Apple POS Helps Sagra Bring the Farm to Table and Tumbler in TX4 min read
“In Italy,” says Austin, Texas-based Sagra Trattoria and Bar, “Sagras are community-based festivals that celebrate a local dish or a featured local ingredient.” Inspired by Italy’s sagras and bistro-style meals, Sagra’s Executive Chef, Gabriel Pellegrini, serves up a contemporary, but simple, Italian cuisine, made from the highest quality and freshest seasonal ingredients available. Sagra also makes its own pizza dough, its own mozzarella, and all of its own pastas, cures its own pancetta, and oil-cures its own olives. Each of Chef Pellegrini’s seasonal interpretations are prominently featured on Sagra’s Apple POS, which also highlights all of the restaurant’s home-cured, home-made ingredients, lets guests review the ingredient lists, check the Italian pronunciation guides, or watch a pasta-making tutorial or brief video.
According to Culturemap Austin, many of the fruits, vegetables, and herbs in the executive chef’s creations, are grown right in Sagra’s own pesticide-free Buona Terra (good earth) greenhouse; others, says Mason Popp, the restaurant’s chief horticulturalist, mixologist, wine buyer, and creator of the restaurant’s wide range of hand-crafted cocktails, including many of the ingredients for his uniquely original, but intentionally simple, seasonally-driven concoctions — like the white cucumbers Popp uses to create his Cocomero Magico (made from white cucumbers, mixed with Hendrick’s Gin and Vermouth Perucchi), the basil for his Basilico (a basil ginger martini made from vodka, basil, Domaine de Canton and limoncello), and the rosemary and pears for his Pera Rosmarino (a pear rosemary martini made with pears, Absolut Pear, rosemary and a basic syrup) — are home-grown in his own garden; still others, are sourced locally. Popp prepares many of the cocktails, like the Cocomero Magico, Basilico, and Pera Rosmarino, by “muddling” the fresh fruits and herbs to instantly release their flavors and aromas – a process he calls “flash infusing,” but for his sage, grapefruit, gin, and lemon combination, he achieves the same result by “clapping” the sage. Popp’s seasonal beverage offerings and his unique method of preparation are each also featured on the Apple POS.
Sagra has positioned itself on the cutting edge of both the popular farm-to-table culinary movement that has become a favorite of chef-craft across the U.S., as well as the corollary farm-to-tumbler movement which is gaining favor with the country’s mixologists. The Apple POS is provides an ideal palette on which to present each of the home-grown and locally-sourced ingredients with both photo and descriptor, and on which to paint a word-picture of specific varietal distinctions — such as the description of Popp’s white cucumbers painted by freelance writer, Nicole Carbon: “I had not seen a white cucumber before; it resembled a small melon with a thin, white skin and large seeds. It smelled like a typical cucumber but with a hint of lemon.”
The restaurant’s extensive list of Italian wines earned Sagra the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence. It, too, is fully catalogued on the Apple POS. Guests can search the Apple POS for information on specific wines or vineyards, and find wine-pairings and tasting notes, as well.
Sagra has also made a name for itself by offering a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan dishes and was one of the first restaurants to offer gluten-free options on its menu. With the Apple POS, Sagra’s guests can opt to limit their search to selections from one or more of these specific categories and find detailed information on each dish.
According to Gabriel’s wife, Sarwat, who manages the front-of-house side of the restaurant, guests love using the Apple POS. And, according to Eater Austin, Sagra continues to stay ahead of the curve – even “one-upping” the city of Austin in response to the drought, by offering its guests free bottles of San Pellegrino sparkling mineral water and Acqua Panna still natural spring water, until the city lifts the stage 2 water restrictions which prohibit restaurants from serving water to customers unless the guest specifically requests it. The Apple POS is a great way for Sagra to keep its patrons updated on the local water ban, which went into effect on September 6, and promote its position as the only restaurant in Austin giving away free bottles of fine Italian still and sparkling waters.
The Apple POS has certainly helped put Gabriel and Sarwat’s three-year-old trattoria (Italian restaurant) and enoteca (wine cellar) in Austin’s historic city-center, on the map of dining experiences you won’t want to miss!
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Disclaimer: This is an independent report sourced from one or more news articles and or press releases; none of the company’s, entities or technologies digressed in this report are affiliated with or a client of Aptito.
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