Food Hall Café

POS setup and configuration for a food hall café. From an empty account to trading in a shared hall: your own till, your own printer, your own numbers.

What it does

A food hall unit is a counter inside somebody else's building. The seating is shared with a dozen other traders, the Wi-Fi belongs to the landlord, the peak is whatever the hall's footfall decides, and guests walk away from your counter to eat. That last part is the whole design problem: you need a clean hand-off, because there is no table to bring the food to.

The short version: plan the hand-off and plan your own internet. Those are the two things a food hall changes.

What you need

Thing	Why you need it	Notes
Till device	your counter — takes the order and the payment	A tablet at the counter. Units are small, so pick something that does not need a desk.
Your own internet connection	POSolid needs a connection, and you should not depend on the landlord's	A 4G/5G router of your own is strongly recommended — see "Working inside someone else's building" below.
Fiscal printer — depends on your country	required by law in some countries to record sales	In Poland: Posnet, Novitus or Elzab, and it is yours, not shared with the hall. See Supported Fiscal Printers, or Fiscal Printers in Other Countries if you trade elsewhere.
Kitchen printer or screen	so the back of the unit knows what to make	In a unit this small the screen is often within arm's reach of the till — a printer is usually simpler.
Card terminal	food halls are almost entirely card	From your payment provider, works on its own. You record which method was used so takings reconcile.
Pagers (buzzers) or a pickup screen	guests walk away to shared seating and must be called back	In a food hall this is not really optional — see below. Pagers travel with the guest; a screen only works if your counter is visible from the seats.
Optional: a second till	for the hall's lunch peak	Any device with a browser and a staff PIN. Both see the same orders.

"Optional" means your choice — not an upsell. Every optional line above is hardware you may or may not want; none of it unlocks anything in POSolid. Every feature named in this guide is included in your subscription from day one, with no per-device or per-feature charge. The only thing you would ever spend money on is the physical equipment itself — and only if you decide you want it.

How everything connects

Your unit should be self-contained, not hanging off the landlord's network:

Your 4G/5G router --( mobile internet )--> POSolid
Till, screens      --( your own Wi-Fi )---> Your router
Till (Print Agent) --( USB or your Wi-Fi )--> Your printers

Run your own network if you can. A landlord's shared Wi-Fi is usually a guest network: it isolates devices from each other, which stops the Print Agent reaching your printer, and you cannot fix it yourself.
The Print Agent only makes outgoing connections, so it works fine behind a 4G router with no configuration at all.
Keep your printers on your own network. If they sit on the hall's Wi-Fi, a change you are never told about can stop your kitchen printing mid-service.

Getting started

Create your organization — see Create Your Account. Set your country, currency and, in Poland, your tax settings.
Set up your own connection first — a 4G/5G router in the unit — before relying on anything the hall provides.
Build the menu in Menu → Catalog, kept short: a food hall unit sells a focused offer, and speed at the counter is the whole game.
Tune the register in Settings → Orders configuration: require payment before accepting order on, table assignment off (the seating is not yours), and pager numbers on if you hand out buzzers.
Install the Print Agent on the till and add your printers — the fiscal one where required, and the kitchen printer behind the counter. See Printing.
Choose your hand-off — pagers or a pickup screen — and set it up before your first peak, not after.
Add your staff with PINs so the unit can be handed over between shifts in seconds — see Quick Access with a PIN.
Do a dry run: an order with a pager number, paid by card, fired to the kitchen, called back, then check Reports.

Working inside someone else's building

Everything unusual about a food hall unit comes from one fact: you control your counter and nothing else.

The hand-off is the design problem. Guests order, then walk away to shared seating that may not even be in sight of your unit. You need to call them back, and you have two options. Pagers travel with the guest and work anywhere in the hall, including seats you cannot see — type the buzzer number onto the order and it stays with it through the kitchen screen and the pre-check. A pickup screen is cheaper and needs no hardware handed out, but it only works if guests can actually see your counter from where they sit. Many halls suit pagers for exactly this reason.

Do not depend on the landlord's Wi-Fi. Shared building Wi-Fi is typically a guest network with client isolation switched on, which is precisely the thing that stops a Print Agent talking to a printer. It also changes without warning, and you have no way to diagnose it during a lunch rush. Your own 4G/5G router removes the whole class of problem for the price of a data plan.

Your fiscal printer is yours. Fiscal obligations follow your business, not the building. In Poland that means your own device and your own daily report, closed at the end of your trading day — not the hall's.

The peak is not yours to choose. Footfall is driven by the hall, so the hour-by-hour report matters more here than in a shop with its own front door: it tells you when the building is busy, which is the only thing your staffing can respond to.

Recommended setup

Minimum — one person at the counter

Till, your own 4G router, fiscal printer where required, kitchen printer. Payment up front, tables off. Call orders by number.

Recommended — the hall's lunch peak

Add pagers so guests can sit anywhere, staff PINs, and a second till if two of you work the peak. Turn on Work Shifts so the hours match the hall's opening.

Full — established unit

Add a kitchen screen if the back of the unit runs behind at peak, loyalty cards for the office regulars who come every week, and a QR Menu so people can read your offer from the seating area rather than walking over to look.

Key things to know

Bring your own internet. The landlord's Wi-Fi is the single most common cause of unexplained printing failures in a food hall.
Guest Wi-Fi isolates devices. That is a feature for the building and a fault for you — it stops the Print Agent reaching your printer.
Plan the hand-off before opening. Guests walk away; you need a way to call them back that works from wherever they sat.
Pagers work where a screen cannot. If your counter is not visible from the seating, a pickup screen will not do the job.
Table assignment stays off. The seating is shared and not yours to assign.
Your fiscal obligations are yours. Own device, own daily report, closed at the end of your day — see Supported Fiscal Printers.
The hall decides your peak. Use the hour-by-hour report to staff to the building's rhythm, not your own assumptions.

FAQ

Q: Can I just use the food hall's Wi-Fi?
A: You can, but we would not. Shared building Wi-Fi is normally a guest network with device isolation, which breaks printing, and it changes without telling you. Your own 4G/5G router avoids the whole problem.

Q: Pagers or a pickup screen?
A: Pagers if guests sit where they cannot see your counter — which is most food halls. A screen is fine when the seating faces you.

Q: Should I turn table assignment on for the shared seating?
A: No. The tables are not yours to assign, and it adds a tap to every order for no benefit.

Q: Does the pager number reach the kitchen?
A: It shows on the Kitchen Display card and on the guest pre-check. Printed kitchen tickets carry the order number instead — if the kitchen must know the buzzer, use the Kitchen Display.

Q: Do I need my own fiscal printer, or does the hall provide one?
A: Your own. Fiscal obligations follow your business, not the building, and the daily report closes your trading day.

Q: How do I plan staffing when the footfall is not mine?
A: The hour-by-hour sales report shows when the hall is actually busy. Staff to that pattern — it is usually narrower and later than people expect.