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Food or drink tray

Food or drink tray description/claims

The present application is a continuation-in-part of the earlier U.S. Utility patent application entitled “FOOD OR DRINK TRAY,” Ser. No. 11/901,924, filed Sep. 20, 2007, which is a continuation-in-part of the earlier U.S. Utility patent application entitled “FOOD OR DRINK TRAY”, Ser. No. 11/219,056 filed Sep. 1, 2005, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated entirely herein by reference.

1. Technical Field

This invention relates generally to trays and more specifically to curvilinear shaped restaurant trays with hinged handles.

2. State of the Art

Servers at social gatherings and in restaurants transport ordered food and beverages from a kitchen or bar patrons. The server often uses a conventional circle tray and will place and balance several drinks and/or dishes of food on the tray. The tray is then transported to a table, for example, using a single hand to carry the tray. As is often done, servers balance the tray on one hand. This leaves the other hand free to handle checks or money and to move beverages and/or dishes of food from the tray.

Conventional trays are typically circular with a large diameter in order to accommodate many drinks and/or several dishes of food. Because of the size and the amount of dishes of food and beverages on the tray, it is difficult to balance, and particularly difficult to adjust for the weight shifting that occurs as food dishes and beverages are removed from the tray. Often, dishes or beverages fall to the floor and result in the breaking of the dishes or glasses and creating a mess that needs to be cleaned by a restaurant employee. Furthermore, the food or drinks have to be reordered, thereby creating a further delay in service to the patron. This is costly, time consuming, and embarrassing to the server.

Accordingly, what is needed is a restaurant tray that provides greater and easier ability to balance, support and transport the food and beverages and minimize the possibility of spilling any dish or beverage while still providing the advantages of enabling transport of large quantities of food or drink as with conventional trays.

The present invention relates to a curvilinear shaped restaurant tray with a hinged handle. In a simple form, the tray may be a food or drink tray that includes a support substrate having a truncated crescent configuration. The substrate may include a top surface and bottom surface each extending along a first longitudinal axis and a second lateral axis perpendicular to the first longitudinal axis. The substrate may have a curvilinear shape, such as, but not limited to a heart shape. A handle may be hinged and allowed to rotate about an axis and/or be connected to and extend away from the bottom surface. The handle may extend transversely to the substrate. The handle may have a cross section having at least one of an oblong, an obround, an oval, a crescent, or other such configuration that may allow the user to orient the tray to a comfortable position to reduce wrist and arm fatigue. A length dimension of the cross section may extend in a range from zero to forty-five degrees relative to the first longitudinal axis. In use, the length dimension may thus be generally pointed at the server's shoulder or may extend at a predetermined angle in a range from zero to forty-five degrees relative to a line from the handle to the server's shoulder.

The handle may be connected to the substrate at a substantially laterally central position between lateral edges of the substrate. The handle may have a minimum spacing from each lateral edge in a range from three to seven inches. The handle may be connected to the substrate at a substantially longitudinally central position between longitudinal edges of the substrate. A maximum length of the tray may be in a range from fourteen to thirty-six inches. Another range of lengths may be from twenty-seven to forty inches. The maximum length of the tray may be in a narrower range from nineteen to twenty-four inches. The handle may have a length in a range from five to ten inches. The handle may alternatively have a length from three to seven inches. The length of the handle may be slightly less than two hand widths relative to a server using the tray.

The handle may have a tight hinge that is designed to move between at least two substantially stable positions. One of the stable positions may be an extended position with the handle extending in a transverse direction from the bottom surface of the substrate. The other stable position may be a folded position with the handle extending away from the substrate in a position transverse to the extended position of the handle, wherein the handle is substantially parallel with a plane of the substrate. The handle may have a cross section having at least one of an oblong, an obround, an oval, a crescent, or other such configuration that may allow the user to orient the tray to a comfortable position to reduce wrist and arm fatigue. A “rest” may provide a convenient contour for resting the tray on the user's hips or shoulders, thereby also reducing user fatigue. The handle may include a knob coupled to an end of the handle to aid the user in securely gripping the handle and controlling the tray. The tray may also have a raised outer edge acting as a rim to limit the sliding of articles placed upon the top surface of the tray. The rim also serves to substantially contain any food, drink or other item spilled within the tray to avoid messes and to minimize slipping hazards.

