Hi Team,
We had our Welcome to Breadcrumb meeting a couple of weeks ago, and since then everyone seems much more familiar and comfortable with the system. I have since put together a new reference sheet about our ticket language and policies when it comes to communicating via ticket. This is going in all training manuals from here on out, but I did want everyone who predates the change to have access as well. Any questions, please let me know.
Cheers,
Tracy
Ringing in Food Orders
- What: The printer is the main method of communication between the guest and the chefs, with the front of the house as intermediaries. It tells the kitchen what the guest wants to eat, how, and when.
- When: As soon as we have the order. If the guests aren’t ready for their first course, we still ring the order in, with a memo line indicating a “hold fire”.
- Why do we ring tickets straight away? Because it gives the chefs a heads-up. It helps the kitchen run better, which helps the restaurant run better. A good rule of thumb is “Transaction? Touch!”
- How:
1. Select the table number for your table. The highest table number is the label we choose for tables we push together for large parties.
2. Ring all seat specific items to a seat number and all shared items as “table.” Seat 1 doesn’t change with the number of guests. An empty seat 1 is still seat 1.
3. Make sure the items are coming out in the desired order, and within the appropriate course. What you see on the screen is exactly what Chef receives on the far side.
- All Order Fire items should be moved to 1st Course
- Hold Fires should be indicated by modifying the last item on the ticket. To fire, touch the correct course line and hit send.
3. Any overall messages to the kitchen should be the last modifier on the last item of a ticket. In other words, if you want to tell Chef that table 308 is industry, the last item should have all other modifiers listed, and end with “SP: Industry”.
4. Any modifiers should be as clear, concise and complete as we can make them. Think about our busy chefs reading the tickets, and double check the accuracy and clarity before pressing “send.” In general, a new thought should get a new line.
5. When it comes to allergies, only items the guest will be enjoying should be modified.
- Guests with allergies should have their individual items modified using the “Allergy” memo line in BreadCrumb.
- Shared items should be modified, with a seat number specified, only if the guest with the allergy is partaking. For example: a the guest has a gluten allergy but the rest of the table is sharing the polpette; do not modify the meatballs.
- Should the allergy not be available in the BC mod list please type allergy as follows:
- Allergy: Figs P1
6. Very large parties (eight or more): run by the pass and give the chef a heads up on the order before ringing in the ticket. The most important piece of information is this: is it an “order fire” ticket or are there multiple courses? Start with that. If it’s multiple courses, the kitchen will most likely be able to handle the ticket just fine. If it’s order fire, the chef might want more or less detail, so start general: “Three pastas, five pizzas and a couple of boards.” If the chefs want more detail, they’ll ask for it.
7. Each server should start two “tabs” at the beginning of their shift (or when needed)--one for comps and one for deletes.
- Name them something unique to you, as the system won’t allow more than one tab called “comp”. Feel free to call it something ridiculous but work appropriate (SFW).
- ONLY 2 TABS PLEASE
- All $0 items (sides of bread, beer samples, extra parm, etc.) need to go on the delete tab so that they don’t print on the guests’ check. Always double check that your tabs are clean before dropping them off to a guest!
8. SP’s, Allergies, and other Guest Notes:
- All SP guests or guests will allergies should be rung in under the SP button and noted what their SP or allergy is.
- The SP button should then be placed on hold (swipe right) throughout the guests’ experience for all Service staff to have access to notes on the guest. Ideally, this should be the first item added to the check so it is super visible.
- This item must be deleted (swipe way left) just before check is printed and delivered to the guests table.
- Notes for the bar & kitchen should now be modifiers on the last item on the ticket (guest notes, SP, etc.) Please note that you can copy and paste from your SP button to save yourself time, so make sure notes are found on all tickets!
Other kitchen codes and notes:
- “Drop on top” means that the runners should not wait for food to be cleared before delivering the next course. This is only used when guests order items out of the usual progression.
- “Order fire”: one course only. Either the guests don’t want appetizers or they’ve already had them. Keep in mind that “order fire” tickets are much harder on the BOH than coursed tickets, so always try your best to get the whole order at once. Make sure to let the guests know that we are happy to course things out for them, and that some entrees take quite a bit of time since we cook everything to order. This doesn’t mean we should be pushy, just that we should make this information available to the guests.
- “Avanti”: When you want to fire second course as soon as the first course walks, mark the first course with "Avanti" (Italian for "go forth!").
- After a table places an order the server must read back the order in the manner we would course things and confirm the guests are comfortable with this.
- i.e. A table order Salty Pig pizza, Arugula Salad, Pig Board, and small linguine. The Server would say “Would you like the charcuterie and the Arugula salad followed by the Salty Pig pizza and Linguine pasta?” or “Are you comfortable with us sending the charcuterie and the Arugula salad followed by the Salty Pig pizza and Linguine pasta?”
- Even with Avanti in place to make things feel more seamless, our goal is to course so we can change silver and plates and give the guests an elevated experience that is not expected at a casual restaurant.
- Avanti should be used for:
- Guests with a time limit
- Tables that are ordering super limited or simple items like Small Board & Pizza
- Anyone who makes it clear they want everything to just keep coming.
- Avanti should be the last modifier on the last item of the first course.
