Restaurant Unstoppable with Eric Cacciatore

Carrie Morey is the Founder and CEO of Callie's Hot Little Biscuit. Carrie began her career in sales within the early days of the internet. After baking biscuits to bring to sales meetings, she eventually started baking her own biscuits and selling them online and Callie's Hot Little Biscuit grew from there. She was featured on her own show, called Unwrapped, and started a popular food blog, and h...

Karalee Nielsen Fallert is Founder, Partner, and CEO of All Good Industries, based in Charleston, SC. Karalee opened her first restaurant in 1996 at the age of 19, having dropped out of culinary school to do so. She sold that restaurant and went on to work for P.F. Chang's where she learned about expansion and training, among many other useful skills. She moved to Charleston, SC and eventually ope...

Kara Graves is a Senior Partner and the Director of Marketing at Uptown Hospitality group based in Charleston, SC. Kara went to school for PR and marketing and entered the fashion industry in NYC. After only two years, she transitioned into the restaurant/hospitality industry, taking on bartending, managing, and marketing. She began working with Keith Benjamin , Uptwon's co-founder and Director of...

Ellen Yin is the co-owner of High Street Hospitality Group in Philadelphia, PA. Ellen began working in kitchens at an early age and worked her way up to line cook. She then transitioned her focus onto FOH. Before she even entered college, she knew she wanted to open a restaurant. She studied business at Penn. State in order to better prepare herself for the restaurant industry. She intentionally l...

Amy DePaoli is Director of Marketing at honeygrow. Amy studied marketing at Providence College and has worked for companies like Pet Value and Victory. She worked for an ad agency as well, which she recommends for anyone in a marketing career. Since April of 2022, she has been Director of Marketing for honeygrow, which has grown to 32 locations. Unstoppables! Please consider taking this survey abo...

Christine Miles is a Consultant, Executive Coach, Entrepreneur, and author of What Is It Costing You Not to Listen?: The Power of Understanding to Connect, Influence, Solve & Sell. She is the CEO and founder of EQuipt, and for three decades she has been serving organizations by helping them apply human skills to drive results and build cultures of empathy. Today we will be discussing the book, and...

Greg Root is a partner at Defined Hospitality. Greg started his hospitality career as a teen-aged caddy at a country club in Pennsylvania. Later he attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania where he studied Restaurant and Hotel Management. He graduated in 2000 and, after working in various roles in various restaurants, he was hired as a manager for Starr Restaurants. After 13 years and attaining...

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 has...

Thomas M. Sterner is the founder and CEO of The Practicing Mind Institute . As a successful entrepreneur, he is considered an expert in Present Moment Functioning or PMF. He is a popular and in-demand speaker who works with high-performance individuals including, athletes, coaches, industry groups and individuals of all ages freeing them to operate effectively within high-stress situations so that...

Keith Benjamin went to Penn State and threw parties for fraternities while also playing lacrosse. He graduated and worked in sports marketing when he started working at a bar in NYC. After a birthright trip to Israel in 2009, he decided to go "all in" on restaurants as a career. He bought in to a restaurant group in 2011 and convinced his partners to open Uptown Social in 2018 in Charleston, 1,500...

Cynthia Wong is the Founder of Life Raft Treats. Cynthia knew she wanted to become a baker at a very young age. She went to culinary school in San Fransisco and then began working as a bread baker there. She then went off to culinary school in France and returned to the states and became a baker in various restaurants across the nation. She worked as a pastry chef in Atlanta for 12 years and moved...

Tia Clark is the Founder of Casual Crabbing with Tia , based in Charleston, SC. Casual Crabbing with Tia is an experience that teaches you the art of crabbing, from throwing a cast net to setting bait and fishing, all on the water's edge. It's for anyone; young or old, skilled or unskilled. Tia is a food and beverage veteran, having started washing dishes at 17 and doing basically every job in a k...

Mickey Bakst is the Co-Founder of Ben's Friends . Ben's Friends is a community of chefs, bartenders, line cooks, servers, sommeliers, host and hostesses, GMs and owners who have found or are seeking sobriety. Their mission: "to offer community, hope and a path forward for those struggling with substance abuse and addiction." Mickey Bakst has been sober since 1982. He began his restaurant career in...

