restarants (like Olive Garden or Damon's).