u/gventuresco

I recently migrated a client from Square to Toast and management strongly prefers how Square formatted kitchen tickets- specifically the large bold table number, the visual separation between item name (bold) and modifiers (regular weight), and the spacing between items. Toast's ticket formatting options are pretty limited natively.

I've been looking into running a Raspberry Pi as a print interceptor — sitting on the same network switch as our 7 TP200 printers, using IP aliasing to hold the printers' old IPs, intercept the raw ESC/POS stream on port 9100, modify it, and forward to the printers at new IPs. Toast would never know anything changed.

Before I go down this road I have a few questions:

1. Has anyone actually done this in a production Toast environment?
2. Does the Toast network switch allow non-Toast devices to connect, or does it lock down the network?
3. Any gotchas with the TP200 specifically on ESC/POS modification?
4. Is there a simpler path I'm missing inside Toast's backend that achieves similar formatting results?

They're a high volume breakfast/lunch restaurant with 7 kitchen printers split across two spaces. Happy to share whatever I build if it works.

I noticed I have two Claude desktop apps on my computer. The orange one has Cowork, the all black one does not. But the all black one has design, and the orange one does not.

Can someone help me understand the difference? Feels like one app should have all the Claude products in one app.

https://preview.redd.it/ufl2n0rrmqxg1.png?width=214&format=png&auto=webp&s=b1e3139a618cf35b387949682931cae92b96d1c2

I'm installing Toast and I built a ticket printer simulator that allows you to select the conditions across Service Area, Dining Option, and then assemble an order to your choice- the simulator will show you which ticket printers will print the ticket, and exactly what will be on it. It looks at your complete menu, including modifiers, as well as Service Areas, Prep Stations and Item Routing to create your simulation.

I'm working with a restaurant that has a complicated menu and they're doing migration from Square to Toast... between FOH and BOH there are over 10 printers, and some printers act as both Expo and Prep stations. Lots of logic rules of what should print and shouldn't print depending on Service Area and Dining Option (like Dine In vs Online Ordering vs 3PO). They have two kitchens and two dining areas across buildings that are right next to each other.

There was no way for me to simulate ticket printing in Toast, so they were burning threw printer tape at an insane rate just to test the system.

If this web-based interactive tool is something that might help you, let me know :)