Restaurant Unstoppable with Eric Cacciatore

Sangeeta Lakhani is the Co-Founder and Executive Director at Service! Sangeeta moved to the US from India just before she turned 17. She tried her hand at art school and eventually landed on culinary school. Neither paths were for her at the time. in 1992, at the age of 21, she began working at a pizza place and became co-owner. She operated that restaurant until 2004. In 2004 she opened Bodega in...

Marc Forgione is the Chef/Owner of Peasant, Trattoria on Fifth, and Restaurant Marc Forgione. Chef Marc comes from a family of chefs, most notable his dad, Larry Forgione of An American Place, a very famous restaurant in NYC. When he was young, Marc didn't' necessarily want to be a chef himself. While in college though, he would cook for all is friends and he decided he might be into enough to mak...

Jim Tseleikis is the co-Founder of Cousins Maine Lobster. Jim graduated college in 2008 and went into sales, specializing in medical device sales for about 4 years. While visiting his cousin in LA, the two men conjured up the idea for Cousins Maine Lobster, based on their love for family and lobster back in their home state of Maine. 13 months later, in April of 2012, the first Cousins Maine Lobst...

Ray Villaman is the President and CEO of Tahoe Restaurant Group. Ray got his start in the industry at a young age as a busser, soon moving on to waiter and then bar tender. He eventually took a job after college at California Pizza Kitchen where he assisted the company in impressive expansion. He was then recruited by Boston Chicken (today known as Boston Market and helped that company do the same...

Matt Abrahams is the author of  Think Fast, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot as well as a speaker and coach , a professor, and a podcast host . Check out episode 989 with Christine Miles as mentioned in today's episode! Show notes… Favorite success quote/mantra: "No matter where you go, there you are." Today's sponsor: OneDegree Coaching : Self-awareness is the #...

Dan Dreher is the Co-Owner and Operator of Wally's Pizza Bar, as well as the Co-Owner of FLB Entertainment Center in California. Wally's and FLB Entertainment Center were family businesses and still are. Dan and his siblings Monica and Jeremy and his father are all co-owners. Dan received a business degree in Strategic Management and joined the family business as a bartender in 2003. In 2006 his f...

Robert Chen is the Founder and CEO of eatmise, currently operating out of and within NYC. Robert graduated from Columbia with a 4.0 and entered the world of Professional Investment. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, he got the idea for eatmise. eatmise is "the first restaurant-to-you delivery service for busy people who want to eat well. Learn more here . Join  Restaurant Unstoppable Network and...

Anthony Tartaglia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Costa Verde Hospitality. Anthony got his start in the industry at age 13 and basically never left. Hen worked in restaurant and bar management, as well as being a bartender in NYC and Long Island, until 2014 when he opened his first restaurant, Verde Kitchen & Cocktails, at the age of 29. Verde Hospitality has since opened 5 more concepts. Favorite Su...

Adam Guild is the cofounder and CEO of Owner.com. Owner.com is a software-as-a-service company that provides restaurants with everything they need to succeed online, and drive traffic into their stores. The company currently has over 1,000 restaurants using its services. Show notes… Favorite success quote/mantra: "Do or do not; there is no try." Today's sponsor: OneDegree Coaching : Self-awareness...

Jamie Greer is the Interim CEO at Sticky's The Finger Joint in NYC. Jamie Greer got her start in the culinary world in high school, where she attended a vocational school for culinary arts and restaurant management. She then went on and got a degree in hospitality management at Syracuse. She worked for about a year at Magnolia Bakery in NYC before she landed a job at Sticky's, starting as the Dire...

Just Salad was co-founded by Nick Kenner and Rob Crespi. They established the company in 2006 with the goal of providing healthy and environmentally friendly fast-food options. Just Salad recently opened their newest location, in Huntington Station, in NYC (there are 75 stores now!).  Show notes… Today's sponsor: MarginEdge : Fluctuating food prices. Staffing challenges- Now more than ever you nee...

Steven Salm is the Founder and CEO of PLANTA. Steven Salm started in the restaurant industry at the age of 18 and he fully embraced the ideas of making people happy and providing off of that. He opened his first restaurant in 2013 at the age of 28 in Toronto, that being The Chase. In 2016, he open his second restaurant, PLANTA, after becoming a devout vegan. Today, there are 13 going on 14 PLANTA...

Al Lucas is a Partner at  Defined Hospitality in Philadelphia, PA. Al began his career at Chart House where he began as a dishwasher, leaving the company 21 years later as the Vice President of the East Coast. He then moved on to be the Director of Operations at Stephen Starr's company. He worked for Cozy Cafe and Border House and eventually arrived as a Partner at Defined Hospitality. Al Lucas ha...

