Restaurant & Foodservice for Small Business

Restaurants need two kinds of gear retail never touches: kitchen-grade printing and food storage. Front of house looks like any shop — a terminal, a receipt printer and a card reader that handles tips. Back of house needs a kitchen printer or display that survives heat and grease, plus labelled, dated storage that keeps prep safe.

Kitchen tickets are usually printed on impact printers rather than thermal ones, because thermal paper darkens near grills and fryers. If you use a kitchen display screen instead, place it where the line can read it without leaving their station. Either way, keep the front counter and kitchen as separate devices so a rush at one end does not block the other.

Food cost is the number that decides whether a menu makes money. Label and date prep containers, count high-cost items at close, and compare what you used with what you sold — the gap is waste, over-portioning or theft.

What to look for when buying

• Use an impact or kitchen-rated printer near heat; thermal paper fades there.
• Buy a reader that prompts for tips on screen and splits bills cleanly.
• Standardise on one or two container sizes so storage stacks.
• Day-dot or date labels make first-in, first-out rotation easy to check.