Routing by Modifier

[maddoxpollock44]

Hey all! 

I've been running the business that I work at using Toast for around four years now and would say that I'm extremely proficient. However, the layout of the business makes for some challenging scenarios when it comes to working on the back end. 

For some background:

We are a coffeeshop, cocktail bar, and restaurant all in one. We have a singular kitchen with a Hot prep station, a Cold prep station, and an Expo KDS. Our FOH bar has one POS along with two handhelds and one printer/cash drawer. Our Cocktail Bar has 2 POS, 2 printers/cash drawers, and 2 handhelds. Our Barista counter has 2 POS, each with a printer and a cash drawer, and two sticker printers (one for Cold drinks and one for Hot drinks). 

After messing around for years on this, I think I'm at the most proficient place that I can be. However, having three different aspects of the business that all have different and unique needs is problematic, especially when doing something one way helps one part of the business and hurts another. 

I have a couple specific questions:

1. Is there a way to route an item by a modifier group instead of by the item? For example, we offer hot and iced lattes. My ideal setup would be to have one item, "Latte", with a modifier for "Hot or Cold", and based on that selection, have the drink route to either the Hot Barista Station or Cold Barista station. Prior to having sticker printers, this was the way it worked and my baristas really liked the simplicity. The current solution has been to have an "Iced" and a "Hot" Menu group within the Coffeehouse Drinks menu, with an Iced Latte in the Iced group and a Hot Latte in the Hot Group. This has us having double the buttons and isn't super user friendly. 

2. We have a similar issue with our bars. Our Cocktail bar and FOH bar operate separately, and their tickets should fire to the printer associated with the POS used to ring in an order. Unfortunately, the items are routed within the backend and I have to choose either "FOH bar" or "Cocktail Bar", which leads to, once again, us having two of each menu (Spirits, Cocktails, Beer & Wine), one for each bar that routes to that bar, and one that is hidden to the respective Bar. This also leads to huge inconsistencies with adding products, as if I have to add a new Beer for example, I have to not only add the Beer to two menus, I also have to go in and apply discounts (primarily HH) to both items. 

Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated and if you have any suggestions, please let me know! I've spoken to customer care a few times and they haven't told me anything that I didn't already know (they keep telling me that I know more than they do!) 

Thank you!!

[rcmck · Accepted solution]

1) Yes you can route by modifier, assuming you have the hot and cold prep stations already configured it should be as simple as turning it on and assigning the prep stations to the modifier items. This article should help with that https://central.toasttab.com/s/article/Routing-Kitchen-Tickets-by-Modifier 

2) Should be able to use item routing for this, by service area, and route to another prep station depending on the service area the drink is being rang in at. You may need to create an additional prep station for the cocktail bar, then have your normal menu go to the FOH bar by default for example,  create an item route from the FOH bar to the Cocktail Bar if the ticket originates from the cocktail bar service area.  https://central.toasttab.com/s/article/Print-Routing-by-Dining-Option 

[maddoxpollock44]

Thank you so much! I didn't realize that you had to do this through Advanced, and was looking on the modifier page for how to route.