Apps ahoy at the Fishbox

AFTER the coronavirus lockdown was introduced in the middle of March the Fishbox restaurant in Dingle closed its doors as the Flannery family who own and run the business tried to work out how to operate a restaurant without human interaction. It didn’t take them long to come up with a solution.

Two weeks later the doors were still closed but the Fishbox was back in business, taking orders over the phone and delivering meals to their customers’ car windows when they pulled up outside the restaurant door on Green Street.

Now they are going a step further, introducing a custom designed App that will streamline the whole process by allowing customers to order and pay online. On top of that there’s the novel concept of ‘catch-to-order fish’.

The Fishbox, which opened in 2018 and is managed by Micheál Flannery, runs on a wonderfully simple principle: They cook and sell the fish caught by their own trawler, Cú na Mara. “When the boat comes in my dad brings the fish up from the pier and guts them, my mother cooks them and the staff serve them to customers,” said Micheál.

It’s an approach that has served well and the new App, which will be up and running in the next week or so, will allow the Flannerys to make the most of it.

“Customers will be able to set up a personal account on the App and through that we will be able to keep them up to date with menus, special offers, opening times and what fish the boat is bringing in… We will also be able to see where there is a lot of demand for a particular type of fish and pass that information on to the boat so they can then fish for the target species,” said Micheál.

Although social distancing poses enormous challenges, the Flannerys hope to have the doors open at the Fishbox when restaurants are allowed reopen on June 29 and then the App will play a vital role, allowing customers to scan QR code menus, place their orders and pay for their meals without face-to-face interaction with waiters.

The Fishbox is also launching a new website in tandem with the App and one of the features will be a fish recipes e-book. The App will be available to download from the App Store and Google Play.

Micheál Flannery in the Fishbox restaurant where the transition from menus in print to menus on an app will play a key role.