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A Slap in the Face to Wait Artists
Those who pride themselves in balancing the flat tray above their head have had their head above the clumsy rest of us. This “Drink’Tray” has finger holes for you to grip. You can grip tight and no more spillin’ for you. Use it at home to feel like a pro, or bring it to work for restaurant madness. Like training wheels for those servicing the drunk grabby-types.
One mold, and three different color choices. Plastic. Designed at ECAL. Ø 34.
And surprise! it’s got a company that’s picked it up: Ligne Roset.
Designer: Martino D’Esposito
26 Comments »
Carl says
brilliant excellant superb design. not a cad model in sight prototyped and tested addresses a real issue and provides a cunning solution. bravo.
Eric says
I really like this! It would totally benefit/train a newbie, they probably wont want to switch back! I do think it should be a universal design though. (Not just ‘catering’ to right handed people.) I would hope they know that servers like to swap hands carrying the tray when one arm gets tired. (Especially a newbie!) Appears no field testing was done with fully weighted trays because they thought it was a proven method… Test your products guys!
Ps. Ya disrupting the flat surface of the tray with finger mounds might limit drink carrying capacity, but I’m sure people would rather get their drinks in one piece, rather than wait for a new one after the server drops the tray.
candy says
can you change your icon. i am really sick of seeing it
Eric says
Too bad for you. Would ice cream make it all better?
zippyflounder says
yes it would, can you fax me some?
Eric says
silvestre says
If you’re righthanded, you always (!) hold your plate in the left hand and serve with the right one. So this model in thought enough – it’s made for lefthanders (though it could be used for the left hand as well).
Eric says
Not too sure what you meant at the end there, but as for the left hand hold, right hand serve- true, another sign it wasn’t field tested… The 4 bumps around the thumb should just be level, so nobody has to adapt to the tray. Universal means anyone can use it, on either hand, still one mold. Right now the bumps are progressively taller and would throw some people off if they are dominate with their other hand.
Chung Dha says
Does not work first it is not ergonomic second you have less surface to hold and give less grip. Old flat still works better. This design the center of gravity is much lower and make it easier to tip over if one side is heavier. I doubt you can use it to serve allot of glasses on it.
davin says
@Chung Dha,
I agree completely. I paid my way through school by working as one of those waiters. The method of balancing a tray while walking around obstacles, is to sway it to keep the overall force on the objects pointed towards the tray. Kind of like banking a turn for a race car. There’s no benefit for finger grips.
Guy Armitage says
Only really works for small items…a dish would be more of a problem…unless you leveled the top…and then the design would be ruined
zuy says
it’s catching eye design …
Keith says
this would probably become very tiring. Imagine having your hand in that postion throughout the day. Plus, if the items on it were heavy, it would be very uncomfortable to have the weight pressing down on your fingertips rather than your open palm.
silvestre says
Actually Keith, if the weight is bigger, it’s easier to hold your plate on your fingertips. But still, I believe it would be very unpleasant to hold this heavy-weighted plate on your fingertips.
zippyflounder says
did anybody mention that the center is pretty much useless for any plates or such?
Eric says
That was the very first thing I noticed too, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt because they claim it’s a “drink” tray… When a tray is almost empty it’s almost harder to use a flat hand to stabilize it -vs- finger grips. When it’s fully loaded you could still just use a flat hand though… I guess a specialized tray for drinks is ok, but a regular tray accommodates both already!
statan says
that’s a very old design!! What’s new?!
trimtab21 says
interesting but stupid! not the way to balance a tray with drinks and forget about it if you have fingernails.
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