For terraces
Twenty metres to the till, four times a table.
A terrace has a problem the dining room does not: everything is far away. The till is inside, the kitchen further still, and between them and table 14 there are twenty metres and three tables that stop you on the way. In summer that multiplies by however many tables you put outside.
The walk that disappears
Today a round ordered outside means one trip to the till to enter it and another to the pass so the kitchen finds out. An order sent from the table arrives at the same moment on the waiter’s phone and on the screen of the station preparing it. The waiter stays outside among the tables instead of commuting. They go in once, at settlement.
Forty tables in summer, twelve in winter
A terrace is not the same size all year, so the subscription need not be either. Each location picks its own plan and is billed separately, which means the summer garden can sit on a bigger plan for exactly the months it works. Close it in October and you switch it off in the dashboard that day. You do not sign for twelve months to use four.
- Labels for new tables print yourself, whenever you like, on any printer.
- Put them under a clear laminate. They are printed paper, and rain ruins them the way it ruins any paper.
- The code stays the same year after year, because it points at your menu rather than at a file.
The rosé runs out at nine
You mark it unavailable from your phone, in the middle of the terrace, and it disappears from every menu opened after that. Nobody orders something you do not have, and nobody walks out to a table to apologise. The same goes for a price: change it in the catalogue and it shows within seconds, at every table at once.
Seasonal staff
Summer brings new people and some stay three months. There is not much to teach from a manual: orders arrive on a phone and what needs approving is approved with a tap. Anyone who would rather order from a person still orders from a person. People go out to be looked after and to talk, and a code on the table is one more route in, not the only one.
The bill, at a table outside
Each guest sees their own share already worked out and pays it, without waiting for anyone and without anyone going inside. Whoever prefers settles at the counter, in cash or on your own card machine, exactly as now. Your own till issues the receipt. We keep between 0.5% and 1% on payments taken online.
Guests are on their own mobile data, and your team’s phones can be too, so neither side is waiting on your wifi to reach the far end of the terrace. The till keeps working whatever happens, because it never depended on us.
Also worth reading
The outside tables can have codes by the time you open tomorrow.
Make an account, photograph your menu, print the labels.