The Main Course

People familiar with Time Out Magazine may already be familiar with the Time Out brand and what that brings to the table. And lately, that table can be found in a unique dining experience located in seven major cities from Miami to New York, and Montreal to Dubai; Time Out Market. Jay Coldren, COO of the Americas at Time Out Market, joined The Main Course’s Barbara Castiglia for a delicious chat a...

In this episode of The Main Course, Barbara Castiglia speaks with Big Chicken’s CEO Josh Halpern to learn about the disruption this franchise is posed to cause franchises focused on chicken. Big Chicken opened the doors of its first brick and mortar venue in Las Vegas, NV in 2018. Since then, they’ve opened several locations throughout the US including locations in stadium arenas. They have also f...

Barbara Castiglia spoke with Savneet Singh, president and CEO of Par, a software and hardware solutions company for the restaurant industry, about the importance of technology to survive the pandemic. “The pandemic pulled all that [technology] forward. If you didn’t have great technology … it was really hard to survive,” Singh explained. “You clearly saw the organizations and chains that had the i...

Host Barbara Castiglia welcomed to The Main Course Yariv Bash, CEO of Flytrex, to discuss an innovation in food delivery that has long been on the radar, but whose growth has been exacerbated by the pandemic: drones. While his company was founded in 2013 under different circumstances, it only took until 2016 for Bash and his team to realize that drone deliveries were “gonna happen.” In 2017, Flytr...

The fast-casual chicken market has a lot of competition in the U.S. That hasn’t stopped Campero USA from growing and winning over consumers. The Guatemalan brand has achieved great success in the U.S. market. Sharing the story is the company’s Managing Director and COO Luis Javier Rodas joined The Main Course Host Barbara Castiglia. Rodas has spent over 20 years with the b...

As arguably the oldest franchise brand, A&W is known for its classic root beer floats, but many aren’t aware of the many other options they offer at their many franchised stores. John Palumbo, senior director of franchise development at A&W, spoke with Host Barbara Castiglia about the history and future of the brand, including his favorite menu items. Starting as a root beer stand, the glo...

Before technology entered the restaurant industry, commercial businesses had to rely on cash registers. The first industry to adopt a point of sale (POS) system were retail and grocery stores, and restaurants didn’t integrate the technology until about 30 years ago. President and Founder, Nadav Solomon, of Tabit, a POS and tableside ordering system company, explained how Tabit elevates human inter...

Host Barbara Castiglia talks the latest restaurant technology with Zuppler’s Founder and CEO, Shiva Srinivasan. Zuppler, an online ordering management company, serves primarily independent restaurants and some chains, focusing on ensuring the company’s brand is maintained throughout the online ordering process. Initially, Zuppler started as a portal, similar to a Grubhub, but as more competition c...

Author, restaurant owner and hospitality industry expert Barry Jessurun discussed his book, life lessons, and tips for restaurant success with Host Barbara Castiglia on The Main Course. As owner of Green Valley Hospitality, Jessurun has ran four restaurants ranging from fast-casual to higher-end menus to university settings for up to 32 years. While he was one of the lucky restaurant owners to rem...

Daniel Estrada, co-founder and CEO of 86 Repairs, noticed a large gap in the restaurant industry, which ultimately lead to the formation of his company. He discusses those gaps and more with the Host of The Main Course, Barbara Castiglia. 86 Repairs is a subscription service for multi-unit restaurants of five locations or more where customers text the repair experts any time something breaks, and...

Traditional American fast food is perceived by many to be inevitably unhealthy; however, it doesn’t have to be. Amy’s Kitchen is reinventing the classic American drive-thru one organic, vegetarian burger at a time. In this episode of The Main Course, Host Barbara Castiglia sat down with the President of Amy’s Drive-Thru, David Wolfgram, to discuss how this healthy spin on a quick meal came to be....

Host Barbara Castiglia discussed all things modern restaurant management with Peter Klayman, quick service restaurant (QSR) and practice lead at Bottle Rocket. Klayman focuses on consulting QSR companies that haven’t utilized technology to help them modernize and adjust to an industry that is now very digital forward. Bottle Rocket serves clients like Fiesta Restaurant Group, Dunkin Donuts and the...

Acceleration of restaurant technology adoption isn’t slowing down. The rush to adapt during the pandemic is still occurring, with new guest expectations and operational workflows. So, how is technology solving the restaurant industry’s biggest challenges? The Main Course host Barbara Castiglia spoke with Steve Simoni, CEO of Bbot, on the topic. Simoni described the company’s evolution, “My co...

Acceleration of restaurant technology adoption isn’t slowing down. The rush to adapt during the pandemic is still occurring, with new guest expectations and operational workflows. So, how is technology solving the restaurant industry’s biggest challenges? The Main Course host Barbara Castiglia spoke with Steve Simoni, CEO of Bbot, on the topic. Simoni described the company’s evolution, “My co...

While having a robust to-go strategy is imperative for almost all restaurants now, many full-service locations weren’t prioritizing until the pandemic. The Main Course host Barbara Castiglia chatted with Paul Macaluso, President and CEO of Another Broken Egg Café, about their transition. The concept is elevated brunch, which serves high-end dishes and has a full bar for handcrafted...

The restaurant industry has been through a lot in the last year-plus. Some have pivoted and grown, while others faltered. So, what was the difference? Talking about building and protecting the brand, The Main Course host Barbara Castiglia chatted with Tom Riccio, President Promotional Solutions at Deluxe. Deluxe, which started with the invention of the checkbook, has evolved to help enterpris...

Indian cuisine concepts on a franchise level aren’t represented very well in the U.S. However, Curry Up Now is changing that dynamic. The CEO and Co-Founder Akash Kapoor spoke with The Main Course host Barbara Castiglia about the concept. Kapoor and his wife started the company in 2009 with no foodservice industry experience. “We were a foody family, and when the opportunity came, w...

On this episode of The Main Course, Host Barbara Castiglia talked with Jim Plamondon, Co-President of Plamondon Companies, which specializes in hotel management and hospitality services. It also owns the Roy Rogers brand and operates 13 hotels in the mid-Atlantic. They talked about franchising, legacy brands, and Roy Rodgers. The connection with Roy Rogers started with Jim’s Dad, Pete Sr., who beg...

Being family-friendly is a goal for many restaurants and hospitality brands. They want to appeal to this segment of the population. Talking about the importance of family branding, The Main Course host Barbara Castiglia spoke with the experts at C3—President Jennifer Loper and Insights and Strategy Supervisor Julia Foley. They discussed their programs and results from a recent consu...

While restaurants and other hospitality venues are now open, restaurants are still waiting for the dust to settle. With the Delta Variant spreading and restaurateurs picking up the pieces from 2020, what will the post-COVID world look like for restaurants? Here to give insights on this episode of The Main Course with Host Barbara Castiglia is Micha Magid, co-CEO of Mighty Quinn’s BBQ, a NY-based A...

These three fields blend together, but they're often talked about separately. Restaurants, hospitality, and travel all intersect and rely on one another. On this episode of The Main Course, Host Barbara Castiglia talked with Joe Robert-Thornton, EVP and COO of HMSHost, a world leader in creating dining for travel venues. HMSHost operates locations all over North America and is part of Autogrill Gr...

On this episode of The Main Course, Host Barbara Castiglia talked with Steve Schulze, the Founder of Nékter Juice Bar, a juice bar that is at the forefront of the juice cleanse revolution with cold-pressed juices, smoothies, and acai bowls. The duo talked about surviving the pandemic, Schulze’s path to launching the juice bar, and their plans for expansion. When Steve Schulze and his wife Alexis s...