Ubiquitous computing is a trend that’s oft discussed and less frequently seen, but a shining new example just opened in New York City’s luxurious St. Regis Hotel. A restaurant called Adour now features a technology-driven, interactive wine bar that lets guests explore for themselves the wide variety of wines available. While the decor of the 72-seat restaurant features hues reminiscent of burgundy and chardonnay, Adour’s 4-seat wine bar is constructed from gold and bronze and covered in luxurious goat skin. Built-in interactive technology from Potion Design helps patrons choose a wine by allowing them to browse Adour’s complete wine list by wine type, country and varietal. Computer menus are projected from the ceiling onto the bar, and patrons make their choices by pressing on the bar’s surface. The first menu, for example, prompts guests to choose from a list of selections including By the Glass, By the Decanter, Sparkling Wines, Red Wines, White Wines, etc. Additional choices follow from there, including lists of countries, regions and wines. When a guest selects a particular wine, a rosette-shaped image is projected with information about the wine on each of its five petals, including details about the producer and the grapes. Adour’s Wine Director manages the wine list using a custom-designed content management system and can update the interactive bar daily or for special occasions. Adding a personal touch to its high-end experience, Adour also offers temperature-controlled, private wine vaults in its 12-seat private dining room to give guests a way to store their very own wine collection. Besides being an upscale novelty, Adour’s interactive bar feeds modern consumers’ apparently insatiable infolust with relevant information, and it incorporates that information into the real-world dining experience. It also educates consumers about wines, providing them with key status skills that (they hope) will elevate them above the rest of the crowd. All that and a highly engaging experience too! Mark our words: there’s more of this to come… Related: Interactive touch-bar combines drinks, ads & games — Wine by numbers, with a digital content twist — Bars use technology to blend online and offline interaction. Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen

30th January 2008

Email: alainducasse@adour-stregis.com

Website: www.adour-stregis.com