Storific’s app could do away with restaurant waiters forever

One thing I hate about eating out is the waiters. As professional and helpful as they may be, actually getting their attention when you really want it can be a nightmare, and if the restaurant is busy the situation gets all the more frustrating. Storific aims to solve this problem with its new mobile app.

This iPhone app will allow you to ‘check in’ to a restaurant and then order items from its menu without having to wait around for table service. Currently being tested in a small beta group of 16 restaurants, Storific will be open to all restaurants, coffee, pub and night clubs from next month.

It’s an idea with some real potential. Beyond the obvious benefits for customers, restaurants get improved efficiency as it could remove the “bottleneck” of waiters having to spend a long periods at tables taking orders.

Storific’s founder and CEO, Michael Cohen says that during beta testing, it’s been found that the tool considerably increases the number of orders made by a single table and thus has a direct positive impact on restaurants’ takings. “We just want restaurants to experience that by themselves”, says Cohen.

The Paris-based startup is currently self-funded and plans for 2011 include hunting down angel investors and venture capitalists to help grow the business faster.

Services like Storific won’t necessarily do away with waiters entirely. However, if the idea takes off, who knows – maybe one day we might see their role split between “delivery drones” who carry plates to tables and more knowledgeable advisors who help customers make choices which they ultimately order via their handset.

We’ll certainly be keeping an eye on Storific’s twist on geolocation as it progresses in 2011.