The menu, as an object, has its undeniable charm. Its details, its paper, the character with which it was written and yes, even its state of conservation can tell us a lot about the place where we are going to eat, making us anticipate – or fear – the imminent gastronomic experience. Can you imagine, for example, a restaurant in haute cuisine with menu written in Comic Sans on crumpled blue paper? No, here it is. There is a problem, however, far from marginal: the health emergency triggered by coronavirus it is forcing us to do without any tactile experience. Because even browsing through a very simple list of first, second and side dishes – enclosed within your own leatherette folder – could turn into an opportunity for contagion. And no, in this case any greasy patches on the pages – which remain always and in any case unforgivable – really have nothing to do with it.

The truth is that unfortunately the virus can lurk on surfaces, including paper or plastic. And for this reason exchanging the menu between diners or, even worse, between tables can involve a risk. True, it would be roughly enough sanitize the pages and give customers the opportunity to clean their hands immediately after ordering their dinner, perhaps with a gel kindly offered by the house. But many have preferred to avoid this practice a little hospital, opting instead for the road – sustainable also on an environmental level – digital.

The revenge of the QR Code

Many had stopped betting on it. that square convoluted in black and white, which sometimes our smartphone categorically refused to recognize, seemed to have taken the avenue of those technological innovations potentially capable of epochal revolutions, but defeated to the test of facts. Instead, the QR Code has become the ideal ally of all those restaurateurs who have decided to stop distributing their menus as a precaution. Yes, because basically the menu problem can be solved by disseminating some here and there in the restaurant totem that the customer can frame with their smartphone and then calmly consult the card directly from the screen.

Of course, there remains a basic problem, which should not be underestimated: to which page to redirect the customer's smartphone? The solutions implemented are the most imaginative, and range from the photo published on the Facebook page of the restaurant – with words so blurry that they cannot distinguish a "carbonara pasta" from a "the cost of the cover is 1.50 euros" – to some pdf. Sometimes well done, sometimes ugly enough to have been commissioned for a few pennies to the cousin of the cousin of the tomato sauce supplier. But he did an online graphics course, so he knows about it.

However, there are those who have decided to use a little more structured services, such as those of SafeTable. In this case, the restaurateur has the possibility to choose between three different types of menus, totally customizable: only with text, with introductory photos for each category, with photos for each individual dish. All translatable into 12 languages, to help that international clientele that – we hope – will soon return to popular clubs and bars in our cities. SafeTable also offers small Plexiglas totems with printed QR Code, to be distributed on the various tables, and any photo shoots made ad hoc. So no, no fluttering piece of paper that passes from customer to customer, and no ambiguous photos of fried squid surrounded by Paint.

From menu to order

It is possible, however, to think of going a little further, always starting from a QR Code, but making the menu vaguely more interactive. It is the case of Kill-Bill, a service with a curious name from Taranto, which however does not include duels of forks and bloodshed between tables rivaling the cry of "You stole the last tiramisu from me". No, don't worry, the idea devised by two young people from Viterbo is more simply to integrate the possibility of order independently. In short, just like with food delivery proposals.

Each QR Code is actually also connected to a table number and this allows the waiter to simply check the correctness of the order remotely and then pass it to the kitchen. This makes everything safer and further decreases the chances of contagion between staff and customers, although perhaps it could make the dynamics of the restaurant a little too cold and automated. So all perfect for i younger and more informal places, a little less for those who have always seen one of their flagships in service. Although in the times of Covid-19 the rule of "less frills and more Amuchina" still applies, beyond any possible cuteness.

All in one app

The QR Code, as we have seen, is undoubtedly the most immediate ally to transport the paper menu to the digital world. But it is not the only one, of course, among the various possibilities there is also that ofapp to download. Definitely more invasive, because it presupposes that the customer invests part of his time and his Giga for download, and above all that he has sufficient free space in the memory of your smartphone, usually clogged with memes of kittens, screenshots of the ex's Facebook states and unidentified videos from some group chat. That of the 4B parents, perhaps, but who knows.

Those who decided to bet on the app, therefore, are above all those who have sufficient strength, scope and diffusion to justify such an IT effort. Like the big fast food chains. Burger King, for example, has decided not only to transfer a large part of its services to smartphones, but to further expand them always with a view to Covid Free.

The new app of the American chain of hamburgers allows you to browse the menu of proposals, order completely independently and even pay, always via smartphone, thus also reducing all the risks related in some way to the passage of money or the use of cards. Not only that: customers are even allowed to book your table at the fast food restaurant, to make sure you find a free place without having to wander around the restaurant with the harness of a mask with the desperation of a Milanese looking for a parking space in Porta Romana. Interesting, without a doubt.