FULL COMP: The Voice of the Restaurant Industry Revolution

What can save this industry from absolute destruction?  I’m betting on math and practical business fundamentals. That’s why I’ve invited Roger Beaudoin to chat on this episode. Roger has been preaching these ideals for years. He’s more than a teacher, he’s an owner and operator as well. Rather than giving us advice, he walks us through the strategy he's using to turn the pandemic into a windfall....

You’ve gotta bet big to win big In 2019, Daniel Shemtob leveraged millions to build the hospitality empire of his dreams. Food trucks to fine dining and even a catering company, he’s focused on absolute domination of the industry. Daniel built a big ship and now he needs to captain it through an economic disaster. On this episode we cover the lessons he’s learned over the last 4 months and the pla...

The pandemic did not pick favorites. No business owner was immune from the debilitating effects of the quarantine. Big restaurateurs with big restaurants and big rents need big plans to weather this storm. On this episode we chat with Celebrity Chef Adam Perry Lang who shares how he’s been affected and his strategy for rebounding. Click to sign up for our weekly newsletter. Click here to book time...

Another dine-in closure for restaurants…California is the 5th largest economy in the world and the hospitality industry here employs literally hundreds of thousands of people. Who speaks for us? Who is looking out for our best interests? Who’s there to make sure we survive the pandemic? The California Restaurant Association has extended it’s resources to the industry nationwide and, on this episod...

Who doesn’t love a great mashup? To get a read on where diners currently stand, the Yelp team released a survey to thousands of users. Cornell University analyzed that data and today we review their findings with Professor and Associate Dean Alex Susskind. His specialization centers around the strategic and operational elements of the industry but Alex is more than a theorist. He came up through t...

Not all heroes wear capes, some write books. The books Gino Wickman has written are directly responsible for helping me to create multiple million dollar businesses, become a better leader and find balance within my personal and professional lives. Today we discuss his latest book, the Entrepreneurial Leap, and how we apply those lessons to the hospitality industry. Click to sign up for our weekly...

From running underground event spaces to virtual happy hours, Matt Landes has lived on the bleeding edge of what’s next within our industry. Today he shares the ups, downs and lessons learned on his journey to creating, running and now saving a million dollar events company. Click to sign up for our weekly newsletter. Click here to book time on my personal calendar. Click here to download our Rest...

With an estimated 30-50% of all restaurants permanently closed, what does that mean for the future of the industry? What does that mean for those of us still in the game? Today we chat with Jon Strader who’s using his grit and tenacity to build his empire when land is cheap and competition is low. Click to sign up for our weekly newsletter. Click here to book time on my personal calendar. Click he...

On today’s show we chat with Mark Canlis, made famous by transforming his Michelin-starred restaurant into a bagel stand and burger joint saving jobs and his restaurant. When the pandemic hit, the conventional wisdom in the industry was to shut down and hoard cash. Mark did the exact opposite, pivoting his fine dining restaurant into 3 casual concepts, almost overnight. Today we discuss the idea b...

On Today’s show we chat with David Meltzer, a three-time international best-selling author, a Top 100 Business Coach, the executive producer of Entrepreneur‘s #1 digital business show, and host of the top entrepreneur podcast. The hospitality business, more than anything, is a business. Due to the hectic nature of the industry we tend to forget that and get caught up in the day to day grind. Prope...

Are you charging what your food is worth or are you charging what customers are willing to pay? What do we need to do to fix our broken system? We cover this and so much more with third-time entrepreneur, first-time restaurateur Joelle Parenteau whose fresh take on the industry will blow your mind. Click to sign up for our weekly newsletter. Click here to book time on my personal calendar. Click h...

On today's show, we chat with James Beard award winning chef Chris Shepherd founder of the non-profit, Southern Smoke. Most of us in the hospitality industry wouldn’t consider ourselves needy or in need of assistance. We’re internally motivated, not afraid of hard work and resourceful as hell. But when the pandemic hit it decimated our industry and our livelihoods. Out of the blue Southern Smoke c...

