Back to the future?

I found this great article from the New York Times - circa 1908.

This new restaurant, says the article, will be eight stories high and can accommodate 5,000 diners at any one time.. and, it claims, you will never see a waiter.

So, what happens is this. You go to the restaurant and, rather than have a waiter bring you the menu, you write your order on what the article calls an 'electronic pad'.  This order is, supposedly, instantly relayed to the kitchen.

Then, the center part of your table, on which who have hopefully not left your handbag, shoots down to the second floor. Here, a waiter (yes, they do have them but hidden away) sets the table with all your requirements, including the food and wine, and the table then zooms back up to you, fully laden.

In the dining room, there will be some staff. There will be what they call captains; the bloke who takes your money at the end of your meal. And then, there are busboys to clear away any debris, but the article I read calls them omnibuses, which is rather quaint.

I've looked on the internet, but I can't see that this plan ever reached fruition. Shame.