US: Automated Wine Bar Serves You Drinks After Smartcard Transaction

(Ubergizmo) - Self-service seems to be the way to go, and human waiters as well as bartenders do seem to be a dying breed in the process as part of the “collateral damage” whenever restaurants and eating establishments deploy food serving robots. Well, a new wine bar that will be opening in the New York area intends to do away with the classic bartender, but rather, would prefer to have their customers obtain their drinks from an automated kiosk using a smartcard.

Known as the Park 112 in upper Manhattan, plans to unveil the self-serve wine bar service in August are already underway, where it will be “manned” (or should we say, machined?) by machines from an Italian company known as Enomatic. These wine kiosks are capable of serving up to eight different bottles simultaneously, where you as the customer would use the LCD touchscreen display alongside an RFID-embedded smartcard to place and pay for your order. Hmmm, it certainly lacks the human element as a bartender would know if you’re too tipsy and ask you to stop, not to mention he will be able to lend a listening ear whenever you have had a difficult day at the office. Guess this is the next step up from unique and weird vending machines, eh?