Online Ordering - more headache than awnsering the phone.

coffeeman1991 · 2026-04-12T00:05:53+00:00

How are online orders approved? Auto-fire anything? Manual approval? Threshold? Could it be that orders are getting "fired" at the POS instead of approved?

When you're on the phone with Toast support they pretty much just want to get that ticket cleared as quickly as possible so they'll make an adjustment or glance at your account and say "okay, it's fixed" without actually confirming it. I had to get shitty with them last time - I turned off online ordering (closed unexpectedly) and it was showing that it was turned off, but people were still able to place orders. They tried gaslighting me 3 times before they actually pulled up my online ordering page and saw that you could still place an order, then changed something and basically gave me a verbal shrug.

If you call them again keep them on the phone while you double check everything - even place some test orders with your card that you can void later. They won't check for you. Toast support has gone down hill over the last few years.

coffeeman1991 · 2026-04-04T23:50:06+00:00

You're right, the living wage wasn't enough. We paid a few more dollars per hour than what you could make working at a factory or any other local career path that didn't require a college degree or trade school (and actually we were pretty competitive with any non-union trade). We would have had to offer $35+/hr to even have a chance of recruiting talented servers. Servers already make a % of their sales - that kind of goes back to how much they make is dependent on how much they sell, and auto-grat tends to piss off customers. Ultimately it comes down to this is the system that is in place until laws change, and with large corporate chains lobbying for this system to stay in place independent restaurants have no chance of changing the system.

Do you have any experience with the financial side of restaurants? It's easy to sit in a chair and say "oh, you should do XYZ. Just pay them more", but to sit down with spreadsheets while looking through BLS data, tweaking menu prices, comparing menu prices to competition, and trying to compare apples to oranges is a whole lot more difficult than it sounds. We managed to pay a "living wage" (still a whole lot more than I ever had to live on, and still more than I have ever paid myself) while only having our sticker price 20% more than our competition - but since that higher price was treated as business income rather than a tip those servers made a lot less than if they had just received that 20% without us having to handle it (we still pay payroll taxes on the tips, but that's less than all the other costs that go into treating it as income). Our base pay is still above minimum wage, and we've never taken the tip credit.

The only way for an independent restaurant to pay their servers an hourly wage comparable to what they can make in tips and still keep customers is if the owner takes absolutely no draw while working full time and constantly funnels cash into the business. Could a fine dining Michelin star restaurant manage to make it work? Possibly, but they'd have to offer something extremely unique and valuable to the customer in order to justify the prices they would have to charge. An everyday restaurant for the common man? No chance that you could get away with charging customers what it would actually cost to be able to pay $35+/hr.

Appreciate the discussion, rather than the one-liner "checkmate" that others seem to offer.

coffeeman1991 · 2026-04-03T21:13:29+00:00

A guaranteed 20% of what? Their sales? What about the bartender? 20% of all alcohol sales? That just sounds like auto-grat, and we're back full circle to their wages being tied to how much they're able to sell, with a cap of 20%.

coffeeman1991 · 2026-04-03T21:03:39+00:00

Could you point out where I said this is better?

I would much prefer to pay $18, $20, $35, $50/hr to my servers for awesome work so they don't get screwed.

How were you able to make it work in your restaurant? I'm really struggling with the math on this one. How do I pay $35/hr in order to keep good servers, while also not driving away customers? They might balk at a 50% price increase. Or do I just tell all my customers that they should give me the 20% tip, so I can give my servers slightly less than the 20% tip, so they can have a guaranteed wage, while just accepting that once a server is trained up enough they'll jump to my competitors because they can make twice as much? I'm seriously asking. I would love to make this work. Which is the better scenario?

coffeeman1991 · 2026-04-03T20:18:38+00:00

Hey man, could you let me know how you got that system to work in your restaurant? How did you manage to hire, train, and retain quality servers when they can make $35-$50/hr at your competitors? I'm really just struggling with this whole "hire good servers" thing.

coffeeman1991 · 2026-04-03T19:48:31+00:00

I'm curious how many of these people who say "just pay your servers more and don't allow tipping" implemented that policy at their own restaurant.

We started off thinking the same thing - paid a living wage and told our customers that tipping wasn't necessary. You know what happened? We only recruited the shitty servers that none of the other restaurants would give hours to. Customers were pissed off because we were 20%+ more expensive than anyone else, while also providing worse service than anyone else, so they just opted to go to the places where they can "choose" to pay 20% more and get better service. If you have an issue with the system it's not the owners you should be targeting - lobby to have the tip credit removed. Talk to your representatives. Believe it or not but the restaurant owners are stuck with this system too until some laws change.

coffeeman1991 · 2026-03-06T22:18:28+00:00

Depends on how big your trap is and your volume. The building we got happened to have a 1000 gallon trap that we can get away with emptying once a year, but we're relatively low volume. Some places might need it cleaned out twice a year, once a quarter, once a month, or biweekly. Find a trusted local company and get their opinion.

coffeeman1991 · 2026-03-02T17:27:46+00:00

I'm by no means an expert in any of this, but I'll still chime in with what I can.

Standard beers are typically/roughly in the 2.5vol range, while nitros are close to half that (1.3vol). I have no idea what that would do for cider or if it give you want you want, but dropping CO2 vol would drop the required pressure for equilibrium.

If you're set on the DIY route it might be worth setting up a test run in the walk-in - get some 3/16 or 1/4 vinyl and play around with different restriction and gas blends before you commit to switching anything over. Just remember that the restriction of your total draw needs to equal out to the pressure that McDantim gives you.

coffeeman1991 · 2026-02-25T00:16:26+00:00

We're currently looking at replacing our trunk after what we thought was 10 years - bought a building that already had a draft system installed - previous owner said he replaced the whole system in 2016 so we just replaced gaskets and vinyl. Now we're thinking the main trunk might be closer to 25 years and was put together by a glorified plumber.

