There’s a new alternative to shaking your ice for a refill at restaurants – well, at least at David’s Catfish House in Andalusia, where the eatery has become the first in the state to employ a new technology.

The Kallpod platform – a combination of a button-pushing device located on each table, and a wristwatch alert system on servers’ arms – has been installed in the restaurant for more than half a month, and owner Bill Spurlin says the change has been nothing but positive.

“It’s been great,” Spurlin said. “Logically, if you need some more tea, or you need your check or anything, all you have to do is press the button on the table and your server knows.”

While the system is relatively simple in concept, Spurlin said David’s in Andalusia is the first restaurant in Alabama to use the new platform.

“Initially, I said we’d do it on a trial basis,” Spurlin said. “Literally, I knew after two shifts that it was something we were going to keep. It works that well.”

Spurlin said the signal sent from the press of the button, located on a mobile Kallpod station the size of a drink coaster, alerts servers that a specific table needs service, no matter where the waiter or waitress is located in the restaurant. He added that a special code sent from the kitchen also alerts servers that food is done for a specific table the moment it is ready.

“It really helps the flow of the restaurant,” Spurlin said, adding David’s became one of the first in all of the U.S. to adopt the new system because of an Andalusia connection with the company’s COO, Steven Barlow.

“He grew up in Andalusia and we knew him through that,” Spurlin said.

Barlow, who became involved with the technology after seeing it used abroad, has imported the system into the U.S. and is now headquartered in Los Angeles, exclusively serving the states and Canada.

“Having grown up in south Alabama with David’s Catfish and the Spurlin family, it is truly exciting to work with a restaurant I have always loved,” Barlow said.

Spurlin said the same day he installed the system at David’s Catfish House, the Four Seasons hotel in Los Angeles also began using the platform.

The Kallpod platform, which also offers a more detailed variation of the system with specific buttons for different needs, is also available through the company. For more information on the service, visit kallpod.com.