Melt Shop

Client testimonial from Melt Shop in New York, New York.

Josh Morgan is the operating partner of Melt Shop, the NYC-based purveyors of “the food you’d rather have than any other food.” Put simply, the Melt Shop offers comfort food made from the best locally-sourced artisanal ingredients. With three locations in Manhattan and three more opening in the near future, Melt Shop is carving a niche for itself in New York City’s competitive fast-casual space.

We took a few moments to talk to Josh about Revel. Melt Shop is currently using the Revel POS in one location, and is retrofitting their other two locations with the system. They also plan on installing Revel in their three new locations. Founded in 2011 by managing partner Spencer Rubin, Melt Shop is an American comfort food and sandwich concept inspired by grilled cheese but, Josh notes, “We really evolved into this comfort food, made from scratch, sandwich shop.” All the recipes are made in house, and anything they don’t make themselves is sourced from local, artisan vendors. Melt Shop’s protein, for example, is sourced from Pat LaFrieda, who has also provided them with an exclusive speciality burger blend. This pairing of in-house recipes and artisan vendors, according to Josh, is what drives Melt Shop’s concept:  “We make all our recipes in-house and when we do partner with outside vendors we go with the best.”

Melt Shop chose Revel after speaking with several people in the industry. “Time and time again we heard the positive benefits of Revel,” Josh said. They met with several members of the Revel team, including CTO Chris Ciabarra, and felt an “immediate connection to [Revel] and the values of our company.” Melt Shop strives to build relationships not just with their customers but with their vendors as well, and seek out “mutually beneficial relationships.” With systems like Micros and Aloha, Melt Shop was “just a number. If we put in a service request, we might not hear back for days,” Josh said. With Revel, “we could see early on that we could get a response within a few minutes. That type of response shows you’re committed to helping us succeed.”

Revel has already accomplished a lot for Melt Shop, Josh said. The three main benefits Josh highlighted are as follows:

1. Cloud-based convenience:  Revel allowed the Melt Shop to get away from the “old, clunky model of inaccessible software” and having to bring in and manage servers. “There something inherently wrong with that,” Josh said. “When the server goes down, the whole POS goes down.” This wasn’t an issue with Revel, as its cloud-based technology “is the future.” Because Revel is cloud-based, they are no longer tied to the unreliability of back-office servers and can access their business information from anywhere.

2. Intuitive:  Revel’s intuitive nature and overall ease of use were major benefits to Melt Shop. Josh loves how it easy it is to manage the backend:  “People familiar with Micros know that the backend can be challenging to get up and running. With Revel you can get started from A to Z in a matter of hours (if not less), as opposed to days or weeks of complicated backend maneuvering [with Micros].”

3. Data:  Revel’s real-time reporting also proved a vital asset to Melt Shop. The reporting functionality was “beyond expectations” and Josh said that “access to real-time sales, product mix, and labor reports from a smartphone is vital to operations.” Josh pointed out that “data means everything. If you can’t access it properly or efficiently then you’re missing out on what your business is telling you.”

Josh has already seen positive results after implementing the Revel POS. As mentioned earlier, he finds the backend easy and intuitive, and was able to set up his menu and configure all his settings in a matter of hours. “It’s just so simple,” he said. “The reporting, ease of use, consistency, and overall reliability of the product is amazing. After seeing this, how could anyone ever use something like Micros again?”