Few people know that curry, infused with gin, can give rise to an exquisite cocktail, if we also add lemon herbs and liqueur from the electric flower, chewed in the past to reduce toothache due to its analgesic properties. Or that rum-bourbon bathed in peanut butter, apple distillate, cocoa and banana becomes another picturesque and delicious drink. Because botany, apart from feeding us and healing us, is to cocktails what flowers are to a garden, never better said.
If we add to the passion for mixing botanicals to dress spirits in their best clothes the desire to offer a different hospitality experience, the result is called Káktos Botanical Society, whose premises are accessed through a discreet black door at street level, in the heart of Barcelona's Eixample. No one would say what we are going to find inside.
After a long fuchsia hallway, an open room opens up inhabited by dozens of plants, many of them cacti. There are small tables and large tables and a bar counter. A projector throws the cocktail menu onto one of the walls of what used to be a warehouse. All its ingredients are local. But be careful, it is not a bar or a cocktail bar: it is a private club where you can have a drink listening to music - on Fridays live or with DJ's -, celebrate a birthday, participate in a pressed flower workshop with a glass of wine or learn to prepare cocktails with plants.
It is a private club for those who share a love for nature, botany and its infinite possibilities and benefits and, in addition, are looking for a different plan. Marcos, a 30-year-old from Madrid, is accompanied by his partner Martín, 28, from Cádiz, Argentine by birth. The very young entrepreneurs, who already had another bar, also in Barcelona, decided to bet on this new format. In the 10 months that the club has been open, 3,000 people have already become members. To be so you just have to register; no fee is paid. But success does not come only from the clientele. A digital platform has changed their lives.
“One of the main advantages that we have found in this platform is that it allows you to differentiate and categorize all the items and that gives you total control over what you are selling, you know what each euro is worth, whether it is a drink or a workshop, which is essential for a varied and flexible activity like ours,” explains Marcos.
Square, which is what the application is called, is designed to simplify the daily operations of any type of business thanks to that magic word that, for some time now, has become essential for a business to grow. For the restaurant sector, it “offers the necessary tools to manage everything, from the kitchen to the tables, saving time, such as with all-in-one POS software,” explains Ana Muñoz, EU Head of Sales at Square.
Thus, this system “allows you to accept payments, both by card (including those from the main banking entities) and with mobile devices; You can keep track of your inventory and invoices, manage dishes with the digital kitchen ordering system and plan staff shifts,” continues Ana Muñoz, EU Head of Sales at Square. It also offers the possibility of selling online and improving customer service.
In this sense, “it makes things a lot easier when it comes to having to divide the bill between a group of people, because they can do it by items, proportional parts... in a jiffy,” says Marcos. “And at the end of the day it gives you cash closing reports and prevents you from having to close the cash register dataphone by dataphone.”
In addition to the software solutions, the platform offers hardware adapted to the constant hustle and bustle of a restaurant or bar, such as, for example, a touch screen device that allows you to take notes directly from the terminal and for the kitchen to receive the order that also carries out the collections; the alternative for counter and a pocket device or an adaptation of any tablet to accept payments.
How to install Square in a hospitality business? If you have read this far it is because you probably have a bar, restaurant, cafeteria... and you would like to optimize its entire operation, perhaps with a solution like the one used by the guys at Káktos Botanical Society. The good news is that next Friday, November 3 at 7 pm you have the opportunity to learn about and test the platform up close at an exclusive event for restaurateurs organized by Square.
The chosen place is the new gastronomic market Born 14, located in the legendary Barcelona neighborhood of the same name, a new restaurant concept in the city of Barcelona that will have 14 different stops serving Spanish and Catalan food to its visitors. All of them using Square as their management and payment system. With capacity for 250 people, this space is located in the old La Princesa market.
Although, as we said, Square is designed to provide a complete service to all types of businesses from restaurants or retail, to beauty salons, hairdressers, or professional services such as taxis, to large festivals and clubs, this private event is designed especially in the restaurant sector in Barcelona: restaurants, taverns, restaurant chains, cafes, brunches, bars, food trucks, stalls, or nightclubs.
In addition to restaurateurs, influencers and well-known faces from the small screen will attend, such as Àngel Llàcer, who will act as master of ceremonies with his characteristic sense of humor, Elías Dosunmu, the Madrid chef who is successful on TikTok, Forbes Magazine among the hundred best influencers ; Pablo Cabezalli, the YouTuber who is dedicated to trying restaurants; Joe Challengeburger, Spain's leading hamburger expert, and Alberto Gras, contestant in the eighth edition of MasterChef.
Under the motto “For those who do”, the platform wants to highlight the work of all those who get up every morning to open their hospitality business, offer their services, turn their passion into their way of life and grow day by day. Space to register for the event is limited, but everyone who registers will receive a gift: a 40% discount from Square to start digitizing your business. The organization will contact you to confirm attendance among all those who request to attend the event.