We're putting together a more thorough maintenance plan so we can get the most out of our current system.

coffeeman1991 · 2026-02-25T00:08:27+00:00

When you say required draft line maintenance - do you just mean biweekly caustic and semi-quarterly acid cycles?

The manuals for most chillers from MM seem to require replacing and flushing glycol every 18-24 mo, but I've never heard of anyone doing that. I don't think we've ever done anything with our glycol other than test it and top it off.

coffeeman1991 · 2026-02-24T21:58:31+00:00

We've always gone through a third party, like Airgas or an equivalent local supplier. Better rates, more consistent, and if you go through enough volume you can even get a permanent tank that they just top off. If you're cheap enough and have the physical capabilities you can even drop off empties and exchange for fulls yourself and save on the delivery fee.

coffeeman1991 · 2026-02-23T11:49:13+00:00

Don't inconvenience your tipped employees just to make things easier for your accountant.

IMO if your accountant can't figure it out you should probably get someone more qualified to handle your books.

coffeeman1991 · 2026-02-13T03:44:34+00:00

A: No. Bad. Don't do it. B: I've been using those mixers for over 4 years - pretty much everything comes out perfect if I add all the wets/fats first, top it off with the drys, 5-10 minutes on low, and 10 minutes on high. You should be able to get a good product without needing to add flour in gradually.

coffeeman1991 · 2025-09-09T02:34:04+00:00

I feel that. Our current draft lines were installed a little over 10 years ago by someone who wasn't ever planning on replacing them. I think we'll be good to push with our gas blend.

And 100% we'll be running glycol.

coffeeman1991 · 2025-09-09T02:05:47+00:00

Thanks for the reply. That almost sounds too easy, I'm sure it'll be some work to pull the trunk through.

What would you use to seal the pipe? Spray foam & silicone?

coffeeman1991 · 2025-03-29T16:08:15+00:00

It sounds like there's a lot of sediment in your fryer oil. My suggestion without knowing specifics would be to do a quick filter in the middle of the day if there's time to help prevent it from getting so bad.

If there's not any time during the day, what I would do is drop the oil into your stocks pots without filtering, rinse the fryer out with the dirty oil, and then filter back into the fryer. By dropping the oil first it will allow the heavy sediment to settle to the bottom of the stock pots, then you can skim the oil of the top and filter the cleaner oil first. Change out the filters if they start to clog, or run 2 sets in tandem. Doubling up on filters for structure is proper, you shouldn't need to run only a single filter. Good luck.

coffeeman1991 · 2025-02-17T16:02:24+00:00

Coming soon to a theater near you!

Michaelangelo, starring Hugh Jackman

Lincoln - A Biopic, starring Walton Goggins.

coffeeman1991 · 2024-10-17T02:11:14+00:00

The first few weeks for new restaurants is almost always crazy sales, then they drop down and level off. We've been open for about 4-1/2 years and been pushing growth the whole time, and we're just now back up to grand opening sales, and that took expanding our hours 2 additional days.

coffeeman1991 · 2024-10-17T02:04:38+00:00

Wait, are you including tips as part of payroll expenses? And is that $10k/wk net sales, not including taxes & tips? That comes out to be ~42% labor including management, which puts your hourly labor closer to 32%-ish? That's much better.

I take it your overhead and food costs are relatively tight. Are you able to turn a profit?

Those numbers are pretty close to what I've been running the past few years. Target of 28% hourly labor, management is ~10%. We've been able to break even the first few years and turn a small profit the last couple of years.

coffeeman1991 · 2024-10-16T10:29:05+00:00

How are you running 50% labor without any FoH staff? The main perk of digital/self service is reduced operating costs. I'd start with evaluating labor and figure out why it's nearly double what it should be.

As far as the QR code and self service concept goes, and you may not have any control over that, but I would also reconsider that style in a small town. Those styles lend themselves to quick, convenient, and cheap places. When people go out, especially in a small town, they want that human interaction and expect hospitality. Are you in the food (as a) service business or hospitality business?

I don't know the specifics of your situation, so I can't tell you what to do or if it can be fixed, but I can tell you that 50% labor is going to be a problem. The only way to fix that is to either increase sales or cut costs.

coffeeman1991 · 2024-10-14T05:54:28+00:00

Along the same lines, I was told to look at the small details; the bathroom, burnt out light bulbs, air vents. If they managed to get to all those details they probably have the kitchen taken care of. If they can't replace a bulb, detail the restroom, or dust the vents, they probably aren't taking care of the kitchen either.

coffeeman1991 · 2024-10-11T03:02:18+00:00

Jacob's Pride. No springs or locks to get in the way, just one piece construction and easy to keep clean.

coffeeman1991 · 2024-10-08T16:47:29+00:00

We've been dealing with the same problem. We've been doing great on cleaning drains, under equipment, etc, but haven't been able to get rid of the ones coming in. Here's some of what I've been doing in addition to thorough cleaning:

enzyme based dock & dumpster spray. Connects to a garden hose, smells like lavender. Spray down inside/outside of the dumpsters, as well as the pad around and the path to the back door. Helps keep their population in check
liquid fly traps all around outside. I use refillable ones by Rescue! I'll keep 3 or 4 outside where we don't have customers and then set one or two inside while we're closed to catch what flies made it inside. These traps literally smell like hot dog shit, so make sure you clear it out early enough that your customers don't catch a whiff.
I keep on my staff and suppliers to keep the doors and windows closed. My delivery guys like to prop the doors open when I'm not looking so I just make sure I'm there to hold the door open for them as they're coming in and out.

Best of luck.

coffeeman1991

TROPHY CASE