“We want our customers to have a good experience at all our places and serving safe, fresh and quality food is important to us. Before we had the sensors, I would get the call, that the cooler is not working, now we get a text when there is an issue and our team can address it right away before it becomes a problem and an email on events that we need to plan and coordinate with others. It’s been very helpful to know ahead of time.”
- Nils Schnibbe, Co-Owner
SideBar is a private, local, family-owned, restaurant, coffee bar and late-night craft cocktail spot that caters to the growing population of Loudoun family and professionals. Serving from early morning breakfast, weekend brunch, casual lunch, happy hour, dinner, and late-night bar hoppers. SideBar operates a dining area, three bars, a private event space, two patios, housed in two historically connected, 1800s buildings. SideBar offers a unique atmosphere that blends contemporary style with vintage context. The beautiful old historic charm of the location comes with its challenges by way of space limitations. Tucked in the basement, the second floor’s dry storage area as well as the parking lot, you’ll find fridges and freezers, storing valuable inventory, this is in addition to the units that is in their busy cozy kitchen.
Sidebar had refrigerator failures in the past, the effects of temperature on food safety, quality and profits is not lost on this seasoned team’s mind. To be safe, they had disposed of the food that was in the cooler and had to replace the inventory that had been lost to continue serving hungry guests.
SOLUTION
MSG was hired to install a wireless monitoring solution that provide logging and alerting capabilities when the coolers and freezers reach a specific temperature. The MSG Restaurant Monitoring Solution’s wireless range spans up to 1,000 ft providing ample connectivity from the basement, the busy kitchen, the 2nd floor storage and out to the parking lot. The sensors are programmed to monitor temperatures constantly and when thresholds are met, a text and or email is sent to the appropriate personnel alerting them of the temperature breach
RESULT:
SideBar is now able to monitor their temperature coolers and freezers from anywhere. Within months the system alerted of an incident where the cooler door was not shut all the way which could have resulted in thousands of dollars of spoiled inventory and labor time to replace. Since the initial installation, alerts were sent for another cooler which prompted a call for maintenance, left un-serviced, food would have been spoiled and the equipment would likely more costly repairs.
Using MSG’s solution enabled the customer to:
- Avoid potential spoilage by using temperature sensors in their refrigerated equipment.
- Tell if cooler doors are not properly closed, preventing temperature fluctuations.
- Log equipment temperature at a specific interval based on your process or Health Department requirements.
- Maximize the use of your equipment by identifying ahead of time which coolers and freezers need maintenance.