Chef Nok is the chef/owner at Kalaya in Philadephia, PA. Chef Nok got her start in the industry as a flight attendant, first in Kuwait and then in Bangkok, where she excelled from 1994 to 2009. There she learned her love for food and hospitality. She also helped operate a jewelry store with a friend and opened an Italian restaurant with her former husband. In 2010, she moved to the U.S. with her c...

David Kaplan is the Founder and Co-Owner of both Gin & Luck and Death & Co. Dave fell in love with cocktails at a relatively young age. After school he headed to Las Vegas and worked in a 4,000 person night club and left for NYC soon after. once in New York, he found a Indian restaurant being sold in the East Village and bought it with a partner and turned it into Death & Co. Today there are 4 Dea...

Bo Davis is the Co-Founder and CEO of  MarginEdge . Bo Davis studied philosophy as na undergrad and left school to develop Prometheus, an educational software company. He sold the company, joined the Peace Corps., and received two Masters degrees. He Cofounded the conveyor sushi concept Wasabi in 2005 which still operates today. From 2015-2018 he developed MarginEdge, a restaurant management softw...

Yianni Karapanagiotis is the Founder of Kara Restaurant Group. Yianni opened his first restaurant in 2002. Before that, he learned systems, processes, and procedures from working at T.G.I. Friday's. He opened his first restaurant in Cape May, NJ and ten years later, he opened his second. Today, there are 14 restaurants under the Kara Restaurant Group umbrella. Check out Yianni's Restaurant Punk po...

Sean Finter is the Founder of Barmetrix, CEO + Head Coach at Finter Group, and Owner of the Franklin House. Sean got his start in the industry at 12 where he grew up in Canada. He worked for the Hard Rock Cafe in England and stayed in that city for 6 years. He then became a restaurant coach and worked in Australia for about 10 years. At 27 he opened his first restaurant. Today, he focuses on resta...

Adriel Lubarsky is Director of Sales at GreenPlaces. GreenPlaces helps companies measure their carbon footprint, reduce emissions, go carbon neutral or net zero and promote success to investors, employees, and customers. Adriel has worked in many areas of sustainability, mostly focusing on the financial side of things, developing financial incentives to be more sustainable. His new book will be av...

Prakash Karamchandani is the Co-Founder of Balance Grille in Ohio. Prakash Karamchandani (PK) met his best friend and business partner, HoChan Jang (CJ), in college. Once they graduated and had not much luck finding their dream jobs, they decided to open a restaurant. In 2010, they opened their first restaurant, with PK focusing on finances and building out systems. After their second location, th...

REPUBLISHED EPISODE: Today we're going to talk about why you need to pay yourself, FIRST! We're also diving into how. Joining us for the conversation are two of the best qualified: Kasey Anton and Mike Michalowicz. Mike Michalowicz is the author of Profit First: Transform Your Business From a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine . He's helped thousands of entrepreneurs gain control of the...

Matt Lombardo is the Chef/Owner of Pink Door Catering & Market in Mashpee, MA. Chef Matt grew up on Cape Cod and got his first job in the industry as a teenager. He moved to Jackson Hole, WY after college and lived there for 5 years, skiing and working in restaurants. While there, he moved from FOH to BOH and never looked back. He eventually moved back to the cape and bought a catering company tha...

Jack McGarry is the Founder/Owner/Managing partner at The Dead Rabbit in Manhattan. Jack got his start in a bar in Ireland at the age of 14. He has been a barman ever since. From '06-'09 he worked in the famed The Merchant in Belfast, where he grew the most as a bar professional. He and his team won several awards there, and he eventually realized he needed to take his skills to the states. He ope...

Chip Klose is a restaurant coach, speaker, and podcast host. Chip began his restaurant career in FOH and management opening some very famous and profitable restaurants in NYC in the 2000s and 2010s. He then transitioned into coaching, public speaking, writing, and he is currently the host of the Restaurant Strategy Podcast. Show notes… Calls to ACTION!!! Join  Restaurant Unstoppable Network and ge...

Noah Glass is the Founder & CEO of Olo (NYSE: OLO), a leading open SaaS platform for restaurants. He began working in the foodservice industry twenty years ago, serving as a cashier, server, bartender, and delivery driver. In 2005, Noah founded Olo where his work with mobile ordering pre-dates the iPhone. Today, over 600 restaurant brands trust Olo to grow their digital sales, do more with less, a...