Cambridge Street Hospitality Group operates eight concepts and opened Amba, a Mediterranean-inspired fast-casual spot at a farmers market in 2024. Amba nearly tripled its daily sales in its first year by combining operational adjustments and digital ordering. Staff scheduling is staggered: one cook opens for breakfast, with additional line cooks added around 10:30 a.m. and noon to manage peak demand. The operation handles up to 400 items across catering, in-house, and delivery channels. Online ordering is heavily promoted via the website and Square, and two self-service kiosks help move pickup traffic efficiently.
I wish I could tell you that there's a perfect science behind it, but sometimes we just try to make sure that we're not overstacking ourselves. We have one person on the line to get everything open in the morning to cook breakfast. To prepare for our busiest hours, we add another person on the line at about 10:30 a.m. and another at noon. Between catering and in-house orders and stuff that's hitting the delivery services, we're doing up to 400 items.
Now people are really used to ordering their food online ahead of time and picking it up, which [keeps] the queue of people [from getting too busy]. We don't have the infrastructure of Starbucks or Dunkin' as far as their online ordering goes, but everything from our website to our Square site prompts people to be able to do that. Most of [our customers] are placing their orders ahead of time. We also have two [self-service] kiosks that we have set up inside.
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