A proposal for the Santa Monica counter

Sit down. Tap your usual. It’s on the line before the coffee’s poured.

I eat at your counter most weeks, and at the rush I wait about five minutes before anyone can take my order. I’m proposing a tablet at every counter stool, wired into your Toast, and a 60-day pilot to measure it.

Try the counter tablet See the pilot plan How it talks to Toast
Concept render: a Mels-branded tablet on a swivel stand at the Santa Monica counter, red stools and terrazzo curb below
Concept render

The wait is the five minutes before anyone takes the order.

When it’s busy, I sit down at the counter already knowing what I want, and I wait about five minutes before anyone can take my order. The staff are great. The rush is the problem.

Concept render: a guest sits at the counter with a closed menu while every server works the booths
Seated, menu decided, and every server is mid-table. Concept render

“Terrible late service, making us wait not taking order while serving others who came in after we did.”

Tripadvisor review, Mel’s Drive-In Santa Monica

To be fair: most reviews praise fast, friendly service, and one blogger’s food came out quickly on a busy Saturday. The gap I see is the busy hour itself: every server is mid-table, and a guest who already knows the order has no way to place it.

How a regular’s visit goes

  1. Concept render: a guest settles onto a red counter stool, the tablet in front of the seat showing the Mels welcome screen
    1Sit at the counter. The tablet is already at your stool. Concept render
  2. The prototype's phone-number keypad shown on a tablet
    2Tap your phone number. The tablet knows you. Prototype screen on a render
  3. The prototype's usuals screen with the Order my usual button, shown on a tablet
    3Tap “Order my usual.” It’s on the line in five seconds. Prototype screen on a render
  4. Concept render: plated eggs, a burger and a club sandwich waiting on the pass under heat lamps
    4Food arrives. The server still brings it and closes the check. Concept render

Try it. This is the tablet, working.

Tap 310-555-0166 to order as me, a regular with saved usuals. Any other number starts you as a new guest, remembered on this device. The menu, prices and modifiers are the real Santa Monica menu. Doneness is a slider.

Open the full-screen demo
Concept render: a guest taps one large button on a tablet on a chrome stand beside a cup of coffee
One tap sends the usual. The server sees it on the handheld. Concept render
Full screen
What Toast receives from this tablet 0 calls

Live log of the calls this demo would make to the Toast Orders API. GUIDs are placeholders until the sandbox credentials arrive.

  1. Nothing sent yet. Order something on the tablet.

Your staff sees tablet orders the same way they see everything else.

These screens update live from the tablet above. Send an order, ask for a refill, or close the check from the server’s phone.

Concept render: the cook line seen from the pass, a Toast KDS screen above the heat lamps
Cook line. Tickets land on the KDS or printers they already use.
Concept render: the shake and soda fountain station with a small drinks screen
Fountain. Shakes and refills route to their own screen.
Concept render: a window booth with a tablet on the table next to the tabletop jukebox
Booths. Same tablet, one check split by seat.
Concept render: a server holds a handheld ordering device at the counter next to plated burgers
Server. Each stool’s order and requests on the handheld.

Concept renders, not photos of the restaurant.

Cook line, Toast KDS or kitchen printer
Server’s phone: the tablet’s request feed. The check closes on the Toast POS or a Toast handheld.
Bar back and fountain screen
  • The server keeps the sale. Every tablet order posts with the section server on it, so sales and tips land where they do today.
  • A human greets every guest. The tablet takes the order. It doesn’t replace the hello, the refill or the check-in.
  • Requests stay off the kitchen tickets. Refills, napkins and “clear my plate” go to the server’s phone and the fountain screen, never as $0 tickets on the line.

How it talks to Toast

The tablet never replaces Toast. It becomes one more way an order gets into it, next to the POS and online ordering.

