Ètra and Café Telegrama Run Two Restaurants with One Kitchen on Square

The Melrose Hill sister concepts move to Square’s unified commerce platform as they eye community-centric growth

DISTRIBUTED-WORKFORCE/OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Square today announced that Ètra and Café Telegrama, sister restaurants in Los Angeles' Melrose Hill neighborhood, have moved both concepts onto Square's unified commerce platform. The two restaurants operate side by side at different times of day: Café Telegrama, as an all-day café and eatery, and Ètra, as a full-service Italian restaurant – all while sharing one kitchen.

Co-founded by General Manager Andrew Lawson and Executive Chef Evan Algorri, Café Telegrama and Ètra were created from a shared love of good hospitality and exquisite cuisine. Andrew’s passion for restaurants began while working for Bon Appétit, eventually leading him to dive head first into the world of food and work his way up within the industry to general manager positions across multiple restaurants, including Estela. Evan’s love for cooking started in childhood and was shaped by extensive travel throughout Italy, as well as time spent cooking at fine dining establishments across New York City, including Marea and Bouley.

Café Telegrama, conceived originally as a modest coffee counter serving a small selection of pastries from neighboring bakeries, has grown into a daytime quick-service restaurant (QSR) as the team expanded the menu to drive more revenue. Ètra is its nighttime, full-service counterpart, serving up Italian cuisine with fresh Californian ingredients in a space directly behind Telegrama. Since opening in 2023, both restaurants have become local favorites for their seasonal menus, warm and design-forward dining spaces, and thoughtful hospitality, and in 2025, Algorri was named a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: California.

Running two restaurants with different service models – one quick-service, one full-service – out of a single shared kitchen creates constant demand with little downtime between the two. Managing that required a point-of-sale system that could handle both formats reliably and report accurately across both businesses at once.

“A lot of our team at Café Telegrama already had experience with Square from past jobs, so we always knew it was strong for quick-service. What changed was watching Square build out real capabilities for full-service restaurants too,” said Andrew Lawson, co-founder and General Manager of Ètra and Café Telegrama. “That's what made the switch make sense for Ètra. Combined with the savings on processing and software costs, it was an easy call. With two restaurants running out of one kitchen, having reporting we can trust across both sides of the business has made a real difference for us.”

Across Ètra and Café Telegrama, the team uses Square Register, Square Stand, and Square Handheld for order entry and payments. Orders fire directly from the point of sale to the shared kitchen's printers, giving the kitchen a consistent system to work from whether it's serving Café Telegrama's daytime menu or Ètra's dinner service. At Ètra, Square's integration with Resy automatically syncs course status – appetizer, entrée, dessert – to the reservation system as it's entered in the POS, giving the front-of-house team visibility into where each table stands without having to check in person.

"Ètra and Café Telegrama show what it looks like when a team builds two distinct restaurant experiences without pulling their focus in two directions," said James Schonzeit, Head of Food & Beverage at Square. "It takes real discipline to accomplish that from a shared kitchen. At Square, we build our technology to be dependable enough that the team never has to think twice about it – that way, they can stay focused on the food and the hospitality."

To find out more about Ètra and Café Telegrama, visit them at etra.la and cafetelegrama.com. For more information about Square's technology for food and beverage businesses, visit squareup.com/restaurants.

About Ètra and Café Telegrama

Ètra and Café Telegrama are sister restaurants located in Los Angeles' Melrose Hill neighborhood, co-founded by General Manager Andrew Lawson and Executive Chef Evan Algorri. Café Telegrama operates as an all-day café and quick-service eatery, while Ètra serves as its full-service Italian counterpart in the evenings — both running out of a single shared kitchen. Since opening in 2023, the two concepts have become local favorites for their seasonal menus, design-forward spaces, and thoughtful hospitality. In 2025, Chef Algorri was named a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: California. For more information, visit etra.la and cafetelegrama.com.

About Square

Square helps businesses turn transactions into connections and businesses into neighborhood favorites.

In 2009, Square started with a simple invention – the first mobile card reader, which changed how the entire financial system thinks about small businesses. Square has since grown into a global business platform helping millions of sellers of all sizes participate and thrive in their communities.

Whether independently run or a global chain, Square understands that sellers succeed when they have the freedom to focus on the experiences that keep customers coming back. From point of sale and payments to online commerce, staff management, cash flow tools, and more, Square brings together the tools sellers need to run and grow on one intelligent platform. For more information, visit squareup.com.