16-12-04 Zonal goes Italian in Hertfordshire!

When it comes to efficient delivery inside a restaurant, EPoS (electronic point of sale) can usually be found at the heart of things, and this is the case at Forno Vivo in Tring, Hertfordshire, where a Zonal EPoS system has been in use since the start.

The restaurant is open throughout the week, serving a wide range of pizzas and pastas, as well as meat and fish dishes.

Owner Peter Borg-Neal is also adamant that service is vital to the success of the restaurant and places heavy emphasis on customers being served quickly and efficiently once their order is taken.

To that end, he decided to install Zonal EPoS terminals and kitchen printers. The restaurant, which is spacious and open plan, features a wood burning oven and open plan-kitchen, which can be viewed from the dining area. It has three EPoS terminals, one at either end of the restaurant and the other on the bar.

There are three printers, one by the pizza chef, who is located in the main part of the restaurant itself, one in the open plan kitchen behind him, where all the other meals are prepared, and one at the bar.

"Our waiting staff take the order at the table and then immediately enter it in the EPoS terminal closest to them. The system works in such a way that pizzas, pastas, other dishes, and drinks orders, can be printed out simultaneously on three different printers, so that each person can begin to prepare their specific orders immediately", says Peter Borg-Neal.

"The EPoS system also enables the different sections within the restaurants (pizza chef, kitchen, bar) to co-ordinate between each other as they can see the entire table order on the printed slip."

"EPoS offers a lot of advantages", says Peter Borg-Neal. " One of the main advantages is that waiting staff only have to go to the kitchen to pick up meals for serving and can therefore spend more time in the dining area attending the needs of the customers".

"From the chef's viewpoint, the orders are printed clearly, so he can pass on the individual orders to his team. There is no need for the waiters to hand over slips of paper containing orders or to meet face to face in the kitchen", he explains.

"In the same way, the person working behind the bar can prepare the drinks from the printed order seconds after the waiter has keyed it in at the terminal."