The Rainbow, Eastbourne
"The thing that has impressed me the most about Tabology is the support. There's always someone on hand, and it's clear that they really want to help." Shoes Simes, Owner
The Rainbow is a busy, food-led pub in the popular East Sussex holiday resort of Eastbourne. With a large garden and two kitchens operating at busy times, owner Shoes Simes uses Tabology’s restaurant EPOS system to manage food and drink orders at the Rainbow, as well as her two other venues in the town.
The appeal of being able to have a single back office function offering oversight of all three businesses was a strong part of the appeal of Tabology when Shoes switched over from her previous EPOS system prior to the start of the busy summer 2022 holiday season.
She says: “With the previous system, I had to keep three browsers open, so I could skip between the till systems at each in order to see how things were going. With Tabology, I just go to the multi-site dashboard and click on whichever of the pubs I need to check on, which has made keeping an oversight of all three businesses much simpler.”
In terms of other benefits, Shoes was keen to gain the advantages of Tabology’s restaurant EPOS while still retaining features of the previous system she found useful, including ease of integrated card payments and, in particular, iPad compatibility.
“We’d already got iPads in the business, and any system that wouldn’t work with iPads wouldn’t be suitable. It also needed to be flexible, as while my two wet-led pubs, The Eagle and Dew Drop Inn offer service at the bar, the Rainbow is table service. We needed something that worked with both.”
The large garden at The Rainbow means that on sunny days and at the height of the tourist season, the pub can have up to 300 customers. Using portable iPads as EPOS terminals, means staff can take orders anywhere in the pub or garden.
“Taking orders at the table is really easy, there’s a button for every food and drink department, and all the information is to hand. That helps a new member of staff, who doesn’t have to remember everything straight away. If a customer asks about the product range, it’s there at the touch of a button.”
The Rainbow has an a la carte kitchen serving a full menu, as well as a garden kitchen operating during the summer season, as well as evenings and weekends, offering a simpler pizza and burger menu. “We’ve set up the Tabology Kitchen Management system so that whichever menu the customer chooses from, the order prints to the right kitchen.”
Shoes also uses Tabology’s Table Plan function, which gives an overview of which tables are occupied, and enables staff to run a customer tab. “Table Plan is most useful at the Rainbow; it means that we can be sure that food and drink is going out to the right tables, and that we can make sure customers are paying before they go.”
Overall, says Shoes, “the thing that’s by far impressed me the most about Tabology is the support. There’s always someone on hand, and it’s clear that they really want to help. Nothing’s too much trouble. Tabology are happy to make any changes we suggest, and to learn and grow with us as the business expands.”
To find out more about our Restaurant EPOS, and how it could work in your venue, get in touch.