Concept render: the cook line from the pass, a ticket screen above the heat lamps and plates waiting under them
Where every tablet order ends up: the same line, the same tickets. Concept render
Architecture: stool tablet to Mel’s order service to Toast Orders API to kitchen routing The tablet sends orders to a small Mel’s order service, which prices them and posts them to the Toast Orders API with table and seat number. Toast routes tickets to the kitchen stations. Requests like refills skip Toast and go to the server’s phone and the fountain screen. Guest memory lives in Mel’s own guest store keyed by a verified phone number. CUSTOM, MEL’S Stool tablet Menu, usuals, rounds, “Need something?” CUSTOM, MEL’S Mel’s order service Prices every round, holds mains, holds each round for the cancel window CUSTOM, MEL’S Guest store Usuals keyed by an SMS- verified phone number CUSTOM, MEL’S Request queue Refills, check, bus alerts to the server and fountain TOAST, NATIVE Toast Orders API POST /orders, table + seatNumber, server TOAST, NATIVE Kitchen routing KDS or printers by station, as set today. TOAST, NATIVE POS or handheld closes it Pilot: the check stays open. Pay at the register or on the server’s handheld. Staff attach Toast Loyalty first. Architecture, stacked: tablet, Mel’s order service, Toast Orders API, kitchen routing, and the side paths for guest memory, requests and payment CUSTOM, MEL’SStool tabletMenu, usuals, rounds, requests CUSTOM, MEL’SMel’s order servicePrices each round, holds mains,guest store by verified phone TOAST, NATIVEToast Orders APIPOST /orders, table + seatNumber TOAST, NATIVEKitchen routingKDS or printers, as set today TOAST, NATIVEPOS or handheld closes itCheck stays open until paid CUSTOM, MEL’SRequests go to server and fountain

The three calls that do the work

POST /prices
Before every send. Toast calls it “the only reliable and supported way” to get the check amount. Creating orders
POST /orders
First round. Dine-in with table, server and a seatNumber on every selection. Order type details, Selection.seatNumber
POST …/checks/{guid}/selections
Second and later rounds append to the open check. A new order on an occupied table would stay hidden until the first one closes. Adding items to a check

Toast voids whole orders only, so nothing posts until the cancel window closes; after that the server handles changes on the POS. Voiding an order

Toast already does this

  • Seat numbers on every item and one check per seat
  • Ticket routing to grill, eggs, fryer and fountain, set in Kitchen configuration
  • All-day counts that include tablet orders
  • Closing and paying the check at the POS or on a handheld
  • Toast Loyalty, attached by staff at close

I build this

  • An always-on Mels screen at each stool, in your brand
  • Phone recognition and one-tap usuals, in Mel’s own guest store
  • “Need something?” requests to the server and fountain
  • Holding mains until apps are bumped, since API orders fire right away
  • Hours gate, per-round item cap and the cancel window

Toast loyalty can’t attach to API orders. Toast says so in its Orders API overview. In the pilot the server attaches Toast Loyalty at close, and the tablet keeps its own memory of your usuals.

Toast approval is the critical path. Write access comes through a custom integration requested through your Toast rep. Toast publishes no timeline. My estimate is 6 to 12 weeks, so the rep call is step one.

The cheaper alternative needs no build. Toast Mobile Order & Pay puts a QR code on the counter with nothing to build; Toast quotes the add-on price through your rep. The tablet has to earn its keep on what QR can’t do: a screen that’s always there, remembers the regular, and calls the server.

Faster turns at the counter are the money. Bigger checks are a bonus.

Concept render: a guest slides onto a red counter stool while a server sets down a plate, tablets on stands along the counter
A stool that turns five minutes sooner seats the next guest sooner. Concept render

Independent, peer-reviewed

About 10% shorter meals

Tabletop devices across a 66-restaurant casual chain, 2.6 million checks. Check size rose about 1% (2.9% in the 2017 draft). Waiters still took the first order. Tan & Netessine, Management Science, 2020

Vendor claims, treat as ceilings

Regulars

Convenience is why I keep coming back. A counter that remembers my order would bring me back more often.

No published study measures repeat visits from a saved order at a dine-in tablet. The pilot measures it.

Counter throughput, with your numbers

Illustrative math. The 15 stools is an assumption, so enter your real count.

50extra counter covers a week
$1,200extra counter sales a week

Base: 15 stools × 1.5 turns × 20 hours = 450 covers. 10% faster turns fit 1 ÷ 0.9 as many, so about 50 more.

