“It allows three of our servers to act like six servers typically would”: me&u & Banger's Sausage House & Beer Garden in Austin

Albert Gonzalez, Director of Operations at Banger's Sausage House & Beer Garden in Austin, Texas, says the venue sets out to do a couple things.

“Bangers was here to provide Austin with an authentic Austin experience. 

“And another thing that we really wanted to focus on was an honest experience for people at an approachable price. Dive deep into the beer, dive deep into the sausage, dive deep into the meats and, man, we're selling good times.”

Part of that honest experience was providing a guest choose-your-own-adventure with me&u.

“So it was just like what a clear reason to be with these people [us legends at me&u] because this is what's going to work out for us. 

“These people when the sun goes wrong, the me&u team is gonna stand with our team to figure it out and that's what we've experienced ever since.”

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Letting the guest dictate the service model

“So when it comes to the actual venue of Bangers, it's huge,” Albert said.

“First of all, we are three contiguous lots on Rainey Street in downtown Austin, we can seat around 700 people if we really find every chair and bench that we have.

“Because of the design of the venue, we wanted to make it approachable and that's more than just how we treat you. But it's the psychology of how it's laid out. But a big part of that is this belief in like, man, let people come in, let people explore, let people walk around.

“And that sort of, you know, choose your own adventure is really what led us to seeing me&u as a really valuable partner for us. 

“Because it gave us an opportunity where if you want traditional service, we can do that. 

If you wanna sit down and kind of go your own route, we can do that. 

“So it's really augmented it so the guests can have it however they want and never lose any part of that interaction. 

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Ordering faster means ordering more often

“We found that me&u thread the needle really well,” Albert said.

“Finding a solution that allowed the guests to take care of that and service themselves so that we could add hospitality to that was key. me&u provided that. 

“But the other thing we have found is so many people say ‘this is so convenient’, ‘we can go right to the table’, ‘our food's ordered a minute after we get there’, ‘our drinks are getting to the table three minutes after we get there’. 

“Before we had a small server section and then everything else was flag service.  So you had to walk to that bar to get what you wanted. 

“That resulted in a couple of things. One, not a lot of repeat orders. Because when that's happening, there's a huge line at that bar.  It's easier for people to get that second round because they don't have to leave their seat to go to a bar. 

“It's easier for them to get a second round of food to order something else.

“It allows three of our servers to act like six servers typically would.”

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Less staffing headaches, more staffing profits

Moving to a digital ordering product, you would think tipping would be affected. But the opposite has been true at Bangers.

“What used to be flag service, which is now me&u service, we've noticed an increase in our tip revenue, which again, our team is super happy about. 

“The other thing that's allowed us to do is we have less team on the floor.  So that tip pool isn't diminished by more slices.  You're getting a bigger slice out of a bigger pie. 

“So really, financially it's been a kind of win-win across the board for us, man.”