Article by Mick Carr, Grub Lab
My family didn’t eat out a ton when I was a kid. But when we did, my go-to time-killer was always the same: that little bowl of mini creamer buckets. As in-booth activities go, it actually wasn’t too shabby. After all, those plastic devils are delightfully stackable, throwable — even drinkable.
When I’d exhausted that adventure, I’d move on to the ketchup bottle. Or the salt and pepper shakers. Of course, peak entertainment came on the super-rare occasion we went somewhere with actual candles on the tables — until my mom took to blowing them out before I could get too creative.
Point is, the experience of being lucky enough to go out to eat from time to time came with a weird irony that wasn’t lost on me even then: It could actually be super boring.
Now, as the (mostly) grown-up owner of a food service-adjacent business, I know boredom means one thing: opportunity.
Specifically, I now recognize that the empty, disconnected slog we all share while waiting for our meals to arrive represents one of the most captive moments a business could ever hope to create. After all, from the second a family is seated, they start setting their expectations, forming their opinions, and deciding whether they plan to come back at all.
Ironically, operators tend to focus on everything but this moment. They’re completely and understandably busy doing all the top-line stuff a restaurant needs to do to be successful: getting people in the door, dialing in their menus, keeping service flowing, and making sure all the ends are meeting at the end of the day.
The result is Grub Lab, a kids menu program that makes eating out fun for kids, peaceful for parents, and enables restaurants of all sizes to deliver the kind of branded experiences that have traditionally been reserved for global chains.
Each of our menus is tied to one of the biggest names in sports and entertainment — the NBA, Minions, Shrek and more — and features QR-enabled experiences that can have kids running around the table as a dinosaur or even throwing footballs like their favorite quarterbacks (better than creamers, we figure).
Just as importantly, the experience is designed to stay with your customers long after the meal is over, with digital games kids can keep playing at home and exclusive offers from top brands that feel like a gift directly from you.
Meanwhile, there’s no ongoing setup needed for the restaurant: no staff training, no printing, no pickup. After spending a few minutes adding your logo and food items to your menu through our simple digital experience, each new menu shows up automatically — giving families a whole new reason to come back and see what’s next.
After all, restaurants today aren’t just competing on food or value. They’re competing on whether the overall experience feels worth the time and money, and leads to the kind of repeat customers that are the lifeblood of any business.
How do we know Grub Lab accomplishes this? Because we’ve seen it. Again and again, we see families staying a little longer, enjoying the visit more, and coming back more often.
But we don’t expect our customers to take our word for it. From the moment they begin our menu program, we share data around how many people are engaging with our menus, how long they’re doing it, and when they come back.
While some kids’ menus exist as static, disposable items that inevitably end up dunked in a glass of water, we want operators to see Grub Lab as a business-elevating platform that drives engagement, delivers world-class entertainment, and deals them in on globally recognized brand partnerships that come with zero negotiation or licensing fees.
And if it cuts down on their creamer expenses, well, that’s not a bad thing either.
— Mick Carr is the CEO of Grub Lab, a recurring kids menu program delivering famous brands, fun games and exclusive offers to families while driving loyalty and more visits for restaurants. Learn more at https://www.grublab.co/us
