A cafe is not a small restaurant.

1. 01

   The guest

   The same faces, week after week.

   In a cafe

   Small bills and many visits. The regulars are the business, and the ones who stop coming are the ones to notice.

   In a restaurant

   An occasion. Fewer visits, bigger bills, and a booking often decides the evening.

   In Brewly

   Missed regulars shows who used to come and has gone quiet, while there is still time to say hello.

2. 02

   The clock

   Time at the table is part of the product.

   In a cafe

   One coffee and a laptop can hold a seat for hours, and that is often exactly why they came.

   In a restaurant

   Tables turn on a service: seated, ordered, served, billed.

   In Brewly

   Time at the cafe shows how long guests stay, what a table earns for each hour, and whether a longer first visit brings them back.

3. 03

   The margin

   It lives in a few ingredients.

   In a cafe

   Milk, beans, syrups, cups. A little drift in each drink adds up across a day.

   In a restaurant

   Many ingredients on every plate, spread across several prep stations.

   In Brewly

   Recipes linked to stock, with ingredients deducted as each dish is made, and a variance report that shows what you should have used against what left the shelf.

4. 04

   The rush

   A morning peak, a lull, an evening crowd.

   In a cafe

   Drinks come first and food second, and the peaks are sharp.

   In a restaurant

   Fixed services, with courses timed from the kitchen.

   In Brewly

   Kitchen speed and a rush planner built on your own orders, so you roster for the peaks you actually have.

5. 05

   The team

   Three or four people, covering everything.

   In a cafe

   The counter, the bar and the floor, often the same people on different days.

   In a restaurant

   A brigade of stations, with clear lines between the front of house and the back.

   In Brewly

   Rosters, attendance, a personal passcode for each person, permissions by role, and a Captain app so waiters work from their own phones.

6. 06

   The night read

   What did today actually do?

   In a cafe

   Who came, who stopped coming, and what each hour of the day earned.

   In a restaurant

   Covers, table turns and the timing of courses.

   In Brewly

   An end-of-day report in the owner's inbox every night, with sales, cost, cash and the day's exceptions.

These are patterns, not rules. Every room is its own, and many cafes cross over into the restaurant side. A good restaurant system is a good system; it was simply built for a different day.