Only counts when there’s a line for stools. The pilot replaces every input here with your Toast timestamps.

The pilot: every counter stool, 60 days

Cheap, measured on your own Toast data, and reversible. The stands unbolt.

Concept render: the long counter before opening, every red stool empty and a tablet on a stand in front of each one
The pilot: one tablet at every counter stool, nothing else changes. Concept render
  1. Before the pilot, 6 to 12 weeksToast approval and buildRep call, custom-integration request, sandbox, nightly menu sync. The cook line and servers see the screens before launch.
  2. Pilot days 1 to 14Soft launchMornings only. A counter server walks each guest through it.
  3. Pilot days 15 to 60Full counterEvery shift, measured on Toast opened and closed timestamps.
  4. Day 61Go or no-goKeep it, change it, or pull it out in an afternoon.
Concept render: a black-bezel tablet on a chrome swivel stand on cream Formica, tethered by a steel lock cable
Per stool: one tablet, one swivel stand, one lock cable. Concept render

Hardware budget, per stool, shown for 15

Per-unit and total hardware cost, Android versus iPad
Per unitGalaxy Tab A9+ recommendediPad (A16)
Tablet$220$349
Locking swivel stand$106 to $125$106 to $125
In-counter USB-C power~$40~$40
18 units: 15 stools, 2 spares, 1 fountain screen, rounded$6,500 to $7,000$8,900 to $9,300
  • Fountain screen: one more tablet of the same kind on the same stand, about $375 to $515, counted in the totals
  • Device management, about $3 to $6 per tablet a month
  • Toast integration, about $25 per location a month, per Toast’s own blog
  • Wi-Fi access point, $500 to $1,500, only if counter coverage is weak
  • Card readers: $0. The server closes it at the POS or on a handheld
  • I build and run the pilot software myself. Hardware is the only pilot cost. If the numbers hold at day 60, we agree terms for the rollout.

What the pilot measures

  • Turn time per stool, from Toast opened and closed timestamps
  • Order accuracy, counted as voids and remakes
  • Check size and tip % against the same weeks before
  • Regular sign-ups and how many come back to tap a usual

Go if all four hold

  • Median counter turn time drops at least 5%
  • Tip % holds within one point
  • Remakes don’t rise
  • The counter servers want to keep it

Then

  1. Phase 2: booths, one tablet per booth with split-by-seat
  2. Phase 3: pay at the seat

What could go wrong, and the answer to each

Hygiene
Concept render: a bar back wipes a counter tablet with a white cloth, spray bottle beside itConcept render Sealed enclosure rated for quat or alcohol wipes. Wiped at every bus, with antimicrobial screen film.
Kids tapping
Concept render: a boy in a grey diner booth points at a tablet on a chrome stand showing the menu while his family watchesConcept render Review screen before every send, an 8-item cap per round, and a server unlock above it. No games.
Firing too early
Toast API orders skip approval, so the tablet asks before sending and holds mains until apps are bumped.
Split checks
One check per stool by default. Booths pick one check or split by seat up front.
Allergens
Flags on items, an allergy field that prints in red on the ticket, and the server confirms in person.
Tip fatigue
One tip, at close, on the full check, with a clear custom or no-tip option. Never a prompt per round.
Theft or breakage
Locking stand, cable lock, remote lock through device management, two spares on the shelf.
Wi-Fi drops
The tablet says “Ask your server” and holds nothing silently. Orders never queue and fire late.
Staff pushback
Servers keep every sale and tip. Guest surveys never score servers, after tablet ratings cost servers shifts elsewhere.
Menu drift
The menu syncs from Toast nightly, and 86’d items disappear from the tablet as soon as the kitchen marks them.

Let’s pilot it at the counter.

Every stool, sixty days, your Toast numbers. If it doesn’t earn its spot, the stands come out.

I build and run the pilot software myself. Hardware is the only pilot cost. If the numbers hold at day 60, we agree terms for the rollout.

Try the counter tablet
Concept render: a Googie coffee shop at dusk with a lit penguin sign, palm trees and car light trails
A concept render of the exterior at night. Concept render