Guides

How menus, online ordering, reservations and food cost actually work in an independent restaurant — sourced on every page.

• Catering for restaurants: quoting, deposits, minimums, and a page that converts

  How to price and protect a catering order — quoting, deposits, headcount minimums — and what a catering page needs to turn an enquiry into a booking.

• Texas Cottage Food to a permitted kitchen: what changes when you go storefront

  What Texas Cottage Food Law actually allows and requires, and what changes — permits, foods you can sell, inspections — when you move into a permitted kitchen.

• Delivery without losing the margin: your own checkout vs. third-party apps

  How to run delivery on your own checkout without giving up the margin third-party apps take — delivery zones, pricing it yourself, and driver logistics basics.

• Dine-in table service flow: QR ordering, table sessions, pay at table, and tipping

  How a QR-driven dine-in flow actually works: starting a table session, sending requests to staff, table status stages, paying at the table, and tipping.

• Food handler and food manager certification in Texas: who needs what

  Texas food handler training vs. Certified Food Manager certification: who needs each, the 30-day window, the 5-year CFM term, and reciprocity across counties.

• Google Business Profile for restaurants: hours, menu link, reviews, and posts

  How to set up a Google Business Profile for a restaurant: accurate hours, a menu link that points at your own site, reviews, photos, and posts.

• Handling reviews you own: collecting, responding, and not gaming them

  How to collect honest post-visit reviews on your own restaurant site, respond to them well, and stay clear of Google's rules against self-serving review markup.

• Menu engineering and food cost basics for restaurants

  Pantry and food-cost tracking, contribution margin per dish, and menu layout — the basics of pricing a menu you actually understand.

• Online ordering on your own website: pickup, delivery, dine-in and pay-forward

  Online ordering on your own site — pickup, delivery, dine-in and pay-it-forward, paid into your own Stripe account — and why owning the order pays.

• Opening a restaurant in Texas: the permits and paperwork checklist

  The order Texas restaurant owners work through: entity, sales tax permit, health permit, TABC if you pour, food manager cert, and what to confirm with the city.

• Pay-forward and gift credits: how the treat-a-table feature actually works

  How LuperIQ's pay-forward feature works — a guest buying a credit for a named table or person, privacy controls, staff redemption, accounting, and promotion.

• Reservations and table management without a marketplace

  Running reservations, real time slots, party size limits, no-shows and the table board yourself — on your own rules, without a booking marketplace.

• Restaurant website SEO in Texas: menu pages, structured data, and writing for AI search

  How a Texas restaurant site gets found: menu pages that index, structured data matching Google's own guidance, answer-first writing, and image weight.

• Staff scheduling for restaurants in Texas: shifts, tips and predictability

  Restaurant scheduling in Texas: shifts, time tracking and pooled tips. Base minimum wage ($7.25) is verified; tip credit dollar figures need TWC confirmation.

• TABC permits for restaurants: which one, and what it actually allows

  Mixed Beverage, Wine and Malt Beverage Retailer's, and Retail Dealer's permits compared, plus the Food and Beverage Certificate and its 60% alcohol cap.

• Texas food establishment permits: DSHS vs. your local health authority

  Most Texas restaurants are permitted and inspected by a city or county health department, not the state. Here's how the DSHS-vs-local split actually works.

• Texas mixed beverage taxes explained: gross receipts tax vs. sales tax

  Texas charges two mixed beverage taxes on alcohol by the drink — a 6.7% gross receipts tax and an 8.25% sales tax. Who pays each, and what the receipt can say.

• Texas restaurant sales tax basics: state, local, and the 8.25% cap

  Texas has no separate restaurant tax — prepared food is taxed under sales tax, state plus local, capped at 8.25%. What's taxable, exempt, and how to file.