Scott Shor is the Owner/Managing Partner at Edmund's Oast. Scott moved to Charleston in 2004. He began working at Ted's Butcher block in 2007, which had a small craft beer selection. This is where his fondness for craft beer and spirits really took hold. In 2008, he opened Charleston's Beer Exchange. He opened another locations, called Greenville Beer Exchange in 2010 and later sold it. It is stil...

James London is the Chef/Owner of Chubby Fish in Charleston, South Carolina. Chubby Fish is a dock-to-table restaurant where all dishes are sold using fish caught on the day it is served. James decided at the age of 20 to leave drumming in bands behind for a career as a chef and restaurant owner. he attended culinary school and by the age of 26, he was the Executive Chef at a Nico's from 2010-2012...

Randi Weinstein is the Founder of FAB. Randi Weinstein is from Long Island and got her start in the industry in the front of house. After moving to Charleston, she became Director of Events at Wine + Food Festival from 2006 until 2014. In 206 she Founded FAB (Females And Business) which began as one person's vision to create a business workshop for all women in hospitality. The intent of FAB is to...

With excitement allow me to introduce today's guest Founder and CEO of The Famous Big Dave's Cheesesteaks. A West Philadelphia native, restaurateur and philanthropist, Derrick "D" Hayes understands the value of hard work and perseverance. After falling into trouble with the law as a young man, Derrick found himself granted with an unexpected second chance and vowed to dedicate his time to giving b...

Ann and Chris Demant are the Founders of Grills by Demant , a live-fire stainless steel grills fabricator based in Atlanta. Chris and Ann are from Denmark and met in 2009. Chris was a stainless steel fabricator making industrial food equipment and Ann was studying to work in healthcare. They moved to Atlanta in 2015 to start the Grills by Demant business and have been making grills for restaurants...

Anthony Valletta is the President of Bartaco . Valletta is from Boston and studied the restaurant business both in the US and abroad in London. After graduating in 2005, he eventually found himself as the Managing Partner at Longhorn Steakhouse and stayed with the company for 7 years. He was Del Frisco's Director of Operations for 7 years from 2011 to 2018. He then worked as the COO at Mina Group...

Cleophus Hethington is the Chef de cuisine at Zak the Baker in Miami. Chef Ophus started his post-school life in the Navy as a corpsman. He left and worked in healthcare for about 8 years before switching careers entirely and working at Yardbird , opened by John Kunkel , in Miami. He worked in many restaurants, and other cities outside of Miami, before becoming the Chef de Cuisine at Zak the Baker...

Doug Zeif is the Founder and CEO of Next! Hospitality Advisors. Doug grew up in Queens, NY and began as an amusement park cook and eventually worked as a bagel baker. He was hired as the Assistant General Manager at a steakhouse in 1980. Soon after, he began working for The Cheesecake Factory and took the restaurant from 2 to 31 locations. He has since helped and advised many companies, including...

Dave Domzaski is the owner of  Barmetrix Miami and the author of  The Bar Shift: 41 Short Management Lessons You Don't Have to Learn the Hard Way! Dave began at Barmetrix as the Director of Operations in the Washington D.C. area before becoming the owner of the Barmetrix operation in Miami in 2017. Barmetrix is a small group of passionate people who earn their living by helping restaurants and bar...

Jamila West is the owner of Rosie's in Miami. Jamila began working in restaurants at the age of 16 as a buster. She attended and graduated from both the C.I.A. and Johnson and Wales. She worked for upscale restaurants in New York, LA, Kuwait, Dubai, and Miami. She and Chef Akino West opened The Copper Door, a bed and breakfast, in Miami, which operated from 2018-2020. They transitioned that busine...

John Kunkel is the Founder & CEO of 50 Eggs Hospitality . John founded 50 Eggs back in 2004. This world-renowned hospitality group houses several forward-thinking concepts, including Capri , Spring Chicken , Wakuda , Yardbird , Spritz , and Chica . 50 Eggs Hospitality Group is a full-service culinary and hospitality firm focusing on developing cutting-edge brands that deliver unparalleled dining e...

Ian Fleischmann is the Executive Chef at Fabel Miami . Chef Ian began in the industry at the age of 14 as a dishwasher. From 2009-2013 he worked at Yamato Japanese Steakhouse where he became a Sous Chef. He then attended culinary school and got his start in the hotel restaurant industry at the Four Seasons in Denver. He moved on to Brava by Brad Kilgore and then over to Highgate Hotels , from Groo...