D-Doghouse Uses iPads to Serve Hot Dogs

D-Doghouse uses iPads as menu and entertainment system.

D-Doghouse has taken the iPad to another level. The Brickell hot-dog palace, which just opened Saturday, May 5, allows guests to peruse the menu and order on iPads attached to every table. The tablets also serve as entertainment systems while patrons wait for their dogs and beers.

Though we've seen iPads used as point-of-service (POS) systems on food trucks, allowing some tech-savvy truckers to accept credit cards and manage inventory, D-Doghouse is the first restaurant in Miami to incorporate Aptito, a system that provides digital menus and POS systems to restaurants via iPad and Android tablets.

You begin by choosing a table whose top changes color (think the dance floor from Saturday Night Fever) and then perusing the menu on the attached iPad. Each item has a corresponding picture and description in English and Spanish. Touch the picture to order and confirm your order, which goes to the kitchen. Pay with your credit card or cash and pick up your food.

While you're waiting, the iPad serves as entertainment system where you can check emails, surf the web, log onto Facebook, or access the restaurant's music system, where your choice will play over the venue's speakers like a 21st-century jukebox. D-Doghouse will soon incorporate the ability to store your credit card information via a third party (so you don't have to even bring your wallet when you lunch).

El Mexicano is a big dog smothered in house made guacamole.

That's all well and good, but what about the food? D-Doghouse, like the name implies, specializes in dogs, fries, and drinks. The dogs are Nathan's Famous all-beef hot dogs, oversize and juicy. Sixteen dogs and sandwiches are offered, such as "El Mexicano" ($7.99), which is a dog smothered in nacho cheese, jalapeños, guacamole, and pico de gallo, and the "choriperro," featuring chorizo flown in from New Jersey with pico de gallo and melted mozzarella ($8.99). The guacamole for El Mexicano is made in-house to order using Hass avocados.

French fries are hand-cut from Idaho potatoes, seasoned with sea salt, and served nine ways, mostly smothered with toppings to match the dogs. A "salchipapa" combines fries with hot-dog pieces ($7.99).

D-Doghouse boasts a full bar and is open seven days a week, Monday through  Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 a.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to midnight.

D-Doghouse has a full bar (and shakes).

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