On a busy day, service at family-run smokehouse Hank Daddy’s Barbecue in Vaughan, Ontario, sounds like a symphony: The laughter of customers against music playing in the background, and pans clanging and alarms going off in the kitchen. The atmosphere is lively, but all the meats – including pulled pork, beef brisket and ribs – are smoked low and slow for up to 14 hours.
“A restaurant truly is a symphony of things that could go wrong, but when everything goes right, and we’re all playing in the same key, it’s a beautiful thing. Everyone’s just kind of dancing their way through,” says Hank Daddy’s general manager Olivia Caputo, who grew up in the business, cutting her teeth on food trucks and convention center teams before taking on the GM role at 22.
The family-owned Kansas City-style barbecue business was founded by Caputo’s dad, “Hank Daddy”, who spent years learning everything he could about the authentic American barbecue experience and testing the concept at events before opening the doors of the restaurant in 2016.
What started as a scrappy quick-service setup has matured into a full-service operation with a catering arm. To keep growing in harmony, the Hank Daddy team leaned on Square’s all-in-one POS and restaurant management tools to build smart, scalable systems.
Starting lean and scaling smoothly
Caputo always saw the potential to grow Hank Daddy beyond a quick-service restaurant. But when the business launched in 2016 with big ambitions and a shoestring budget, the team needed a restaurant POS system that looked professional without extra monthly costs.
Basic reporting, branded receipts and a clean customer experience were must-haves. And, ideally, the solution needed to be free. “We were already struggling to pay our bills in those first few years. A hundred dollars doesn’t seem like a lot, but for a business that’s starting off, it’s everything,” says Caputo.
Then came the pandemic in 2020. Just like every other restaurant in Canada, Hank Daddy’s had to navigate uncertainty and pivot quickly – it needed the ability to launch online ordering fast without breaking the bank. As dining rules shifted, the restaurant moved from counter-service to full-service to keep staff and guests comfortable, which added complexity in terms of keeping front of house (FOH) and back of house (BOH) in sync.
Guest expectations started to evolve too. The most requested feature? The ability to split items on the bill when ordering appetizers like the Cowboy Fries (sweet potato fries topped with pulled pork and slaw) or big, shareable platters with several types of meats and sides such as cornbread and potato salad. “We would either say, ‘Oh, it is what it is.’ Or we would write [the bill] out for [customers] manually, which of course caused a few issues,” says Caputo.
The team began to juggle more moving parts, and it needed frictionless systems and cash flow to support the next phase of growth, which involved plans like opening more locations and entering the retail space with merch.
How Square helps Hank Daddy’s streamline front-of-house and back-of-house operations
With Square, Hank Daddy’s was able to build the right foundations for free as it launched, while learning when and how to upgrade from the free POS to full-service tools as revenue grew.
“Having a free option that was able to give us full reports, contact customers if needed, keep track of our trending items and see what needed to change week-over-week or month-over-month was everything,” says Caputo.
From branded receipts to the sleek look of Square Stand, which swivels so customers can confirm their total, tip and make payments, Square’s free POS tools meant “it was a professional start as well,” she says.
The free versions of Square Online and Square Invoices allowed Hank Daddy’s to quickly launch online ordering before lockdowns and manage its catering business from the get-go.
Upgrading to Square for Restaurants
Hank Daddy leveraged the free ecosystem of Square tools for six years before taking the plunge with Square for Restaurants around 2021-2022 when it transitioned to a full-service restaurant. The team felt operations now required more robust front of house tools and workflows, from table management to meal pacing and item-splitting.
“I knew that we’d outgrown and out used [the] free version and I was happy to pay for Square for Restaurants,” says Caputo. “I knew the system worked, we were able to play around with it and it fit our business.”
When online ordering turned into an integral part of the business, upgrading to the paid version of Square Online gave the team access to extra features like advanced reporting to compare sales from different channels to guide menu and pricing decisions as the business grew. The paid version of Square Invoices also took catering proposals to the next level, giving customers different package options to choose from to move forward faster.
In the kitchen, Square KDS (Kitchen Display System) helps to manage pacing. Customers know when their takeout orders are ready. Line cooks and managers alike can track tickets in real-time. Plus, thanks to Square Advanced Access, adding team members to the system is simple. Since there are unlimited custom permission sets, seasonal staff can return and use the POS with the same access codes.
Staying financially agile with Square Loans and Square Card
Besides people and tools, scaling smartly also means managing cash flow well and staying agile with spending. Enter Square Loans, a loan offer based on your sales data that comes with unique repayment terms: the amount you repay changes depending on the day because it’s based on a percentage of your daily Square sales. “It gives us that little bit of extra capital to reinvest in our business and test different avenues,” says Caputo.
In terms of daily money management, the Hank Daddy’s team uses Square Card, a cash card that provides instant access to funds already earned through sales. Different team members can share it to make quick purchases without disrupting operations, helping the team to stay organized when doing Costco runs, making vendor payments or paying for subscriptions. “We keep it in our safe and share it,” adds Caputo. And Square Balance Folders helps with budgeting by automatically allocating funds into buckets for different projects or to save for a rainy day.
Keeping the restaurant symphony going
Thanks to Square and its flexible ecosystem of tools, Hank Daddy was able to get started for free and upgrade when the ROI became clear. Whether the tools were free or paid for didn’t mean any compromise on professionalism or functionality. “As a small business, [Square] made us feel important, it made us feel legit – it didn’t make us feel like the mom and pops shops of 20 years ago,” says Caputo.
Upgrading to Square for Restaurants unlocked table service wins. With item-splitting, the FOH team said goodbye to doing math on the spot. No more errors or awkward moments with customers at the end of a meal. “I had two students come back for the summer and they were very excited that now we’re able to do that. ‘Hey Matt, welcome back. Guess what we can do now? We can split food items on tickets. We were all very excited,” says Caputo.
Operating with one connected system helps the entire team stay in sync. It’s easier to onboard new hires and show them the ropes, with Square KDS improving pacing, visibility and coaching on ticket times. “It’s very good for management when walking by. We’re able to just look at the KDS and see if we’re in the range of where we want to be,” adds Caputo.
Hank Daddy’s trajectory with Square was intentional. Now the team has a tech stack that’s built for expansion, from experimenting with revenue streams like retail offerings to opening more locations.
“Right now we’re trying to get into the retail space with merchandise,” says Caputo. “Square makes it very easy to pay off those loans as a percentage of our sales, which helps because they’re taking a percentage of money that is already coming in as opposed to saying, ‘Hey, you need to make this deadline now.’”
What’s next? Open more Hank Daddy’s restaurants in Ontario and maybe even take the concept out of province with a Calgary location. “We’ve spent a lot of time making [the POS] able to pick up and go for our next restaurant,” says Caputo. Just add a new location in Square, copy-paste the systems that already work, monitor trends in a central dashboard and “boom, she’s ready to go,” as she puts it. “Square really has made it that easy to grow and for us as owners, as managers, to keep an eye on trends going into the next location,” she adds.
