Restaurant Reset

Carin Stutz started working at McDonald's in high school to help pay for college. She never left the restaurant industry. Over the next four decades, she climbed from hourly employee to the C-suite… serving as COO of Red Robin, President of McAlister's Deli, CEO of Cosi and Native Foods, and holding leadership roles at Wendy's, Applebee's, and Brinker International (Chili's, Ma...

Before “AI” became the buzzword on every restaurant tech panel, Carl Orsbourn was already leading the digital transformation of foodservice. The co-author of Delivering the Digital Restaurant and The Path to Digital Maturity , Carl has been on both sides of the industry: running 1,000 ampm convenience stores with $1.3 billion in sales before leaving it all to build ghost kitchens, dynamic pricing...

Before she was known as The People Doctor, Marissa Andrada spent three decades leading people and culture at some of the world’s biggest brands: Chipotle, Starbucks, Red Bull, Kate Spade, and GameStop. Her career has touched over a million frontline employees , and she’s made one thing clear: you can’t scale a brand without scaling your people. In this conversation, Marissa sits down with Restaura...

What happens when restaurant owners finally get honest about what’s breaking their business? In this special Q&A solo episode, Andy answers the toughest questions he’s received from operators… the ones that don’t have easy answers, but every leader needs to hear. He covers the hard truths about what’s really killing margins, why burnout isn’t a badge of honor, and how to make smarter, faster d...

Tony Roy was leading international operations for a global tech giant when he made a bold decision: leave it all behind to build tools for single-location restaurants. Today, as the Co-founder and COO of Popmenu , Tony’s helped more than 10,000 independent operators grow smarter, simplify their systems, and save hundreds of hours a year through automation and AI. In this episode, Tony and Andy go...

When most people think of innovation in restaurants, they picture shiny new POS systems or loyalty apps. Jason Riggs wants you to look somewhere else: the edge of the operation. The headsets, timers, and drive-thru systems that quietly run the business. As the former GM of Hardware at PAR Technology and current strategic leader at Audivi AI , Jason has built everything from fleet tracking for truc...

Nathan Downs went from cooking in Michelin-starred restaurants to building a technology company that’s rethinking how the world eats. As CEO and cofounder of FoodSpot, Nathan is leading the charge in smart vending: a growing industry that’s making fresh, high-quality food available 24/7 in hospitals, campuses, offices, and even food deserts. His mission is simple but ambitious: democratize access...

When Adam Brotman joined Starbucks, the company didn’t even have free Wi-Fi. A few years later, he helped architect one of the most powerful digital ecosystems in restaurant history: the Starbucks app, Rewards program, and Mobile Order & Pay system that changed how every brand thinks about loyalty. In this episode of Restaurant Reset , Adam breaks down how it all happened and what every operat...

Most operators try to scale their restaurants by tightening systems or adding tech and somewhere along the way, they lose the soul that made guests fall in love in the first place. Chef Jackson Kalb never made that trade. From being fired at 26 and sleeping in his childhood bedroom to now running seven successful restaurants across Southern California, Jackson has built a hospitality group that sc...

How do you bring a legacy restaurant brand back to life? Not with buzzwords. Not with gimmicks. But by giving people food they actually crave (and making sure your team can execute it flawlessly). Chef Mike Gieseman has spent two decades building craveable, profitable menu items for brands like Qdoba, Quiznos, and Taco Del Mar. As VP of Culinary & Innovation for REGO Restaurant Group, he led Q...

Under 25% turnover isn’t luck. It’s a proven system. Nick Sarillo (Nick’s Pizza & Pub) breaks down how a carpenter’s mindset turned two suburban Chicago units into high‑throughput, low‑churn operations: a purpose the team actually uses on shift, training that certifies to a 1–5 standard (not “shadow me”), a visible ladder (Rookie → Pro → Expert) tied to pay, and an accountability test that fix...