Place: Sonic Drive-In
Lunch: Quarter pound double cheeseburger, chili cheese coney (add mustard), Philly cheesesteak (add pickles), Rte 44 strawberry slush
Sonic has a sordid history here. They built one and had to hire off-duty cops to handle the massive amount of traffic it drew. The franchisee quickly put up five more (because it takes like 20 minutes to assemble one out of a kit you order from Sears) around the metro. A couple of years later, we were down to two of the six and a different franchisee out of Missouri was running those. It's been like that for at least ten years now. That first store was demolished and replaced by a Hardee's.
The last time I had lunch at one, it took way longer to order than it should have because the girl on the other end doesn't listen and puts in the wrong food (this happens all the freaking time) and it was close to half an hour before the food finally arrived. Since it takes fifteen minutes to drive here from the office, that makes work lunch impossible. Sonic's original slogan was "Service at the Speed of Sound." But this store has always been Service at the Speed of Slug. Until now. Now, you can order through Sonic's app and the food should (in theory) be ready when you get there.
Folks, I can't even begin to describe how the idea that I never have to talk to a Sonic order taker ever again excites me.
The app menu is straightforward and logical. You can customize stuff to a degree. Sonic has a reputation of being willing to make literally anything you can dream up with the available ingredients on hand, but this app isn't that flexible. I can add pickles to my cheesesteak and mustard to my chili dog, but I can't make the item I used to have them make every time I stopped for breakfast back when there was a Sonic on my work route...the amazing and wonderful chili breakfast toaster. Chili, egg, and cheese on Texas toast. This is never a bad idea.
I build my order and set the arrival time for 11:15am. Then it comes to paying. Here's where it all goes wrong. You can't just pay with your credit card or with Apple Pay, you have to purchase a virtual gift card in specific increments. So I'm going to have to pay $15 for my $10.50 order. Yes, you'll still have that $4.50 for a future order, but you know you're eventually going to die with a languishing amount on the card. That's just stupid. If you can buy the gift card through the app, you should be able to just pay for your food through the app. There's no excuse for this.
You also can't set a tip for the carhop. So you're either stiffing the carhop, or you'll need to keep a couple singles in your wallet anyway.
Once I buy the gift card and reorder the food (because the shopping cart expired in the time it took to buy the gift card), I head to Sonic. I arrive and check in at 11:10. Check-in requires you pull in a stall and enter the stall number in the app to let them know where you are (the number is on the driver-'s side pole that holds the menu screen. It's also displayed in the left corner of the screen itself.) There's no option to use the drive-thru.
A black bar shows up on the bottom of the screen with my name on it. It's showing the order process. Eventually, the screen says "JUSTIN is about to arrive with your food!" Which he does. Food arrives at 11:22. It's late, but still plenty of time to eat. Everything is hot and delicious.
So will the app make me want to Sonic more often? Yes. It absolutely will.
But it would help if they built one closer to the office.
