Tecalitlan co-owners Juan Carlos and Karla Garcia with el Restaurante Publisher Ed Avis
from the front lines
TECALITLAN OWNER KARLA GARCIA TALKS TECH Haga clic aquí para leer los artículos en español.
POS systems, third-party apps and social media platforms offer myriad ways to help restaurant businesses thrive. Chicago’s Tecalitlan Mexican Kitchen and Margarita Bar has experienced the ins and outs and the rapid advance of technology more than most, considering the restaurant celebrates its 50th birthday this year. Editor Kathleen Furore spoke with Karla Garcia, who co-owns Tecalitlan with her brother, Juan Carlos, to hear how she and her team are using the technology to drive sales and profits.
Technology Arrives Technology has changed at lightning speed since Tecalitlan invested in its first POS system more than two decades ago. “It was when we went from the regular cash registers, those old school ones, to a POS. That was my first encounter with that. I think I was 16,” Garcia says. “My dad was not very technology savvy either and it was all brand new, so he sent me to training because he figured I was younger, quicker at learning. I came back and I helped with training staff.” While it improved efficiency, the system was very low-tech compared to today’s systems. “It was just pretty much to take orders and cut down from having to write orders down and give the tickets to the kitchen,” she recalls, noting that it eliminated a problem that was common in
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restaurant kitchens. “[Kitchen employees] would ask, ‘What does this say? Is it steak? Is it chicken? I don’t know what you wrote,’” Garcia says. As Tecalitlan grew, so did the restaurant’s need for a more advanced POS system that tackled more tasks. The next one they purchased could keep track of payroll plus liquor and food inventories. “It did a lot more than the first hunk of metal!” Garcia recalls. And it impacted Tecalitlan “big time!” Garcia says. “Instead of me going through manual time cards every week (those big punch-in cards, remember those?) and trying to add everybody’s hours, the machine did it for me. It used to take us about three days to do payroll — we went from three days to one day, or a day and a half,” Garcia says. Another plus of the upgraded system was a more streamlined inventory tracking system for the bar and the kitchen. “For example, when liquor and beer would come in, we would punch in, ‘This case has 36 bottles’, and note that there were now 36 more Coronas on top of whatever we had,” Garcia explains.“ At the end of the night or at the end of the week, we could be like, ‘Okay, how many Coronas did we sell?’ We could go back to see what we bought, what was still in inventory.” That meant everyone could see if the count was accurate or if something was missing. “We could say, ‘Okay, it’s right on the dot’ or ‘You know what? We’re missing half a case of Corona. Where’d it go?’” she says. Accuracy and cost saving were the benefits. As Garcia says, it gave her an opportunity to see if any overpouring or comping had been going on. “It keeps [people] a little more honest,” she explains. I can say, ‘Hey, I just gave you this bottle two days ago and it says you’ve only sold four shots. Why are you out of it?’ It’s kind of the same thing with food inventory, too.”
New Location, New POS In 2021, Tecalitlan was forced out of the location they’d called home for 48 years. That meant moving everything — including the POS system. That part of the move was simple, Garcia says. “I just had to unplug it and plug it in again. But then when we got here, we changed the POS system to an even more advanced system,” she says. “I think we’ve been through maybe six POS systems in my life.” She says the one she uses now “is probably my favorite.” The way the system handles payroll is one of the biggest benefits. “I can integrate my payroll to the payroll company that processes it. I can just double check it, make sure everything is done right, then just enter the hours and press ‘Go.’ It takes me about an hour at most if I’m not paying full attention, 20 to 25 minutes [when dedicated solely to that]. Before, I would be like, ‘All right,