How a popular Toronto restaurant captured $20,000 in reservations in one month using Tablevoice

For busy restaurants, the phone is both a lifeline and a pain point. Every ring is a potential guest — but during peak service, calls often go unanswered, texts fall through the cracks, and opportunities vanish. In an industry where margins are razor thin, those missed connections add up fast.

The Carbon Bar, one of Toronto’s most iconic smokehouse restaurants, faced this reality head-on. Known for its Southern-inspired BBQ, craft cocktails, and high-energy service, the downtown hotspot is a go-to for groups, celebrations, and events. But as the restaurant’s popularity grew, so did the challenge of managing guest communications.

The Carbon Bar isn’t just another Toronto restaurant — it’s an experience. With roots in Southern smokehouse traditions and a Toronto twist, the restaurant has become a destination for lively nights out, large groups, and private events. Guests come for the brisket and bourbon, but stay for the energy: a mix of great food, inventive cocktails, and service that keeps the dining room buzzing.

The challenge

Behind the scenes, however, the front-of-house team was stretched thin. Phones rang during dinner rushes, texts pinged at random times, and managers struggled to track who had replied and what had been promised. The issues were clear:

• Guest requests lived across personal devices and ad-hoc channels
• Managers had limited visibility into who replied (and what was promised)
• Missed calls meant missed bookings, catering leads, and frustrated guests
• Staff were pulled off the floor to hunt for information or return calls

The solution: Tablevoice on the front-desk iPad

The Carbon Bar turned to Tablevoice — built specifically for restaurants to capture every guest interaction. The Inbox lives on the restaurant’s iPad, giving the front-of-house team one shared platform for all communications.

• Take reservations 24/7: Capture every revenue possible for the restaurant
• One team inbox: Logs all voice and SMS/WhatsApp interactions in one place
• On-brand replies by text: Staff respond from the iPad in the restaurant’s voice
• Clear ownership: See who’s handling each thread; managers can jump in or reassign
• Catering & large-party routing: Direct high-value requests to the right teammate
• Full audit trail: Conversation history, timestamps, and outcomes kept in one system

This shift moved guest communications from a fragmented, stressful process into an organized, trackable system.

What changed

Almost immediately, the restaurant noticed a difference:

• More captured demand: Fewer missed calls/texts → more bookings & event leads
• Faster service: Centralized threads shorten time-to-first-response
• Happier teams: No more staff texting from personal numbers; fewer floor interruptions
• Manager visibility: Track volume, response speed, and conversion — location by location

The impact on revenue

The results spoke for themselves. In the first month alone, The Carbon Bar recovered $20,000 in reservations that would have otherwise gone unbooked. By improving follow-up on catering and large-party requests, the restaurant also increased conversion on high-value events.

Just as importantly, the team gained back 15 hours each month that were previously lost to juggling phone calls and texts. Instead, that time went back to what matters most: delivering unforgettable hospitality in the dining room.