4food – an Internet-enabled burger emporium at 40th & Mad – opening on Sep 7

4foodCaroline McCarthy, of CNET News, in Is this the burger joint of the future?notes the coming  opening of 4food, an Internet-enabled hamburger emporium at Madison & 4oth in Manhattan.

The three-level space is impressive, with power outlets at every seat (your receipt comes with a Wi-Fi password) and a massive video screen that projects, among other things, recent tweets and public Foursquare check-ins to the venue.

It’s green..

4food openly professes a devotion to high-quality, locally sourced ingredients, and all packaging for food and drinks–which, by the way, are primarily fruit tea-based concoctions without a super-size cola in sight–is biodegradable. A massive compost machine in the restaurant’s basement can handle 400 pounds of waste every 24 hours.

and has, of course, viral marketing

4food encourages customers to save their favorite burger combinations in the 4food system, give them catchy names, and use the likes of Twitter and Facebook (and even YouTube video ads) to convince their friends to buy them. Every time a custom burger is ordered, the creator receives 25 cents in 4food store credit.

4food’s stated aim is to ‘De-junk’ NYC and they are giving food credits for the best suggestions.