Nonna Carola, a modern Italian Restaurant located in the heart of Westchester County, NY is capturing its local clientele year after year and continues to thrive, with good reason. Not only is their high-end Italian menu outstanding, but coupled with a modern, advanced point of sale solution; their team is more productive, and their operations streamlined, which creates memorable guest experiences.
Nonna Carola opened in 2019, right before COVID hit. As part of a new management team, Danny Ramadan joined at the beginning of 2022; he knew that he could help Nonna Carola maximize their potential in the competitive Westchester market. As a Cervion customer in a previous location, Danny knew he could bring in a modern, advanced POS solution that would make the restaurant thrive.
CHALLENGES FACED
The biggest challenge at Nonna Carola was trying to operate a fresh, new, modern restaurant with a traditional legacy point of sale system. Their technology was out of date. Communications between front of house and back of house and the ability to process payments needed major improvements. The existing system didn’t allow for the flexibility management needed to improve their operations, provide the tools needed by staff, and certainly didn’t reflect their ambiance.
At a transactional level, they needed to improve their method of accepting payments to improve operations, reporting, and bookkeeping, while ensuring a smooth customer experience. Additionally, with a room that hosts special events, their system could not easily book deposits, accept payments, and then apply the deposit toward the remaining balance once the event was complete.
With the kitchen located on a different floor than the dining room, front of house and back of house communication was difficult. The ability to send an order to the kitchen with a seat, course, and any special requests or notes such as allergies was vital to keep the dining room humming.
SOLUTIONS FOR SUCCESS
The management team at Nonna Carola was actively searching for an upgraded system that could handle the complexities involved with ordering by seat with special requests and accepting Apple Pay and chip cards securely. As a customer from a previous location, Danny reached out to Cervion for a modern solution that would address their needs.
Cervion presented EdgeServ POS, a solution that would accomplish all their system requirements. The Apple iPad-based POS platform is modern and easy to use for both staff and management, along with secure EMV readers to accept all forms of payments and contactless technology improving the overall customer experience when it was time to close the check.
Booking parties and deposits were fully integrated into the reporting, giving Accounting and Management reports and oversight to make sure revenues were in order and organized. Since all terminals can send orders both to the kitchen and bar based on the seat number with special instructions and modifiers, bar and kitchen communications improved.
With Cervion’s As-A-Service subscription program, Nonna Carola upgraded their point of sale technology with an affordable monthly payment plan with no upfront hardware purchase required. Cervion’s professional services with a dedicated Project Manager included site walk-throughs, menu programming, seating layouts, modifier and pricing setup, and detailed, personalized staff and manager training. This white glove installation gave the management team at Nonna Carola the knowledge and confidence for success on installation day.