In another simple form, the present invention is directed to a food or drink tray system. The food or drink tray system may include at least one tray having an oblong configuration. The tray may include a top surface and bottom surface configured to rest on a shoulder of a user. A handle may be coupled to the bottom surface. The handle may extend transversely away from the bottom surface and/or away from a plane of the tray. The handle may have at least one of an obround, an oval, and a rectilinear cross section. A rib on a peripheral edge of the top surface of the tray may extend away from the tray in a substantially opposite direction from the handle. A handle aperture may be defined by structure of the tray extending through the tray. The aperture may also be defined by structure that forms at least a portion of the handle. The food or drink tray system may further include a plurality of similar food or drink trays. The plurality of food or drink trays may be conveniently stacked with a handle of a superjacent tray being received within the handle aperture of a subjacent tray.

The trays of the food or drink tray system may have a truncated crescent configuration or other configuration defined by any predetermined curvilinear perimeter. That is, the shape of the tray substrate or support surface may be of any shape which may be desirable for aesthetics or other reasons. However, elongated, oblong, and crescent shaped substrates provide certain advantages in accordance with the present invention. The trays of the food or drink tray system may include shoulder engaging structure on a bottom surface of the trays. The shoulder engaging structure may include an ergonomic surface modifying treatment for comfortably engaging a user's shoulder. The food or drink tray system may include one or more tray support having a receiving structure. The receiving structure may be configured to receive the handle and support the trays in a substantially horizontal position between periods of transport.

In one aspect, the tray of the present invention may include a restaurant tray including an oblong tray having a top surface and bottom surface, wherein the tray is configured to rest on the shoulder of a waiter. A handle coupled to the bottom surface and extending away from the bottom surface may be transverse to a plane of the tray. The handle may have a cross section with at least one of an obround configuration, a circle configuration, a diamond configuration, an oval configuration and a rectilinear configuration. The handle may have a length sufficient for two hands to grasp the handle. The handle may also be slightly longer than a single hand width in order for a proximal end of the handle to engage the user's forearm for greater stability. The handle may have a length within the range of at least two female hand widths to two male hand widths. Additionally, the oblong tray may include at least one of a truncated crescent configuration, an oval configuration, an obround configuration, a rectangular configuration and/or any combination thereof. The top surface of the tray may have at least one beverage recess for retaining a beverage within the at least one beverage recess.

The tray of the present invention may further include a plurality of beverage recesses and the tray may include a rib, wherein the rib is coupled to a peripheral edge of the tray and extends away from the tray in a substantially opposite direction from the handle. The handle may include a handle base plate configured to be coupled to the bottom surface of the tray. Additionally, the tray may further comprise a handle aperture extending from the top surface through the tray including the bottom surface, and at least partially into the handle. Thus, the handle aperture may be configured to receive a handle from another restaurant tray so as to enable stacking of the trays.

In another simple form, the invention may include a method of using of a food or drink tray. The method may include holding a handle that extends transversely from a bottom surface of tray with at least one first hand. The method may include supporting a portion of the bottom surface of a tray on a shoulder corresponding to the hand holding the handle. That is, a shoulder on the same side of the body as the hand holding the handle of the tray. The method may include leveling a top surface of the tray by raising or lowering the hand holding the handle. The portion of the bottom surface of the tray placed on the shoulder may form a pivot point and the hand may pivot the tray using the handle.

Thus, the method may also include rotating the tray inwardly or outwardly relative to the user's body by pivoting the tray on the shoulder. In one aspect, the method may include regularly supporting a majority of the tray and the objects thereon inwardly of an outermost edge of a user's shoulders. The method of using the tray may include increasing control of the tray by applying leverage to the handle to balance the tray as items are removed from the tray. The method may also include holding the handle with a second hand in addition to holding the handle with the at least one first hand for increased control.

In yet another aspect, the present invention may include a method of using a restaurant tray. The method may further comprise the steps of pivoting the tray when navigating through highly congested spaces, wherein the portion of the bottom surface of the tray placed on the shoulder forms a pivot point and the hand pivots the tray using the handle. The method may include balancing the tray as items are removed from the tray.

In another aspect of the present invention may include a method of using a food or drink tray, the method comprising rotating a rotatable handle about a hinge from a folded position to an extended when the tray is empty; resting the tray on one of a server's hips and shoulder while the handle is gripped by the server; filling the tray with one of food items, drink items and combinations thereof; carrying the tray to a table; rotating the rotatable handle to a folded position to rest the tray on the table; and unloading the tray.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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