AU674764B2 - Fast food drive through facility - Google Patents

Description

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AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT (Original) APPLICATION NO:

LODGED:

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION LODGED:

ACCEPTED:

PUBLISHED:

a RELATED ART: *s 6..

a NAME OF APPLICANT: MARK VICTOR KEEFE FIORI a.

SACTUAL INVENTOR: APPLICANT ADDRESS FOR SERVICE: KELVIN LORD AND COMPANY, Patent Trade Mark Attorneys, of 4 Douro Place, West Perth, Western Australia, 6005, AUSTRALIA.

INVENTION TITLE: "FAST FOOD DRIVE THROUGH FACILITY" DETAILS OF ASSOCIATED PROVISIONAL APPLICATION NO'S: Australian Provisional Patent Application No. PM 0673, filed August 8 1993.

The following Statement is a full description of this invention including the best method of performing it known to me: The present invention relates to a fast food drive through facility.

Previous attempts to operate pizza drive through facilities have failed because of the length of time typically associated with preparing and cooking pizza. One solution proposed maintaining the pizzas, once cooked, in ovens awaiting purchase by drive through customers. However, conventional heating apparatus continue the cooking process and within a few minutes the pizza is no longer fit for consumption.

The present invention seeks to overcome at least in part one or more of these problems.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a fast food drive through facility including an ordering station and a supply station including a refrigerated 0 storage means for refrigerating pre-made uncooked food items, a cooking meais for cooking the food items and a storage means for storing the cooked food items, where the orders received at the ordering station may be transferred to the supply station so that *a goods ordered can be retrieved from the storage means, wherein the storage means is able to receive a plurality of cooked food items and maintain the cooked food item in an 15 ambient atmosphere having a temperature and moisture content within a predetermined range so as to maintain the cooked food items in a substantially cooked condition after a relatively long period of time.

The present invention will hereinafter be described with particular reference to use in relation to the supply of fast food being pizza, although it is to be understood that it is of general applicability. For example, the facility could be used in relation to the supply of hamburgers, chickens, pasta or the like.

~P re_ I I_ The present inventior -will now be described, by way of example, with particular reference to the accompanying drawing which is a schematic plan view of a pizza drive through facility in accordance with the present invention.

Shown in the drawing is a pizza drive through facility 10 comprising an ordering station 12, a supply station 14, and a storage means in the form of a holding cabinet 16. The ordering station 12 includes a display panel 20 for displaying a menu, and a communicator 22 typically for receiving verbal requests from the customer and for communication with an operator at the supply station 14. Typically, the display panel 20 displays different Spizza flavours and a range of assorted sizes. The communicator 22 is typically a voice o* 10 activated microphone and speaker system. The facility 10 also has a drive-way 30 which is routed past the ordering station 12 and the supply station 14. A customer's car 32 can be driven to a point adjacent the ordering station 12 for use of the communicator 22 in placing an order from the display panel The supply station 14 typically has an access window 40, a communicator 42 for 15 communicating with the communicator 22, a holding cabinet 16 for short term storage of the fast food, a TV monitor screen 8 for displaying the customer's requested order, an operator's cutting table 63, container storage shelves 28, a refrigerated storage cabinet 73 for refrigerated storage ofpre-made food items and an oven 50. The access window enables the operator to access the customer's vehicle 32 in the driveway 30 when located adjacent the access window The oven 50 has a feed end 51 and a retrieve end 53, such that the pre-made food items Li v st

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I p L to be cooked are placed at the feed end 51 and cooked food items are removed from the retrieve end 53 once the cooking process has been completed. The holding cabinet 16 has feed end 52 and a retrieve end 54, such that the cooked food items are placed at the feed end 52 once the cooking process has been completed and substantially as cooked food items are removed from the retrieve end 54 upon request from a customer.

The refrigerated storage cabinet 73 is located near the feed end 51 of the pizza oven The refrigerated storage cabinet 73 is conveniently located next to the pizza oven 50 so to allow the operator to collect pre-made pizzas, and then feed them into the pizza oven at the feed end 51. The oven 50 supplies cooked pizzas to the holding cabinet 16 at So 10 retrieve end 53.

All pre-made food products stored in the refrigerated storage cabinet 73, are preferably stored in their own cooking container or tray suitable for the oven The holding cabinet 16 is able to receive a plurality of pizzas. Further, the holding cabinet 16 has means for maintaining within it an ambient atmosphere of controlled heat and 15 moisture. The ambient atmosphere in the cabinet 16 is capable of maintaining the temperature and moisture content of the pizzas so that they can be maintained in a o* substantially as cooked condition for a relatively long period of time. This length of time would typically vary from 1 hour to 5 hours.

The holding cabinet 16 has the effect of maintaining the pizzas moist and crisp over a relatively long period of time.

The holding cabinet 16 is located adjacent the pizza oven 50 in which pizzas are cooked.

H'r o0z \4YT^ O The pizzas may be cooked in the conventional manner.

It is envisaged that a transport mechanism could be used to transport the cooked pizzas from the pizza oven 50 into the holding cabinet 16. For this purpose, the holding cabinet 16 typically has two doors, being the feed end 52 and the retrieve end 54.

In use, a customer drives her or his vehicle 32 along the driveway 30 to a position adjacent the ordering station 12 whereas the customer expresses/speaks her or his order into the communicator 22. The order is received by the operator at the communicator 42 in the supply station 14. The operator enters the customer's requested order, so that the aforementioned requested order appears on the TV monitor screen 8, the operator ,hen retrieves the ordered items from the holding cabinet 16, and places it onto the cutting table 63 and subsequently into a pizza container. At the same time, the customer drives her or his vehicle 32 along the driveway 30 to a position adjacent to the access window .t 40. The operator at the communicator 42 then passes the container through the access window 40 to the customer in the vehicle 32.

15 Cooked pizzas are removed from the pizza oven 50 by an operator and placed onto racks in the holding cabinet 16.

S0* The fast food drive through 10 has the advantage that food can be kept in a substantially *0 as cooked condition for a relatively long period of time and served to the customer with little apparent degradation to the quality of the food.

Modifications and variations such as would be apparent to a skilled addressee are considered within the scope of the present invention.

Claims (4)

1. A pizza drive through facility including an ordering station and a supply station including a refrigerated storage unit for refrigerating pre-made pizzas, a cooking means for cooking pizzas, and a storage means for storing cooked pizzas, wher'e the orders received at the ordering station may be transferred to the supply station so that pizzas ordered can be retrieved from the storage means, wherein the storage means includes a humidified cabinet able to receive a plurality of cooked pizzas and maintain the cooked pizzas in an ambient atmosphere having a temperature and moisture content within a predetermined range so as to maintain the cooked pizzas in a substantially as cooked condition for a period of from one to five hours.

2. A pizza drive through facility as claimed in claim 1, wherein said ordering station includes a display means for displaying a menu of the cooked pizza and a means for receiving orders.

3. A pizza drive through facility as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein a customer places an order at the ordering station and receives the ordered pizza at the supply station, the pizza having been stored in the storage means.

4. A pizza drive through facility substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. 20 DATED THIS 12TH AY OF SEPTEMBER 1996. MARK VICTOR E FORI By his Patent Attorneys LORD COMPANY 25 PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA *o A 0 *0 I