News

Design partnership delivers BOGO: Restaurant kiosk edition

June 1, 2018

The infinite appeal of two-for-one offerings is part of the idea behind a new kiosk creation from the Vollrath Company and Christensen Consultants that allows for two foodservice concepts in one 900-square-foot footprint, all quickly capable of rotating on a central turntable beneath it. 

The Pivot Point kiosk was created by Christensen Consultants Principal Peter Christensen, which Vollrath said took some real innovation to bring to market, a news release said. 

"At Vollrath, we were thrilled to take on this challenge for our custom serving systems, and executing this design certainly required its share of creative and innovative thinking, as well as collaboration with multiple influencers," Vollrath Design Solutions Manager Katharine Mizla said in the release. "The design can be anything you want and the size will be determined by what is placed on the rotating center."

In less than a minute, it only takes two people to manually rotate Pivot Point from foodservice concept to concept. Ironically, the new product was initially designed for hotel lobbies and other public spaces at resorts. In fact, the design won last year's Hotel Experience Show's 2017 Foodservice Pioneering Concept. 

In that execution the kiosk featured a daytime foodservice venue on one side, and a nighttime cocktail bar concept on the other. The rotating center was designed to have permanent structures around it and the concept featured a front-of-house and back-of-house design. As part of that competition the winning concept had to be "green" and run strictly on electric power, with limited access to water or drains and no ventilation. The intent was to provide a foodservice outlet where none could exist before.

"For the design, I was inspired by the simple turn table, what we see turning cable cars in San Francisco or rotating scenery on the Broadway stage," said Christensen. "The possible applications of the concept are seemingly endless. While a daytime-nighttime approach is easily adaptable for hotels, there's no reason a venue couldn't use the two sides to do two different foodservice concepts such as a quick-service restaurant on one side and C-store with snacks on the other for B&I, or a brewery and ice cream parlor for a stadium or arena."

Pivot Point's guest-responsive, multifunctional concept can adapt aesthetically to any décor or environment and can make under-utilized space more productive. It has a capacity to serve about 200 customers per three-to-four-hour meal period, though more customers could be served cocktails in that period. 

One side is front-of-house, allowing employees to stock the other side for the next service and it can be wired for any electric requirements needed to power the equipment displayed on it.

Vollrath Foodservice helped bring the concept to market through the work of its' in-house design and engineering teams, and equipment selection. The 24-year-old Christensen Consultants designs food service facilities.