Shown is a loading station and a portion of the tubing.
At first, the tubes were used by wait staff to send orders back to the kitchen as a trial to see if this could work. Following that success, the next step was to install heavy-duty tubing to handle the weight of burgers. C1 Café’s customers choose from a “Pneumatic Menu,” which includes the signature dish, three sliders, and an option of fries. A kitchen worker places the order into a stainless-steel capsule, loads it into the appropriate tube, and the order is sent flying through the tube system at 87 mph to a station near the diner’s table. To prevent any damage to the food, a custom air-brake system slows the canister down before delivery.
Installation of the tubes has been a lengthy process, taking around a year to complete. Crofskey hopes to eventually relocate tubes under the floor and up through the table legs to avoid the space being cluttered up with tubes and also deliver orders right to the customers’ table, bringing a whole new meaning to the term “fast food.”
Check out C1 Café, or see the system in action. The CI Café even shows a journey through the tubing via a small video camera on a capsule.