[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-1299967143.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tThe restaurant inside the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis is eliminating its front-of-house staff and replacing traditional service with QR-code ordering.<\/p>\n
\n\tCardamom, the museum\u2019s in-house restaurant operated by DDP Restaurant Group, will shift to a counter-service model this week, with customers ordering via their phones rather than through servers. Sixteen hosts and servers are being laid off as part of the transition, though kitchen staff and bartenders will remain, according to reporting by\u00a0MPR News<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe company framed the change as a long-considered business decision tied to uneven traffic and rising costs. Because Cardamom\u2019s crowds fluctuate with museum programming and seasons, staffing has often been inconsistent. Workers either cut early on slow days or stretched thin during peak hours, a spokesperson told MPR.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWorkers and labor advocates tell a different story. Some employees said the layoffs felt abrupt, and at least one suggested they were retaliatory, pointing to recent organizing efforts. Others noted that shifting to a QR-based system would likely reduce tip income, which can make up a significant share of front-of-house pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tA spokesperson for the Walker Art Center told ARTnews<\/em> that the museum and the restaurant are separate entities, adding that the museum can\u2019t comment on \u201cthe restaurant leadership\u2019s approach or decision making.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe decision lands in a broader shift that\u00a0began during Covid-19\u00a0and has proven surprisingly durable. QR codes\u2014once though of as clunky relics of early-2000s tech\u2014became ubiquitous during the pandemic as restaurants looked for contactless alternatives to physical menus and high touch service.<\/p>\n \n\tWhile some restaurants have brought back paper menus for accessibility many have stuck with QR systems, often expanding them into full ordering and payment platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tCardamom\u2019s shift is a step in that evolution that countless restaurants and caf\u00e9s have been using for over five years: not just supplementing service with technology, but replacing it altogether.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/walker-art-center-cardamom-qr-code-layoffs-1234781091\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-1299967143.jpg?w=1024″] The restaurant inside the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis is eliminating its front-of-house staff and replacing traditional service with QR-code ordering. Cardamom, the museum\u2019s in-house restaurant operated by DDP Restaurant Group, will shift to a counter-service model this week, with customers ordering via their phones rather than through servers. Sixteen hosts and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1880435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1880435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1880435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1880435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1880435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}