The biggest advantage to coming up in the restaurant industry is that it forces you to be innovative. It rare that you have the money you need so you learn to do without or you learn to do it yourself. On today's show, we chat with chef , TV host, fitness guru and family man Michael Chernow who tears down the veil on our industry, showing the best and worst it has to offer. Chernow leads us on a n...

On today's show we chat with celebrity chef and environmental advocate Nyesha Arrington who's efforts to achieve sustainability in her personal and professional life have garnered her national attention. Nyesha's unconditional respect for quality of life and the people in it has led her to break every rule in the book. Her unconventional path within hospitality has taken her from Top Chef to a bri...

Storytelling is central to the restaurant experience and, what guests love most whether they realize it or not, is the story we're telling within the four walls of our restaurants. But how does that story translate outside of those 4 walls and what stories should we be telling post-pandemic. We cover all of that and much more on today's show with Jeff Smith and Jill Sandin of JS2 in Los Angeles, o...

We've had months to discuss what we miss about the restaurant industry, what about what we don't miss? What parts of us and this industry should we leave behind? On today's show, we chat with Chef Joe Sasto, a renaissance man charting a new path in the industry through pop-ups, pasta classes & underground events. Together we'll ask the tough questions and try and find the path forward.  Click...

What I miss most about Louisiana is the sense of community I felt there. What I miss is exactly what compelled Chef Nina Compton to move there. Since arriving she's opened multiple restaurants and has achieved every imaginable accolade including a James Beard award, the title of Best New Chef from Food & Wine  and was listed as one of America's Best Restaurants by Eater. Nothing could stop tha...

I've always viewed the restaurant industry as risky but Chef Sam Marvin sees no risk. He's able to pump out hit after hit without missing a beat. From Bottega Louie to Echo & Rig, the chef has proven that success in the hospitality industry is a formula and it's a formula we can learn. On today's show, we'll be discussing the formula he used to turn Bottega Louie into a 10 million dollar block...

Didn't go to business school? We've got you covered.  On today's show, we chat with Elizabeth Tilton, founder of Oyster Sunday, a hospitality services company making waves by supplying us with tools we need to reopen, at no cost As a child, I dreamed of being an astronaut. Elizabeth Tilton dreamed of being a doctor. But somehow, some way the hospitality industry sucked us in. The love of serving o...

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE! I can think of few times in my life I've walked away from a conversation so fired up!  Today, we had the opportunity to chat with Chef Danielle Leoni, chef/owner of The Breadfruit & Rum Bar, who's fighting for sustainability in both the food we eat and the industry at large. Chef Leoni has been a food fighter from the beginning. Her positions on responsible sourcing and...

We're all shut down. The hamster wheel has stopped. And some of us, myself included, are wondering if we have the energy and, more importantly, the desire, to hop back on.  Today we discuss the case for change with a man that did just that. Matthew Jennings walked away from his award winning restaurants and all of the perks that come with being a celebrity chef to follow his bliss.  Click to sign...

What are the folks at the top of our industry doing to help us and themselves? On today's show, we chat with four-time James Beard award-winning TV personality, chef, writer, teacher and social justice advocate, Chef Andrew Zimmern. Andrew has not only reached the pinnacles of success, he'd done so while supporting and advocating for independent restaurants. Today we talk about the where we are an...

On today's show, we chat with Steve Schwartz, founder of the Art of Tea, a bespoke tea company crafting custom blended tea for the biggest names in hospitality. If you're going to create a product, logic would dictate that you'd want the masses to have access to it. But that's not the route Steve Schwartz went. He wanted his tea company to serve those that serve others. It's one of the foundationa...

On today's show we chat with Othon Nolasco, co-founder of No Us Without You, a non-profit serving the most vulnerable amongst us within the hospitality community. There are some revelations in life that hit you like a ton of bricks. It was Othon that brought to light that there are thousands of undocumented hospitality workers that are unable to receive government assistance and thus are unable to...

Today we chat with Barrie Schwartz, founder of My House, an events company in New Orleans, Louisiana. Schwartz has made a name for herself  as an industry disruptor by democratizing chefdom, proving that chefs don't need restaurants, they simply need an audience. These efforts have garnered her accolades including PCMA’s 20 in their Twenties, Connect Corporate’s 40 Under 40 and Gambit’s 30 Under 3...