The Trinidad restaurant playbook: TTD, Carnival & WhatsApp-first ordering
How Trini restaurants, doubles vendors, and roti shops use Tablefllow to survive Carnival surges and own their customer list in TTD.
Trinidad is one of the loudest, most demanding food scenes in the Caribbean. Doubles at 6am, roti at lunch, Chinese at 11pm, Carnival fetes with 300 pre-orders in a single evening. Your point-of-sale can survive that. Your marketing usually doesn't. This playbook is how Trini operators use Tablefllow to run the whole cycle — from the QR at Ariapita Avenue to the WhatsApp broadcast the morning after J'Ouvert.
Price and pay in TTD, natively
Set your storefront currency to TTD in Settings → Currency. Prices display in TT dollars everywhere — menu, checkout, receipts, WhatsApp confirmations. Enable Cash and Bank Transfer as payment methods; most Trini guests still prefer LINX or a Republic/RBC transfer over card, and both work with our order flow.
Doubles & roti quick-service mode
- Publish only your five best-sellers with a 3-tap add-to-cart.
- Set prep time to 2 minutes so pickup ETAs stay honest.
- Turn on 'Skip modifiers on doubles' — pepper choice is the only question that matters.
- Print A5 QR posters for the counter, not A4 — the queue moves too fast for big signs.
Carnival surge planning
The two weeks around Carnival Monday and Tuesday are your Q4. Turn on pre-order windows for J'Ouvert breakfast (5am–7am pickup) and Fantastic Friday. Send a WhatsApp broadcast on the Thursday before with a clickable menu — expect a 20–35% conversion from your loyalty list.
Own the WhatsApp thread
In Trinidad, a customer's WhatsApp is worth more than their email. Every order captures a phone number; every phone number lands in Customers with a tag by cuisine and channel. From there, you can broadcast to 'people who ordered roti in the last 30 days' the day you're doing a special goat curry.
Neighborhoods and delivery zones
- Draw delivery zones for Woodbrook, St. Ann's, Maraval, Westmoorings.
- Set a flat TTD delivery fee per zone — customers hate surprises.
- Use own-driver mode when you have staff free; hand off to a partner rider on Friday nights.