Ordering a meal and more on tabletop tablets

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

In a sit-down restaurant, diners are at the mercy of the server every step of the way, unable to eat or leave without the server's attention.

But national chains like Applebee's and Chili's hope to soon have a server at the ready, perched on every table - a tablet that diners can use to order food, play games (for a fee) and pay or split the bill.

Redwood City startup E La Carte is pushing to have its Presto tablet in front of more diners' hungry faces this year. Its biggest deal, freshly inked, will put 100,000 Presto tablets in Applebee's restaurants nationwide - and they've been at the gargantuan Applebee's on Fisherman's Wharf since September. A rival company, Ziosk, based in Dallas, already has a major deal with Brinker, which operates Chili's and other chains.

Kind of an indirect reminder to those who think raising the minimum wage will not have effects.