THE GREEN ROOM | CUSTOMER STORY

How a Spanish-focused restaurant utilizes inventory data to make informed decisions

Cúrate is Asheville’s collection of restaurants and culinary experiences for all things Spanish cuisine and culture. They’ve been serving guests in the Asheville area for more than 10 years, with an emphasis on creating memorable experiences and sharing the passion and taste of Spanish cuisine. This was recognized in their 2022 winning of the James Beard award for Outstanding Hospitality.
“That Dependability of Aloha, being able to reliably have their product working for us all the time is huge.”

— Nathan Lanham, Director of Operations, Cúrate
Opening in 2011, Cúrate started as one restaurant and has grown into a collection of restaurants and marketplaces with the mission to deliver exceptional and experiential access to Spanish culture. One element that makes Cúrate stand out is their passion of “thinking about our guests and making them happy”. They are continuously bringing new ideas and concepts to the brand, so it’s also important that they have continued training with their staff to maintain this customer experience.
With such a specialized menu offering in both food and wine, it’s important for this business to have insights into what the customers want and what items are selling. Having those insights into their inventory tracking and management is critical to success for Cúrate.
What they needed

Having insights into their inventory needs

Cúrate, like many restaurants, has faced several challenges since the pandemic. Due to their need of globally sourced ingredients and wine, supply-chain has created challenges for Cúrate, as they rely heavily on importing wine and food from Spain. Being able to manage logistics and navigate these issues are crucial for Cúrate’s success and bottom line.  

What we delivered

Leveraging data to make operational decisions

Cúrate mitigates this challenge by utilizing Aloha’s product mix reports to get detailed inventory insights. This data informs managers of customer buying trends and inventory turn-time. “Product mix reports really allows you to keep a pulse of what’s coming in and out of the restaurant on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.” This also allows for preparedness for management, staff, and their guests on what they can offer the guests. Having the inventory tracking makes it more efficient to accurately predict inventory needs every time – which is crucial for Cúrate.

“The reason we continue the partnership [with NCR] is dependability. Nothing worse than your POS system going down and having your staff try and figure out what they need to do to get a ticket to the kitchen. It’s the simplest thing that needs to happen on a daily basis… that dependability of NCR Aloha, being able to reliably have their product working for us literally all the time, is huge.”

What happened next

Growing their brand to expand their reach

When talking with Nathan at Cúrate about the future of the business, he shared that they continue to grow and scale. During the pandemic, like many other restaurants in the industry, they had to find new revenue streams to keep their doors open. For example, La Bodega started out as a Spanish specialty shop, has expanded to be a café, Spanish market and wine bar. Cúrate has also found ways to engage with their guests, even if they weren’t in the restaurant, such as the Curate at Home program and their wine club. We love seeing our customers continue to grow their concepts and be able to deliver an amazing guest experience.