Restaurant Technology Podcast

Most people go to Greece for the water. It has this beautiful postcard blue that doesn’t look real until you’re standing in it. The water is memorable, for sure but something I’ll remember much more is a restaurant owner I didn’t expect to meet, who couldn’t get a word out as his eyes filled with tears . But before we get into that story and lesson, I want to tell you how we ended up here. Greece...

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PRODUCTS DISCUSSED: * Toast IQ - learn more * Toast IQ Grow - learn more * Toast Seamless Checkout - learn more * Toast Finance - learn more When I talk to product innovators and executive leadership to break down the latest technology innovations, I always have a specific mission: extract real-world operational ROI. We spent time at the National Restaurant Show capturing explainer videos and othe...

Tips for Surviving The Restaurant Show I caught up with our good friend Michael Ungaro from San Pedro Fish Marke t ( Kings of Fish Media ) right as the Show opened to get his top tips for navigating the weekend: * Get your badge early: Do not wait in the brutal lines at the convention center. Try to print your badge at your hotel lobby or get to McCormick Place incredibly early before the crowds h...

The National Restaurant Show is our industry’s World Cup. But you don’t win the World Cup by sitting in the nosebleeds. To win in the restaurant industry in 2026, you need to be on the pitch with the builders, the dreamers, and the leaders who are drawing up the winning plays for the next decade. You need to be where the momentum is. That is why, every single day of the show at 4:30 PM , we are ga...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit restauranttechnology.substack.com

The restaurants who are stuck in the past are DOA. If you aren’t building your business like Amazon did — leveraging technology, storytelling, and logistics — you’re going to struggle to survive in 2026 and beyond. I’ve been in this game for 18 years at my family owned restaurant Cali BBQ in San Diego. I’ve survived the Great Recession of 2008 and a global pandemic in 2020 by making every mistake...

I didn’t bring my family to Times Square just for a billboard. I brought my wife and kids because this business costs something important: Late nights, missed weekends, and holidays that don’t feel like holidays. For the last 18 years, building my San Diego restaurant Cali BBQ has meant sacrifice from the people behind the scenes. The ones who wait up, believe in the dream, and carry the weight wi...

Influential people have told me for years that I needed to get to Phoenix for the Restaurant Leadership Conference (RLC) . Now that I’m here at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge for the Informa event’s 25th anniversary , I see the story isn’t just on the stage. It’s in the hallways. At the top of this post, you can watch my live video from the event co-hosted with Troy Hooper , CEO of Pepper Lunch , a...

To any operator reading this. We got into this business praying for busy. Not the slow nights, not the empty dining rooms. We dreamed about the chaos. The tickets stacking, the line out the door, the kind of busy that tests everything you’ve built. I remember opening our doors in 2008 on Troy Street in Spring Valley. No guarantees, just belief, grit, and the hope that one day we’d earn the kind of...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit restauranttechnology.substack.com

TIMES SQUARE MEET-UP DATE : Thursday, April 16th TIME : 10:30am (Meet-Up) ; 11:15-11:20am (Toast Billboard Goes Live) WHERE : 47th St. and 7th Avenue in Times Square NYC ONLINE : Watch LIVE right here on Substack as it happens New York City, let’s make this one count. We’re taking over Times Square with Toast . At 10:30am you are invited to join us on the corner of 47th Street and 7th Avenue in th...

“Stay curious, get involved, and ask for help.” These are the three lessons my grandfather taught me, and they guide every move we make at Cali BBQ Media . We just wrapped up an incredible experience at the Restaurant Franchise and Innovation Summit (RFIS) in my hometown of San Diego. It was a powerful time making content and connections. I had the honor of being a speaker , and it was great to se...

In this Restaurant Tech Tour , we visited James Petrakis at his Ravenous Pig in Florida to discuss the strategic tech stack that transformed a “survival-mode” startup into a hospitality group that now includes The Polite Pig at Disney Springs and a brewery operation. When James and Julie Petrakis opened The Ravenous Pig in 2007, they were filling a void in an Orlando market dominated by chains. Th...

