Downtown News
Sandwich shop in downtown Dallas opens with futuristic ordering system
Dallas-based Which Wich Superior Sandwiches has unveiled a new kind of restaurant in downtown Dallas. Called Wich!, it's a Which Wich spinoff that uses a new "virtual cashier" ordering system, along with a new store design and revamped menu.
The store is at 1410 Main St., in the original Which Wich location which had been closed for the last two years. It reopened on April 29.
The store is using a YellowLAB Virtual Cashier System, Sinelli's latest endeavor. According to a release, it's a new technology designed to help combat the hiring challenges many businesses have endured, especially in the restaurant industry.
It's also a way to reintroduce human interaction into a restaurant-ordering experience that has become particularly digitized, especially over the last two years.
When diners enter the restaurant, they're greeted by a row of kiosks with menu boards and a live person on screen in an undisclosed location who takes your order. You pay and the kitchen fulfills your order and places it in a pickup area.
This innovative system allows employees to work from home. It also allows restaurants to reduce the number of workers.
The downtown store already had a tradition of innovation in its ordering system: Previously, they had sandwich bags printed with menu options. Diners placed their order by checking off boxes, then submitting the bags to the cashier.
Ironically, the high-tech new system reintroduces the human touch, even if the human is on a screen. Although is that irony? It seems ironic.
New menu options include a French dip, a grinder, egg salad with candied bacon, and a greater selection of plant-based sandwiches, which has long been a passion of Sinelli's. (For his Birdguesa chicken-themed spinoff, he included vegan chicken from famed company Atlas Monroe.)
The downtown store also uses all electric vehicles for delivery.
