Grill, bar, pass: route kitchen tickets by category

What does kitchen printer routing by category control?

A bar printer should receive the drinks that its team prepares. In Nexara, you enable drinks categories on that printer and grilled mains on the grill printer. Start by deciding which team owns each category, rather than sending the complete order to every preparation station.

Printer selection also takes account of the branch, printer group and location. Category selections are separate from the printer's USB or network connection. Connecting the bar printer makes it reachable; enabling the drinks categories determines which items it receives.

```mermaid flowchart LR A["Mixed restaurant order"] --> B["Per-printer category selection"] B --> C["Grill station printer"] B --> D["Bar station printer"] B --> E["Cold preparation printer"] B --> F["Pass printer"] C --> G["Selected category ticket"] D --> G E --> G F --> H["Complete handoff ticket"] ```

Each preparation printer receives its selected categories, while the pass receives every category enabled for order assembly.

Nexara sits beside the till as the order and operations layer and connects to supported printers through the Windows print agent. The Nexara features overview places printing alongside the order board and menu controls.

How should you map categories to kitchen stations?

Start with preparation responsibility, then compare it with your menu categories. Nexara supports products, categories and modifiers. A broad category such as “Specials” needs attention if it contains both grilled dishes and cold drinks, because the printer selection applies to the category.

Nexara also supports per-branch availability and menu channels, which control which channel sees which menu. Keep these separate from printing: availability controls what can be ordered, while each branch's printer category selections determine where those items print. Review both when branches share a catalogue but have different preparation stations.

The station map and test orders below are illustrative examples, not a customer's configuration or actual orders. The table describes what staff should inspect on the resulting paper.

Treat a new category as a routing change. After adding seasonal drinks, review the affected printer selections. A category visible on the ordering menu still needs to be enabled on the printers responsible for its items.

Can you select individual items and set ticket copies?

The verified routing control is menu-category selection per printer. Individual-item overrides are not a confirmed Nexara capability. A printer receives items from its enabled categories; the available control does not establish a separate destination for one item within a category.

For a product that belongs at a different station, review its categorisation with the person maintaining the menu. Moving it to another category changes its menu organisation as well as which printer selections apply to it. The category should still make sense to the customer browsing the menu.

Manual reprinting is the verified way to obtain another copy. Automatic copy counts per station are not a confirmed Nexara capability. Base the paper workflow on category selection and manual reprinting.

Use manual reprinting when paper is damaged or a ticket needs recovery. Define who requests a reprint and how staff identify it as existing work, especially when the original may still be beside the grill. Otherwise, recovering a ticket can lead to preparing the same order again.

What should the pass ticket contain?

The pass printer needs every category required for the complete handoff, including drinks when the packer is responsible for sending them out. Enable those categories with the same per-printer toggles used at preparation stations. A grill-only ticket leaves the packer without the drinks portion of the order.

Nexara has a visual template builder for kitchen tickets and receipts, with templates assigned per printer. The packer needs to account for the full order on the pass ticket, including items prepared away from the main kitchen. For QR dine-in orders, the printed table number connects the food to its destination.

Arabic and English can appear on the same thermal ticket. Use the languages your staff read when preparing and checking orders. The Nexara kitchen printing engine covers bilingual printing and ticket handling in more detail.

Agree who accounts for sides and drinks before closing the bag. The bar may finish its work before the grill, but the person at the pass still needs to match both portions to the complete order. Enabling drinks on the pass printer gives that person the drinks portion on paper.

How do you test the routing before service?

Use controlled test orders and inspect every destination. Tell the kitchen they are tests so nobody starts preparing them. Nexara's per-printer category selections determine which items reach each station; compare the printed results with your written station map.

1. Confirm the hardware connection. Nexara supports standard ESC/POS thermal printers over USB or network through its Windows print agent.
2. Record the categories intended for each printer. Note any category shared between preparation and handoff, and identify who handles each printed ticket.
3. Place a mixed test order containing a grilled sandwich and a drink. Include a meal if your menu sells them. Compare each printed item and its modifiers with the intended station, with the menu maintainer and pass lead checking who prepares each part.
4. Place a drinks-only test order. Verify that the bar and pass receive their intended tickets, and inspect any output at food stations.
5. Read Arabic item names and modifiers on paper from the position where staff work, under the branch's lighting. Include English where your template uses both languages, and compare preparation instructions with the original order.
6. Match the pass ticket against the complete order. Keep the accepted tickets beside the station map for the next shift, including an Arabic modifier if your kitchen uses Arabic instructions. Repeat the affected tests after changing categories or templates.

Record the printer model and connection type with your setup notes. Brand alone is insufficient when selecting hardware. The guide to thermal printers that work with Nexara covers model and connection considerations.

What happens when a station printer stops working?

The order stays on the board and the ticket waits in the print queue. Re-route categories from the dashboard, or use automatic failover to a backup printer where one is configured.

Choose a backup printer staff can reach during service. If bar categories move to a kitchen printer, tell the bar team where to collect those tickets. Practise this handoff so the receiving station understands that some of its paper belongs to another team.

Connection failure is different from printer failure. Orders keep arriving in the cloud while the branch is offline, and printing catches up after reconnection. The order board itself needs a connection. Keep a phone hotspot beside the printer computer as a backup.

The printer failover guide explains backup routing and recovery. Include manual reprinting in your rehearsal, with someone responsible for matching recovered paper to work the kitchen has already prepared.