If your restaurant is on the seventh floor and your customers are down on the street, how do you get them their food quickly and efficiently? Throw it out the window of course. March 21, 2014 9:02 AM PDT A woman removes the parachute from her just-landed "jaffle," a toasted sandwich popular in Australia. (Credit: Video screenshot by Michael Franco/CNET) Waiters are so last century. These days, sushi is flown to your table via a quadcopter and beer is dropped out of the sky from an octocopter. Now, a new pop-up restaurant in Melbourne, Australia, has added another, albeit less high-tech, method of food delivery: sandwiches that parachute several stories down to customers waiting on the street. The novel nosh drop is the brainchild of David McDonald and Adam Grant, who make the toasted sandwiches, called "jaffles," after people order and pay for them via PayPal on their Web site. The customers then stand on an "X" on the sidewalk and wait for their meal to drop down like mana from heaven. The locations change, and customers are kept up to date via Facebook. The company is fittingly called Jafflechutes. The sandwiches are pretty basic -- either cheese and ham for $6 AUD ($5.45) or cheese and tomato for $5 AUD -- but this restaurant definitely seems to be more about style than substance. Interestingly, parachute-delivered food could have a real benefit for would-be restauranteurs, as pointed out by Pop-Up City. Storefronts on busy city streets can demand super-steep rents. If chefs can prepare food from lesser-priced spaces higher up in buildings and then just throw it out the window to their customers, they could test out culinary concepts in a much less-expensive way. Plus, there are no pesky waiters to pay or tables to clean up. At the moment, "Melbourne's first float-down eatery," as Jafflechutes terms itself, is taking a break to prepare for a roadshow to New York. So if you happen to be in the Big Apple over the next few months, be sure to keep your eyes on the sky. You just might see a sandwich floating your way. And if you're in Melbourne, you can help the Jafflechuters create 1,000 new parachutes at its workshop on March 29, where they promise: "There'll be beer nearby, some tunes, and a full afternoon's worth of jafflechuting anecdotes (and other tall stories). We're even working on a way to allow you to be recognised for every parachute that you make!" (Via Pop-Up City)
If your restaurant is on the seventh floor and your customers are down on the street, how do you get them their food quickly and efficiently? Throw it out the window of course.
A woman removes the parachute from her just-landed "jaffle," a toasted sandwich popular in Australia.
(Credit: Video screenshot by Michael Franco/CNET)
Waiters are so last century. These days, sushi is flown to your table via a quadcopter and beer is dropped out of the sky from an octocopter. Now, a new pop-up restaurant in Melbourne, Australia, has added another, albeit less high-tech, method of food delivery: sandwiches that parachute several stories down to customers waiting on the street.
The novel nosh drop is the brainchild of David McDonald and Adam Grant, who make the toasted sandwiches, called "jaffles," after people order and pay for them via PayPal on their Web site. The customers then stand on an "X" on the sidewalk and wait for their meal to drop down like mana from heaven. The locations change, and customers are kept up to date via Facebook. The company is fittingly called Jafflechutes.
The sandwiches are pretty basic -- either cheese and ham for $6 AUD ($5.45) or cheese and tomato for $5 AUD -- but this restaurant definitely seems to be more about style than substance.
Interestingly, parachute-delivered food could have a real benefit for would-be restauranteurs, as pointed out by Pop-Up City. Storefronts on busy city streets can demand super-steep rents. If chefs can prepare food from lesser-priced spaces higher up in buildings and then just throw it out the window to their customers, they could test out culinary concepts in a much less-expensive way. Plus, there are no pesky waiters to pay or tables to clean up.
At the moment, "Melbourne's first float-down eatery," as Jafflechutes terms itself, is taking a break to prepare for a roadshow to New York. So if you happen to be in the Big Apple over the next few months, be sure to keep your eyes on the sky. You just might see a sandwich floating your way. And if you're in Melbourne, you can help the Jafflechuters create 1,000 new parachutes at its workshop on March 29, where they promise: "There'll be beer nearby, some tunes, and a full afternoon's worth of jafflechuting anecdotes (and other tall stories). We're even working on a way to allow you to be recognised for every parachute that you make!"
(Via Pop-Up City)
