From Chemgal, a puzzling Arlo and Janis:
Chemgal comments: “I suspect this is a jab at places with QR code menus, but I’ve never been to a place that ONLY has QR code menus. Is that common somewhere? Also, what does Janis see as the silver lining in the last panel?”
Comics I Don't Understand 
For that matter, what does she see as the cloud?
The “cloud” refers to the high prices, the silver lining represents the good food and the real menus.
I’ve been to a couple of restaurants that had QR menus by default, but I’m pretty sure they’d bring you a physical printout if you requested one.
We ate at a spot a few weeks ago that only had QR menus. I presume they had “hard copy” someplace, but they didn’t offer it.
Meanwhile, I presumed Arlo’s tactile menu comment meant rather than a menu posted behind the order taker (like fast food).
I was somewhere in May with a QR code system and no menu; oddly enough it was in Beirut, where you wouldn’t think such things likely – but there is a reasonable reason (see later). It was Al Falamanki restaurant overlooking Pigeon Rocks and the sea. The rather unhelpful front-of-house lady just plonked a QR code block down; I didn’t have data access in Lebanon and couldn’t get their wifi password to work (and my older brother doesn’t have a smartphone at all).
Luckily she found a more helpful waiter and although he still had no tactile menu I was able to ask him for the few things we were after that I could remember off the top of my head: hommous, tabbouleh, manakish and shish taouk (grilled marinated chicken on skewers) and the first two of six Almaza beers. He asked if we wanted fries with that, and we did.
Luckily we didn’t have to pay through any app; we just got a bill for nearly five million pounds (LL 4,994,000). The official rate was LL 1,500 to the dollar last autumn, now LL 15,000, but the unofficial one everybdoy works to is around to LL 95,000, up from about LL 35,000 in autumn. When I was a kid, it was a little over LL 3 to the USD.
So no doubt printed menus go out of date pretty quick these days, making a reasonable reason for digital-only menus. The bill in USD was $51.50, of which the six beers was $24, so the food was $13.75 each.
We also came across a QR code in a place in Bcharre, up in the mountains (we had four days hiking there). Even our (local) guide was foxed. After much negotiation we were brought four coffees, though we only wanted two. I think there you normally had to pay through the app, so we must have damaged their systems by paying cash.
Bcharre is where Khalil “The Prophet” Gibran was born and his body now lies (though he died in Manhattan). It’s also the nearest town to the Cedars of God grove of cedar trees, Lebanon’s national symbol; one of them was said to be 3,000 years old. The grove is protected (from goats, mostly, who nibble young saplings) by a wall commissioned and paid for by Queen Victoria.
We were in Beirut on a return visit… I was born there and did all my primary schooling there. I was last there as a youth in 1975, then again twice in the mid-90s on business trips. My brother first arrived at age seven and was last there in 1970 when he was 21, so hadn’t seen the place in more than half a century. Despite a lot of new construction (and some destruction) the area we lived in West Beirut, not far from the sea front, felt remarkably similar to what we remembered. The massive destruction, flattening large areas of downtown and the business and politics area, is about two miles east. Our part was largely unaffected, at least by shelling.
My phone isn’t quite good enough to scan codes. So my cooking has improved.
I assume he means having a menu he can hold, so it would apply to fast-food joints with menu boards, too.
I am sure that my phone would be able to scan the QR code, but I am not interested in trying to decipher all of the menu options on a five-inch screen. Luckily, this abomination has not spread to Germany yet, or at least if it has, it is restricted to trendy ratholes that I’m not about to visit anyway.
I think Larry L has it, it’s a menu you can hold and read rather than the one above the cashier. I think it implies a better class of restaurant.
I could be wrong, but I think the “tactile menu” Arlo is referring to is a menu that’s not rendered on paper, but on a tablet computer.
Back in April, I went to an Italian restaurant in Copenhagen, Denmark which had menus on electronic tablets. The waitress gave us each a tablet menu, and we scrolled through the menu and selected what we wanted. This is the first and only time (so far) that I’ve ever used a such a “tactile” menu in a restaurant.
If that is what Arlo is referring to when he says “tactile menu,” then it’s a bit puzzling why the menus they’re holding are made out of paper. It could be that Arlo has agreed to accompany Janis to a restaurant he does not want to eat at, and Janis has agreed that she’ll eat whereas Arlo will not.
