For the host stand

“How long?” Now you know.

Sixtop puts your floor on the tablet by the door. Every table shows its stage and how long it has been there, and every walk-in gets a wait worked out from tonight's real turn times. No account, no install, nothing leaves the device.

Free. Runs in the browser. Your floor stays on your tablet.

Illustration: the Sixtop floor on a tablet, fourteen tables in different stages, and a walk-in quoted about ten minutes.

The meal, in five words

Every table says where it is.

Tap a table as the meal moves. Its tile shows the stage in words and in colour, how long it has been there, and how long since the party sat down.

  1. Available

    Clean, set, ready for the door.

    Free

  2. Seated

    Menus down, orders going in.

    Long after 15m

  3. Mains

    Plates on the table.

    Long after 45m

    Or skip dessert, straight to Bill.

  4. Dessert

    Sweet course or coffee.

    Long after 25m

  5. Bill

    Check dropped, card on the way.

    Long after 15m

Pressed the wrong one? Back puts the table where it was, with its original start time.

Set up in ten minutes

Draw the room once. Run it every night.

  1. one

    Lay out your floor.

    Put each table on an eight by six grid, give it a name like T4 or B2 and a size from 1 to 20. Sixtop keeps the layout from day to day.

  2. two

    Move tables through the meal.

    Seat a party, mark mains out, dessert, bill. Clear the table and the turn is logged with its length.

  3. three

    Quote the door.

    Add a walk-in with their party size. Sixtop works out the wait from how long your tables are actually turning tonight.

A Friday, scrolled.

Doors open.

Six tables down, the bar filling up. Every tile tells you what stage it's at without anyone walking the floor.

The board at 18:30: six tables seated or on mains, the rest available, no one waiting.

One table is dragging.

T8 dropped the bill seventeen minutes ago. Its tile turns orange before the guests start looking round.

The board at 19:15: the room mostly full, and T8 on the bill for 17 minutes, marked Running long.

Three walk-ins at once.

A four, a two and a party of twelve. Sixtop quotes the four ~10 min and the two Ready now, and tells you straight that no table takes twelve.

The waitlist at 19:40: Okafor, 4, about 10 minutes; Lena, 2, ready now; Hart, 12, no table fits. T3, on the bill, is outlined as the table for Okafor.

The night, in numbers.

Every cleared table logs its turn, so the quotes get truer as service goes on. At close, Today has the whole picture.

The Today screen at 21:00: 31 turns, 112 covers, an average turn of 58 minutes, and averages by table size.

Why hosts keep it open

Small things, done properly.

The quote comes from tonight.

Each table's expected turn is the average of today's turns at that size. Sixtop walks down the waitlist oldest first, gives each party the table that frees up soonest, and rounds up to the next five minutes. It is a guide, so it always shows a ~.

Seat from the list.

Tap Seat on a waiting party and Sixtop offers only free tables that fit, smallest first. No putting a two at a six-top by accident.

Built for the podium.

Big type you can read at arm's length, targets a thumb can't miss, and a dark screen that doesn't glow across the dining room.

Works without a mouse.

The whole board runs from the keyboard. Arrow keys move the way they point, and every action is announced to screen readers.

Yours, on this tablet.

No account, no server, no sync. The day's board is saved in the browser on every tap and stays there until you start a new day.

What it doesn't do.

One tablet, walk-ins only. No reservations, no texting guests, no joining tables. If you need those, you need a booking system; Sixtop is the board beside it.

The real thing

This is Sixtop, running right here.

It starts empty, like your first night. Go to Layout, tap a cell and add a table, then come back to Floor and seat someone. Whatever you set up here is waiting when you open Sixtop full screen.

Open Sixtop full screen

Best on a tablet in landscape. Works on a phone too.

Plain answers.

What does it cost?

Nothing. Open it in the browser on your host-stand tablet and start.

Where does my data go?

Nowhere. The layout, the waitlist and today's turns are kept in this browser on this device. Clearing the browser's site data clears the board.

Can two tablets share a board?

No. Sixtop is built for one host stand on one device. There is no sync between tablets.

How does a new day start?

When you choose. Start a new day on the Today screen clears tables, the waitlist and turns, and keeps your floor layout.

Doors open at five.

Lay out your floor this afternoon. Tonight, answer the door with a number.

Open Sixtop