Renowned chef-patron Angela Hartnett turns to TISSL EPoS for Merchants Tavern London

MILTON KEYNES, U.K. - May 19, 2015 - PRLog -- After starting out in the kitchens at Aubergine, Zafferano, L’Oranger and Petrus, Angela Hartnett MBE became head chef at Petrus, helping the restaurant to achieve a Michelin star. She went on to launch Amaryllis in Scotland, Verre in Dubai, Menu and The Grill Room at The Connaught, with Gordon Ramsay.

In 2008, Ms Harnett opened her first own restaurant, Murano in Mayfair, which holds a Michelin star,  4 AA rosettes and was included in the Good Food Guide’s Top 50 restaurants for 2015. In 2012 she opened Hartnett Holder & Co, followed by Merchants Tavern in September 2013.  Two months later, she opened Café Murano, a little sister to Murano.

Located in a Victorian warehouse in Shoreditch, Merchants Tavern serves Modern European cuisine with a seasonal focus. The dining room is also available for private hire, plus small parties can be served in The Store Room or can dine at The Kitchen Counter.  Live music in the bar combines with a regular Wine Club and a calendar of special events such as the arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau to make Merchants Tavern a welcoming and dynamic place to dine and relax in throughout the year.

Explains General Manager, Derryn Nel: “As a new business, we started with a clean slate and originally installed an EPoS system from a Canadian company.  Within weeks we could see it was a disaster.  Support was by email only but the worst thing was that I couldn’t trust the information the system was giving me.  Our trading figures just weren’t accurate and the supplier couldn’t give us satisfactory answers.  I simply couldn’t get the grip I needed to run the business properly.”

“We were influenced by Café Murano’s positive experience of TISSL.”

Whilst this was taking place, sister restaurant Café Murano opened its doors and invested in an EPoS solution from TISSL.  “Everything went smoothly there,” comments Ms Nel.  “I had in fact also worked with TISSL at Tom’s Kitchen.  I considered other systems at that time but TISSL went in so well at Café Murano that I approached the Board about our moving to TISSL.”

Derryn Nel’s proposal secured Board backing and, in January 2014, TISSL EPoS was installed at Merchants Tavern.

The software runs on PC-based touchscreen terminals located across the dining room and in the bar.

“The hardware looks good, works well and is reliable.”

Two iPads have also been programmed into the system as extra support so more wait staff can place orders and create checks simultaneously.

“Staff would prefer touchscreens everywhere.  They find the terminal system very easy to use.”

“Service is slicker and faster with our TISSL system.”

The Merchants Tavern team finds TISSL particularly good at managing the flow of courses, resulting in perfectly-timed table service.

In her role as General Manager, Derryn Nel is in control of the system operationally and relies upon it absolutely for accounting and management information.

“The functions that influenced our selection of TISSL are those areas most important to our business: financial reporting we can trust, back-office access and database control.”

“TISSL buttons are very easy to change.”

Having worked in the past with EPoS systems where the user had to call upon the supplier to change system buttons, Ms Nel was also determined to have independence in this area.

For management of its purchasing and stock, Merchants Tavern uses specialist software FnB.  It programmes its price look-up codes (PLUs) onto TISSL and finds the integration of EPoS and FnB very useful.

“Accounts reconciliation at the end of the night is good.  With TISSL we get accuracy.”

“With our old system, we could lose hundreds of pounds a day when we cashed up and the supplier couldn’t explain what was occurring; a complete mess!”

“From a management viewpoint, it’s critical to know all your figures are accurate and right, and TISSL gives us that.”

Derryn Nel concludes: “If for any reason the figures don’t match, TISSL gives us the ability to go back and work out the problem and – most importantly – to trust result we get.”