How to Completely Manage Your Restaurant With a Raspberry Pi
The restaurant industry is notoriously brutal—especially for small operators. In addition to the usual business of cooking and serving food, managing staff, and keeping the health inspector at bay, you also have to compete with venues that offer sophisticated online ordering and reservation systems.
TastyIgniter is an easy-to-use, all-in-one, self-hosted server app for restaurants, which can showcase your menu, take payments, book tables, and help you manage both staff and online orders. Here’s how to install it on Raspberry Pi.
How to Install TastyIgniter on Raspberry Pi
Before you get started, you should follow our essential guide onhow to set up a Raspberry Pi as a web server.
TastyIgniter requires a PHP version of 8 or above. To install PHP 8.2 on Raspberry Pi, add the GPG key, then the PHP repository:
refresh your packages index, then install PHP 8.2 as an Apache module:
You’ll also need to integrate PHP 8.2 with MariaDB, and add some extensions:
Additionally, you’ll need to enable the rewrite Apache mod:
The installation comes with a.htaccessfile, but by default, Apache will ignore it.Use the nano text editorto edit your Apache configuration file to change this:
Look for a section which begins:
…and changeAllowOverride NonetoAllowOverride All.
Save and exit nano withCtrl + OthenCtrl + X. Restart Apache with:
Composer will be used to install any additional dependencies. Install composer with:
Use the wget toolto download the TastyIgniter setup wizard zip:
Extract it with:
Now move the contents of the archive to a directory created by Apache:
Transfer ownership of the directory and its contents to the Apache user:
TastyIgniter requires a database to function, so enter MariaDB:
Create a new user called tastyigniter, a new database called tastyigniter, then allow the tastyigniter user to use the tastyigniter database. PressEnterafter each line.
Set Up Your Restaurant Site
Open a web browser and enteryour-pi-local-ip-address/setup.phpinto the URL bar.You’ll see the TastyIgniter logo, and a single orange button withInstall TastyIgniteron it. Press the button.
TastyIgniter is distributed under the very permissive and easy-to-understand MIT License. Read through it, then click on theAccept Licensebutton.
The wizard will carry out checks to ensure that all the system requirements are met. Click on the orange button to go to the database settings.
The hostname, port, and table prefix will be pre-filled. Leave these as they are, and entertastyigniteras both the database name and username. Enter your top secret password into the password box, then click the orange button.
The next step is to configure the basics of your restaurant and your admin account. You’ll need to enter your name, a username, your restaurant name and email address, and create a secure password.
You’ll have the option of inputting a “Site Carte Key” This allows you to access the TastyIgniter marketplace, where you can add free and paid-for plugins to your TastyIgniter instance. These include a dedicated Android app for order taking, loyalty schemes, and table service apps.
You should choose “single location mode” if you only have one restaurant or café location. The “Install demo data” toggle will pre-populate your site with dummy data to give you a better feel of how everything fits together.
When you’re happy, click the orange button again, and choose whether to set up your site with a pre-built theme and some recommended extensions, or start from scratch. If you’re not an experienced designer, we’d recommend going with the pre-built theme for now.
Setup will complete, and you’ll be invited to log into your site atyour-pi-ip-address/admin/login. Use the admin username and password you created earlier.
Configure Your Restaurant’s New Website
The dashboard area is clean and well-organized, with categories arranged down the left side of the screen.
To get full functionality, you’ll need to install some free extensions. Head toSystem > Extensions,and in the search box, search and install: cart, coupons, frontend, local, pages, payregister, reservation, and user.
You’ll want people to know where you are, so click the “locations” entry, and add the locations of your venues. You’ll also see tabs for your opening times, and delivery areas.
To show your whereabouts and delivery radius on a map, you need a Google Maps API key. An API key will give you 28,500 maploads per month for no charge, so unless your boeuf bourguignon is to die for, you shouldn’t incur a cost. Add your key in the text field at the bottom ofSystem > Settings > General.
TheRestaurantsection is where you’ll find more restaurant-specific things. it’s possible to set the menu items and pricing, input details of your tables and their capacity, customize your categories, and set specific times for meals.
FromSystem > Settings > Sales, set up how you’d like orders and reservations to be handled. You can choose to allow orders without an account, and restrict orders to a certain area. You should also choose whether to automatically accept orders or reservations, or decide whether they need manual approval.
Orders and reservations will appear instantly in the relevant section underSales, so it’s a good idea to have these open in individual tabs. From here, it’s possible to assign tasks to individual staff and change the order or reservation status.
UnderSales > Payments, you can specify which payment types your restaurant accepts. Cash is the default, but you can add PayPal, Stripe, Mollie, Square, and more. You’ll need to obtain API keys through the platforms themselves, and add the keys into the relevant fields. When you’ve done this, the new payment options will appear on your takeaway menu.
You should also create accounts for other staff members inSystem > Staff, assign them to groups and roles, and control their access. Once you’ve done this, you can send any order to any group or staff member, so they can get on with their job without direct interference from you. They can also change the status of orders, so you know what’s going on.
TastyIgniter can also prepare invoices, generate sales reports, and more. For a more complete overview of features, check out theTastyIgniter website.
Publish and Secure Your Restaurant Website
Once you’re happy that the site looks and works how you want it to, it’s time to take it live. If you don’t have one already,register a domain name, and in the registrar DNS settings, delete all records, and create a new “A” record with the value as “@”, and the host as your public IP address. Set the TTL value as low as possible.
SSH into your Raspberry Pionce more, and delete the setup file to prevent others from restarting the setup process and diverting funds to their own account.
Create a new Apache conf file for your domain:
In the new file, paste the following:
Save and exit nano withCtrl + OthenCtrl + X.
Enable the new conf file, then restart Apache, and use certbot to fetch and deploy encryption certificates and keys.
Certbot will ask you to select the site you want to use from a list. Enter the appropriate number and hitEnter. Chooseredirectwhen asked, then restart Apache once again.
All connections to your site will be automatically upgraded to SSL.SSL makes your site more secure, and reassures visitors it can be trusted.
Place Some Test Orders
It’s important to be familiar with how the process works both as a provider and a diner. Test your system out by having family members place orders and watch them appear in your admin menu.
To ensure that this guide and the app function as they should, we used this system for an extended weekend family barbecue to send orders to the chef. It worked flawlessly.
Raspberry Pi Restaurant Management
By following the steps above, you can set up your own restaurant management system on a humble Raspberry Pi single-board computer, complete with online ordering and table reservations.
If you want to take your recipes into the digital world, check out the best recipe organizer apps to replace your cookbooks
Is your cookbook a mess? Throw it out and try one of these best recipe management apps for Android and iPhone to find and organize recipes instead.
Who asked for these upgrades?
It saves me hours and keeps my sanity intact.
Not all true crime is about hacking, slashing, and gore.
Flagship price, mid-range phone.
Taming data is easier than it looks.
