Spotlight On: Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar

Established in 2003 by two LSU basketball alumni, the Walk-On’s Bistreaux and Bar team sought to blend excellent food with a game-day guest experience from the outset. They ran on a traditional restaurant set-up initially, using paper tickets and a strong creative vision. Soon, business picked up and the Walk-On’s name spread to a few more sites. From here, logistical challenges began springing up. “We were looking to improve our processes and consistency in the kitchen,” says Keegan Lanier, Senior director of operations. “We wanted to get away from paper tickets.” The team sought technology customizable to their specific needs, and powerful enough to report on all the granular metrics of their operation. Furthermore, they needed something intuitive that could seamlessly integrate with their point of sale (POS) system. The rallying turnaround occurred when Vice President of Culinary, Mike Turner, came on board. Calling upon his experience at the Cheesecake Factory, he suggested a powerful automated solution. Namely: the best in class Kitchen Display System, ConnectSmart® Kitchen. “I’m a data guy,” he says. “I want to know what’s going on in my kitchen so I can analyze potential problems and chokepoints.”   Since implementing CSK, Walk-On’s features a fully integrated restaurant and has seen substantial improvements in their performance metrics and overall growth. They’ve managed to shave off 6-7 minutes from ticket times, scaling back to a 12-14 minute ticket times. They’ve also been able to sell more than 120 units. “There’s just no way we’d be where we are without it,” says Lanier. Read our case study on how an automated solution helped Walk-On’s reduce their ticket times, increase food quality, bump up their guest counts and fuel growth.

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About the Author

Dylan Chadwick is a Content Marketing Specialist at QSR Automations. He graduated from Brigham Young University with an English degree and journalism focus and loves to write about technology. When left to his own devices, he enjoys loud music, adorable dogs and documentaries about the aforementioned.