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Waiter — the floor seen from your home page

You work the floor. You’re not the head chef counting mortadella, you’re not the owner reading P&L. You walk in two hours before service, you need to know what’s selling tonight, what’s eighty-sixed, who’s booked, and what allergens to flag if a guest asks. The system knows that. Your home page is built around the questions the floor asks — not the kitchen’s, not the office’s — and the assistant in your apron pocket talks to you in the vocabulary of service.

What it does

The home page on your first screen pulls together the three things you check between rolling silverware and the first table sitting down: tonight’s specials and what’s eighty-sixed, who’s booked and at what time, and the assistant for the questions you can’t answer from memory. The fourth tile, when the venue has it, is the events board — wedding tastings, group bookings, any pre-paid event that needs a different opening sequence.

The assistant is the difference between a confident waiter and one who has to disappear into the kitchen every time a guest asks a question. “Is the pistacchio pizza nut-free?” — the assistant pulls the recipe and the allergen card and tells you no, it has Bronte pistachios and pistachio cream, and the dough has gluten. “What pairs with the wagyu burger?” — it reads the wine list scoped to the meat course and gives you three options across price tiers. The assistant knows your venue’s menu, recipes, allergen declarations, and wine list. It doesn’t need to guess.

The alerts that ping your phone are the ones the floor needs to know NOW: eighty-six (an item is out of stock and the kitchen pulled it), table-ready (a runner has plated a course and it’s been sitting), and booking-changed (a reservation moved, cancelled, or grew). You don’t get the supplier-late alert (that’s the chef’s). You don’t get the cash-recon alert (that’s the manager’s). The phone stays quiet for things that aren’t yours.

The rule

The waiter’s home page answers “what do I need before this table sits down?” The chef’s answers “is the kitchen ready?” The owner’s answers “is the business healthy?” Same data underneath, three different framings — open the one that matches what you’re about to do.

How to use it

When you sign in, the home page renders the widgets configured for your role, in the order configured. The default for waiter is: tonight’s specials first, eighty-six list second, bookings third, assistant fourth. The manager can adjust which widgets you see (drag-to-reorder, hide widgets the venue doesn’t need), but the defaults are the canonical floor-night opening.

The assistant tile is also accessible from the floating “Ask” button in the top right of every screen — useful when you’re already deep in the orders screen and need to answer a guest question without losing your place. The assistant runs in a small chat panel; close it and you return exactly where you were.

Alerts arrive on Telegram, on the schedule the manager sets. The default is real-time for eighty-six and table-ready (you need to know now), and a one-time digest at the start of your shift summarising who’s booked.

When the menu changes mid-service

The eighty-six alert hits your phone the moment the kitchen marks an item out. The eighty-six tile on the home page updates at the same time. If a table just ordered the eighty-sixed item, the order screen flags the line in red — you go back to the table and offer the alternative the assistant suggests if asked.

When a guest asks something the menu doesn’t say

Tap the assistant. The reply is your venue’s menu, recipes, and allergen card answering the question — not a generic dictionary entry. If the question is about something genuinely outside the menu (a custom request, dietary need not declared), the assistant routes you to the kitchen’s chat instead of guessing.

Worked example

It’s Friday, 5:30 PM at iO Osteria. Service starts at 6:00. Sara taps in on her phone walking from the staff room:

  • Tonight’s specials (2) — Pistacchio Mortadella pizza (new, the chef wants it pushed), Burrata di Andria over heirloom tomatoes (limited, 12 portions left).
  • Eighty-six (1) — Wagyu burger, kitchen pulled it; supplier didn’t deliver the patties. Substitute: Manzo alla brace, ฿20 cheaper.
  • Tonight’s bookings (4 sittings) — a 6 at 6:30 (anniversary, table 12, requested champagne service), a 2 at 7:00 (gluten-free flagged), a 4 at 8:00, a 2 at 9:30. Sara notes the gluten-free table.
  • Assistant — Sara taps and asks: “What’s the gluten-free option for the pizza pistacchio if the 7 PM table orders it?” The reply: the dough is wheat-based, no gluten-free swap available; suggest the Carbonara di mare (rice noodles) or the Antipasto vegetariano, both labelled gluten-free in the menu, both compatible with the kitchen’s allergen prep workflow.

Sara didn’t open four screens to get ready for service. The home page assembled it for her in twenty seconds.

  • From idea to till — explains why the eighty-six list is accurate (the till’s availability toggle deducts in real time).
  • Why multiple AI mouths — the same role-framing rule that drives the assistant’s voice on the home page also drives the assistant’s voice in every other surface.