Digital upheaval sweeping Australia food service industry

Sydney

AFTER three decades running McDonald's Corp restaurants, Tony Plunkett thought he knew everything about flipping burgers for a profit, and last year went out on his own with a startup franchise in the Australian city of Melbourne.

But he soon learned his industry was being turned inside out by the Internet, and he has since signed on with UberEats, the food delivery service of Uber Technologies Inc. Last month, he opened Australia's first restaurant - a leased kitchen in a shuttered Sydney night-club - run entirely on deliveries by the US ride-sharing firm.

"When you're running your own delivery service, you need your driver to come bac…