Over the last few weeks, foodborne illnesses have killed several people in the U.S., sickening many others. Outbreaks affected major restaurants and retailers from McDonald’s to Whole Foods to Walmart; the offending E. coli bacteria was traced to ingredients including onions, carrots, and broccoli. Christine Schindler founded Pathspot to make restaurants safer, using tech to support health and safety initiatives from hand washing to ingredient labeling. In this episode, we talk about the recent ...
Dec 03, 2024•34 min
Recipes on the internet have always been bad. They’re hard to find and even harder to mange. Many have tried to find a fix, but few have completely flipped the model on its head. Until now! Lisa Grimm is co-founder and CEO of Roux, which she describes as “the home of food culture.” It’s a place to find, store, modify, and share recipes while giving credit (and cash) to the original creator. (Join the waitlist at roux.app .) In this episode, we cover Roux’s inception and soft launch, plus Brandon...
Nov 19, 2024•44 min
Founder and CEO of Table22, Sam Bernstein, has some incredible news. He just closed a Series A funding round of 11 million dollars. In the latest episode, Bernstein talks about how Table22 is helping restaurants generate new revenue streams and innovatively bring their brands to life, fueling its mission to support merchants, restaurants, and shops in operationalizing unique offerings.
Oct 30, 2024•39 min
Alice Cheng launched Culinary Agents, a hiring platform for hospitality companies, 12 years ago. Since then, it’s served 2 million users, including more than 50,000 businesses, offering job listings, industry data, and educational content meant to inform and inspire the next generation of restaurant talent. On this episode, Alice debuts Culinary Agents’ newest endeavor: HospitalityCareerPaths.com, a platform highlighting the professional trajectories of leaders in the industry. (And others, like...
Oct 22, 2024•38 min
Chef, founder, and industry leader Aaron Noveshen helms San Francisco Bay Area’s Starbird, a chicken concept. Starbird debuted eight years ago hoping to “completely disrupt fast food,” per Noveshen. During that time, the brand has grown quickly, embraced most of the industry’s tech-forward growth tactics — including ghost kitchens, which he still talks about favorably! On this episode, Noveshen describes the Starbird’s evolution while sharing much of what he’s learned leading a fast-moving, forw...
Oct 08, 2024•45 min
Robert Sietsema has been reviewing restaurants for over 30 years, and he has some thoughts. Specifically, in this episode, he has thoughts about QR code menus (absolutely not), reservations platforms (fine but he'd rather avoid), and social media ("It's putting me out of business."). Plus, Brandon and Kristen hang out in New York and make the restaurant technology introduction of the year.
Sep 24, 2024•40 min
Dig, formerly Dig Inn, is an East Coast-based chain selling its plates, sandwiches, sides, and salads at 33 locations. CEO Tracy Kim joined Dig nearly three years ago and spent the past year-and-a-half in the top role. In this episode, we talk business growth, marketing, positioning, and, yes, kiosks for a growing brand with big plans for the future.
Sep 11, 2024•40 min
Reservations are having a moment. So when the biggest player in the game makes big changes to its platform, the industry pays attention. Debby Soo assumed the top role at OpenTable in the summer of 2020, when restaurants were reeling from the sudden onset of the pandemic that changed their business forever. In this episode, we talk about the changes Soo and her exec team have made at OpenTable, working to win back the best restaurants in the country (and abroad) and push a decades-old restaurant...
Aug 27, 2024•47 min
What happens when you apply a startup-esque growth mindset, scale, and principles to restaurants? For Gregg Majewski, CEO of Craveworthy Brands, it means near immediate results. Majewski describes Craveworthy as a “restaurant platform company,” not a restaurant group, that gives brands tools and systems to scale, fast. It scaled from zero to 200 restaurants, and zero to $200 million in systemwide sales in roughly 18 months. And it’s on a buying spree, recently acquiring Hot Chicken Takeover, tai...
Aug 20, 2024•37 min
It's been a busy few weeks in the reservations business. Over the summer, American Express, which already owns Resy, announced a $400 million acquisition of rival booking service Tock. A few weeks later, OpenTable shared its own big news, a deal with Visa to grant cardholders special access to restaurants. In this extra spicy episode, Tock CEO Matt Tucker wastes no time punching up at his biggest competitor. (After the interview was recorded, both OpenTable and Visa declined to comment on the sp...