If I’m right about that, then that explains the “silver lining” comment at the end: The prices are very expensive, but at least Arlo won’t be breaking the bank by ordering any food.
I read this as the menu being fancy enough to be embossed, so when you feel it you can feel the raised lettering on the cover at least. Definitely expensive, you’d hope good.
Narmitaj, I enjoyed the story about your trip, thanks.
Okay, so in re-reading this cartoon, I’m now thinking that the “tactile menus” that Arlo mentions in the third panel is not referring to menus on tablet computers as I had previously thought, but rather to physical, tangible menus printed on paper stock.
But if that’s the case, why he mentioning his rule after Janis remarks about the prices? Is he pointing out that restaurants with paper menus are generally considerably more expensive than restaurants without them? (I find that hard to believe, but maybe that’s the way it works in the Arlo&Janis-verse.)
As for Janis’ final comment about a silver lining, it could be that she agrees with his rule. It might not be a personal rule for her (as it is for Arlo), but she sees where he’s coming from, and is glad she doesn’t have to deal with all the new-fangled “paper-less menu” technology just to eat out.
Once again, I agree with Kilby. We went to a new restaurant that just had the QR sticker on the table. When a server came by, I asked for a menu; she pointed to this dots pattern. I said my phone was at home, and they managed to bring a paper menu rather than have us get up and leave.
Some restaurant manager said “They all have their noses on their phones anyway, so why not?”
There are a couple places I’ve been to that don’t have physical menus at all, just QR. A couple more than have takeout menu/mailers as well as QR, but none you would use and give back. At least one that you order through your phone. I think that one, you can have your waiter order for you, but that just means they’re using their phone for you.
Sorry, but the word “tactile” doesn’t bring to my mind a flat sheet of paper. Braille is tactile, but not printed words on a page.
If he’d said “physical” menu, I’d buy the QR-code explanation.
Powers, I’m with you on that, tactile needs to mean more than actually physical. Commenters have suggested it means something just a bit fancier, like book format, or embossed cover, or whatnot to make it position a little upscale.
I think he’s a Luddite – that’s the cloud. He’ll only eat at restaurants with paper menus, or maybe in binders, which tend to have better but more expensive food – the silver lining. Hmmm, is that how their cat got his name?
I like the thought that Luddy the cat might be a Luddite! (Though it’s understood you were more relevantly speculating to attribute that to Arlo.)
Just for the record, if anyone needs it, Luddy is a nickname and his full name is Ludwig.
@ Lola (19) – Johnson’s blog is currently in developmental limbo, but according to Wikipedia, there the cat was “… often referred to as “Luddie”, and his fans are [or were] identified as “Luddites”.”
Becky@12 – Thanks! For you and anyone else interested, here is a relevant composite image with (top) my brother eating at the Falamanki restaurant; the LL 4,944,000 bill; Pigeon Rocks* and then (bottom) St Anthony of Qozhaya Monastery where we stayed while hiking; discussions with the QR cafe in Bcharre; walking in the hills;, and one of the Cedars in the grove surrounded by Queen Victoria’s wall.
*Also known as Raouche Rocks, since Raouche is the area of Ras Beirut (“head” or “tip” of Beirut that sticks into the sea) that they’re in; but apparently Raouche is based on the French for rock, rocher, so Raouche Rocks is tautologous, like River Avon, Sahara Desert and Cheddar Gorge.
To be honest my first thought about “tactile” is that he was referring to greasy residue on the menu from sticky fingers, such as what one might find at an extremely downscale restaurant.
Some menus do feel nice in the hand. Depends on paper stock and other add-ons. IIRC a local Thai place used to have fancy heavy-duty book-like menus.
One advantage to a menu on a QR code or tablet is that prices (and listed items) can be constantly changed – price yesterday can easily be more today.
Having said that – I have never seen a QR code menu or a tablet menu. Even discounting being mostly home over the past 3.5 years I don’t think I have seen a printed menu either in over 10 years.
When one lives cheaply – it is fast food (Wendys for us) or Asian buffets or when in Lancaster, PA – local buffets. (And when at eating at buffets one must remember “all you can eat” is an offer – NOT a challenge.) (Plus I don’t like to eat out.)