At a Glance: How Levain Bakery Powered Their 19-Location Expansion * Tech Vision: CTO Gustavo Cardona, a former NASA data analyst applied an “engineer’s point of view” to the cookie business. * Visibility Boost: A partnership with Marqii that streamlined Google Business Profiles, leading to a 13% increase in “noticeability” in just four months. * Core Engine: Toast serves as the exclusive POS, uti...

The US food system has a staggering logistical failure: while 60+ million tons of food are tossed into landfills each year, millions of Americans still face food insecurity. I wanted to introduce you to Copia , a technology platform that automates food redistribution to solve the logistics of hunger. To see how technology can finally bridge the gap between fine dining and frontline need, we took a...

TECH MENTIONED: * Toast Marketing — Retargeting and Loyalty * Marqii — One-Stop Listing Management * Google Business Profile — Local Search Visibility * Palona.ai — AI Voice Automation * Ovation — Real-Time Guest Feedback You can also join the conversation on our Rising Tides Live series every Wednesday and Friday at 10am (PST) What’s on your Community Tech Stack? Building a restaurant is about th...

If you run a restaurant, you are in the business of storytelling. And your menu is one of the most important stories you tell. Most owners treat their menu as a simple list of food and prices, but in reality, your menu should be a treasure map of profitability . After almost 20 years of operating Cali BBQ in San Diego , I’ve learned that growth doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by design. Whe...

Restaurants don’t fail because of the food. They fail because of broken systems. For years, the industry accepted a hard truth: to be successful, you had to be the glue holding a fractured business together. That meant working IN your business instead of ON your business. The rhythm of a restaurant is a double-edged sword. When it’s working, it’s a symphony. When it’s not, it’s a slow-motion car c...

Opening day is more than a moment — it’s a story you’ll be telling for a lifetime. And in today’s restaurant landscape, your restaurant’s story begins long before guests walk through your doors. Whether you’re launching your first location or your twentieth, one thing is constant: if you’re not showing up online early, you’re already behind. That’s why we partnered with Marqii to spotlight the 8 e...

I learned a lot in 2025. I’ll learn even more in 2026. As we move into the New Year, the biggest lesson I’ve taken from the past groundbreaking year at Cali BBQ Media is that technology moves fast, but the soul of what we do—storytelling—is what actually lasts. Here are 5 major lessons we learned while building in public over the last twelve months. 1. Be Willing to Try New Tools If you aren’t wil...

* Why instant payouts are actually a hospitality tool. Chef Bert reveals that removing the friction of waiting for tips doesn’t just improve morale, it eliminates the “head worries” and payout disputes that distract staff from taking care of the guest. * The “90/10 Rule” for scaling a brand. To expand from San Diego to Sedona without losing quality, Wild Thyme locks in 90% of the menu for operatio...

Your 2026 Google Playbook * Own Your Google Business Profile: Maximize every relevant field and respond to every review. Consistency across platforms is what prevents AI confusion. * Geo-Tag Everything: Ensure creators and your own team are geolocation tagging your restaurant in every video. * Video is Data: High-quality video isn’t just “content.” It’s the primary way multimodal search understand...

When I found out I was named one of the recipients of the 2025 Restaurant Innovators Awards by 7shifts , I felt something deeper than just pride. I felt responsibility. Responsibility to not let the spotlight stop with me. To turn it outward, toward the people and teams who are doing real, meaningful work to make hospitality stronger. This list of 60 honorees isn’t just an awards list. It’s a glim...

For a long time, restaurants have optimized for one thing: traditional search. “Best pizza near me.” “BBQ in Austin.” “Happy hour downtown.” The rules were clear, the rankings predictable, and the strategy—local SEO, review management, mobile-friendly websites—was largely settled. That era is over. Avi Goren , co-founder and CEO of Marqii , says a fundamental shift is underway, one that will reorg...