Hilltop New Offering Online Takeout

The Daily Gleaner, February 26, 2001

photo by: Stephen MacGillivray

ONLINE MENU READY TO GO: Hilltop Grill and Beverage Company manager Jim Cooper, left, and DineAid.Com™ director of Web site development, Helen Sum, right show off the new Web site for the restaurant. It will allow people to order food over the Internet through DineAid.Com™ site. Holding a couple of the dishes available on the online menu is waitress Trish Robertson, centre.

How does one of the Hilltop's famous juicy steaks, a side of zesty coleslaw and some crispy fries sound?

Now you can order up many of the well-known Fredericton restaurant's most popular items with the click of a mouse.

Earlier this month, the Hilltop Grill and Beverage Company became the first restaurant to provide online food ordering through the DineAid.Com dining guide site.

Restaurant manager Jim Cooper says customers can call up the site, place orders and the food will be prepared for takeout.

"The reason we did it is because we have a lot of phone calls now from people wanting takeout orders," he explained.

"We thought it would be nice option, especially with today's demographics. A lot of people are online and it just gives them another way of ordering their takeout."

The entire Hilltop menu isn't available online but Cooper says there is a wide variety of appetizers, entrees and desserts - everything from chicken wings done however you like them to club sandwiches and chocolate cake.

When someone places an order, it goes to a server, which then sends a fax of the order to the Hilltop for pick-up.

"We are set up so we notice the order immediately," Cooper said.

The idea seems to be catching on. The first order came in the first week the online ordering option was up and running.

"We haven't promoted the site yet but we have had a few people send us some online orders and it's gone smoothly," he said. "In fact, I had an e-mail from a customer the other day saying they were very proud of us being able to do this."

He views the site, which has been running for about a month, as just another way to serve Hilltop customers.

"It's good to be the first to do this and I think we will be seeing even more restaurants offering this as a way of adding to their existing dining service," he said.

Helen Sum, director of Web site development at DineAid.Com™ said her company is using the Hilltop's online "store" as a prototype. She said DineAid.Com™ will track Hilltop customer usage and habits and fine tune the technical applications before putting more restaurants online.

"They're (the Hilltop) an ideal candidate for us because they're well known in Fredericton," she said. "We don't have to sell the name because the they are so popular so they are an ideal test store."

You can check out the Hilltop Grill and Beverage Company's online menu by going to www.dineaid.com and clicking on the link to the Hilltop.
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