Entrepreneurs Joe Correia and John Dantzler had been brewing beer in the Bronx for more than a decade when they decided to expand their operation into a 9,000-square-foot space in lower Manhattan. The original opening date was delayed because of the coronavirus, but in October 2020, they opened Torch & Crown Brewing Company and became New York City’s only brewery and full-service restaurant.
When the city shut down and restricted indoor dining later that year, Torch & Crown started using Square for order delivery and pickup. Then, when it was time to reopen for indoor dining and events in the summer of 2021, the co-founders chose to grow with Square, the same technology partner that had helped them keep business thriving during the pandemic.
Square for Restaurants had every feature Torch & Crown needed, reported General Manager Bill Brooks. It enabled the team to efficiently take orders, make menu changes on the fly, and keep orders moving through the kitchen. Employees loved how they could depend on Square for smooth performance, making their jobs a lot easier.
A hospitality industry veteran who’d struggled with legacy systems, Bill appreciated how Square saved him time and streamlined operations. Square enabled the restaurant to quickly get new employees up to speed, as its intuitive features and smooth performance helped promote job satisfaction. “Square is super easy to use,” Bill said. “It takes five minutes to train somebody on it. If you can use a smartphone, you can learn Square.”
Square also integrated with Torch & Crown’s payroll system, which saved Bill from having to manually check things like tip pooling percentages against employees’ hours — resulting in six hours a week of Bill’s time saved while avoiding payroll errors. That’s more time he could spend managing and growing this bustling brewery restaurant business.
“With archaic restaurant POS systems, it’s like trying to drive an 18-wheeler on a winding road at 200 mph. You can’t make corrections in real time. With Square, it’s like driving a Porsche where you’re able to react and adjust to things. This is so important as we get busier and continue to grow.”
—Bill Brooks, General Manager, Torch & Crown Brewing Company
With dine-in business finally booming, Torch & Crown looked for more places to save on costs. Square for Restaurants integrates with multiple partners and tools, so Bill looked to the Square App Marketplace for ideas. He discovered Craftable, a profit management solution that integrated with Square and allowed them to view real-time sales data to calculate food and alcohol costs and help improve margins in real time.
“Every week we monitor our top 5 or 10 items in any category, whether it’s beer, food, or wine,” Bill said. That’s how he discovered the cost of brandy in a popular cocktail was running too high. He was able to correct the pricing immediately, boosting the brewery’s bottom line. As a result, for every new dollar of incremental revenue made month over month, Craftable helped them keep 80 cents.
Bill looks forward to using Square and Craftable to expand Torch & Crown’s business. With their operations in great shape, they’re now looking to grow their events business, including parties, trivia nights, and beer tastings. They continue to keep lunch and dinner crowds happy and well-fed on fried chicken, mussels, salads, and burgers, along with their own hazy IPAs and other brews.
Torch & Crown knows they can count on the Square ecosystem, Craftable, and other Square partners to help them deliver the New York City brewery restaurant experience diners have come to love. Visit Square and Craftable to see how they can help you succeed today and read the case study in its entirety here.