Aug 14, 2024•50 min
Nancy Luna is a veteran restaurant industry reporter and writer. She's covered restaurants in some capacity for over two decades for outlets including The Orange County Register, Nation's Restaurant News, and Business Insider. Starting as a blogger on MySpace (!!) during her local newspaper days, Nancy has carved out a niche that's served her as a journalist for decades. On this special summer vacation episode of The Simmer, we talk media, PR, conferences and more.
Jul 10, 2024•34 min
What's the future of full service restaurants? It's easy to get caught up in growth and scale, but in this industry segment, customer experience *really* matters. Chip Wade took the reins at Union Square Hospitality Group from its storied founder, Danny Meyer. In this episode, we talk about how Wade will move USHG into a new era, including HQ+, the company's new training program for business leaders across industries.
Jun 18, 2024•42 min
In January, Owner.com announced a $33 million Series B round of funding, mainly from existing investors. According to Owner.com CRO Kyle Norton, it’s in service of helping mom-and-pop restaurants increase direct online sales. In this episode we talk about how restaurants can find and retain online customers, the evolution of restaurant discovery, and why working within narrow constraints — a particular customer set and limited customization options — is Owner’s winning strategy.
Jun 04, 2024•40 min
It's been almost 19 years since Olo's first customer, its founder's grandmother, placed a restaurant order via text message. In that time, tech has changed — a lot! Still, on average, just one out of every six restaurant orders comes through digital channels. In this episode, Noah Glass, known as one of the earliest restaurant technology operatives, describes this evolution and what he sees coming after nearly two decades leading Olo. Also discussed: endless shrimp, negronis, and Dollaritas. Che...
May 21, 2024•45 min
Since leaving Eleven Madison Park, the New York City fine dining restaurant he led to worldwide renown, nearly five years ago, Will Guidara has evangelized "unreasonable hospitality," or, as he defines it, the art of giving people more than they expect. As a professional speaker, he's managed to apply principles of running a successful and hospitable restaurant to other industries, from lawn care to insurance. In this episode, we tackle some big questions about the future of restaurants, includi...
May 14, 2024•44 min
As Shake Shack's chief financial officer, Katie Fogertey manages the business's financial actions — that's obvious. But she's as much of a tech and operations expert as a financial one, taking a hands-on and holistic view of company when making decisions about its future. In this episode, we talk about "bespoke deployment" — Katie's term (that Kristen loves) for rolling out new processes and technology across the restaurants, new initiatives like drive-thrus and combo meals, and why kiosks are s...
Apr 30, 2024•45 min
Q: Who calls restaurants on the phone? A: Far more people than we expected. Alex Sambvani is co-founder and CEO of Slang, a voice AI company that answers the phone for hundreds of restaurants. Over half of calls to restaurants often go unanswered, meaning diners don't get answers to straightforward questions like, "Can I bring my dog to your patio?" On this edition Alex talks us through the good, bad, and ugly of artificial intelligence, and teases "something big" coming from a new partnership. ...
Apr 23, 2024•41 min
There are restaurant people, there are technology people, and there are people who do both. Joe Unger was once a Subway franchisee, then held leadership roles at Taco Bell and Reef Technology. Now currently COO for Gosh Enterprises, a fast-growing restaurant group, Unger speaks to both sides of the business and how they work together. We talk through restaurant technology's growth from fun experiment to critical business strategy, including all of the bumps along the way. Music provided by Heywo...
Apr 09, 2024•33 min
Don’t call it a ghost kitchen! NYC-based Nimbus empowers the next generation of breakout food brands, providing dedicated kitchen space in hourly, daily, or monthly increments. We talk about what it takes to help food businesses launch, grow, and thrive. Plus, Camilla shares some big news: Nimbus is coming to Chicago! Music provided by Heywood Rex.
Apr 02, 2024•44 min
We can't help talking about it, surge pricing is everywhere! Join us for an insightful discussion with Savneet Singh about dynamic pricing and customer loyalty models, his company's latest acquisition, and what he really thinks about free coffee at work. Music provided by Heywood Rex.
Mar 20, 2024•44 min
