FULL COMP: The Voice of the Restaurant Industry Revolution

Episodet

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  The Takeaway: Build a Club, Not a Loyalty Program 02.10.2026 3min

  What if your loyalty program is the reason your guests feel nothing?Punch cards and points reward a transaction. Guests want to belong to something, and a free appetizer on the tenth visit gives them nothing to belong to.In this takeaway, I break down how one restaurant scrapped a 3,000-member rewards program nobody used and rebuilt it as a club, why access and recognition drove a 30% lift in spend per visit and doubled visit frequency, and why being known by name matters more to your best guests than any reward you could print on a card.If you're running a program your guests ignore, this is where you start rebuilding it.That's this week's takeaway. To build the marketing team that brings your best guests back more often, visit restaurantbusinessschool.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Brianna Keefe: Stay In The Weeds Longer Than You Want 29.09.2026 41min

  What if you have to go deeper into the day to day before you can ever get out of it?Brianna Keefe spent her entire first year inside one store, open to close, writing the systems by hand and training every person who walked through the door. That year is the reason she can now be nowhere near the sixty five stores operating under her name.In this conversation, we get into why delegation collapses when the founder steps back too early, why she hires her support team a full year before the business needs them, and why her best performing store sits in a market she would never have chosen herself.If you are the bottleneck in your own business, this one explains how you got there.To learn more about Toastique and the franchise opportunities she's building across the country, visit toastique.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  The Takeaway: Nobody Ever Wished They Paid Less 25.09.2026 5min

  What if the guest you're pricing around doesn't exist?Across tens of thousands of guest reviews, nobody has ever complained about paying too little. What shows up is that something felt too expensive. That is a verdict on value, and cutting the price will not fix it.In this takeaway, I break down why the regular you're afraid of isn't watching your menu, how I raised the price of one item a week for six weeks and got zero pushback, and why $16 and $18 land the same way while $19 and $21 do not.If you've known for a year that an item is underpriced and still haven't touched it, this one is costing you every week you wait.To build the marketing team that raises your check average for you, visit restaurantbusinessschool.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Ami Kassar: You Gave Away Equity for Nothing 22.09.2026 39min

  What if the reason you gave away a piece of your restaurant is a myth you never bothered to test?Most operators believe banks will not touch a restaurant, so they go straight to investors, credit cards, or whatever money is easiest to reach. Ami Kassar has placed over a billion dollars in small business loans, and he says the restaurant exception does not exist.In this conversation, we get into why a line of credit belongs in your business before you need it, how the cash advance built into your point of sale locks you out of real financing, and why the monthly payment matters more than the rate.If you have never asked whether your restaurant is bankable, this is the episode that makes you ask.To learn more about MultiFunding and their work helping entrepreneurs find the right financing, visit https://www.multifunding.com/_________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  The Takeaway: Your Guests Didn't Leave. They Forgot You 18.09.2026 5min

  What if your regulars didn't leave you? What if they just forgot you exist?Most operators spend the year buying strangers while the people who already love them go quiet. The problem is memory, and memory is cheap to fix.In this takeaway, I break down why a guest who visits once a month is worth $720 a year and double that at twice a month, why a reminder beats a reward every time, and how a pre-loaded year of signature events kills the pressure to invent something new every month.If you have a mailing list you never use, this is the fastest money in your building.To build the marketing team that sends those reminders for you, visit restaurantbusinessschool.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Mike Mudrey: Your Restaurant Doesn't Need You 15.09.2026 39min

  What if the reason your restaurant runs on you is that you keep showing up?Mike Mudrey bought a crêperie in East Lansing with no restaurant experience and a corporate job he had no intention of leaving. Nine years and four locations later he still has both, and one of his restaurants sits over an hour from where he lives. Never being able to work the floor is what forced him to build systems instead of habits.In this conversation, we get into why every question you answer twice should become a system, how prepaid and pre-selected bookings drove his no-shows and food waste close to zero, and why the money was never in the crêpe.If your operation stops working the week you take off, this one is for you.To learn more about The 601 Group and their portfolio, visit 601-group.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Felipe Riccio: Kill the Entire Menu Twice a Year 11.09.2026 41min

  What if the only reason your guests came once is that nothing changed after they left?Felipe Riccio is chef and partner at Goodnight Hospitality in Houston, TX. At his restaurant March, his tasting menu restaurant, the entire menu is thrown out twice a year and rebuilt around a different corner of the Mediterranean. He is twelve seasons in. He will tell you it is probably not a winning formula.In this conversation, we get into why a concept nobody can repeat back to you will never travel, how discipline and paperwork are what buy a chef creative freedom, and what it costs to close a restaurant for two weeks twice a year on purpose.If your guests like you but do not come back, this is a great place to start.To learn more about Goodnight Hospitality, visit goodnighthospitality.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Ariel Arce: The Spreadsheet Came Before the Concept 08.09.2026 42min

  What if your concept should have been designed backwards, starting from the check average you need?Ariel Arce had 16 seats and no way to predict what anyone would spend. So she solved for the number first. Sixty five dollars a head, two turns a night. Then she designed a guest experience to deliver it, down to a rule that every song has to be three minutes long.In this conversation, we get into why she has refused to charge what the market would pay for nearly ten years, why she now plans the closing date of a business before it opens, and how the real asset in her SoHo townhouse turned out to be the three floors themselves.If you built your concept first and hoped the numbers would follow, this one’s going to give you a better blueprint.To learn more about Tokyo Record Bar, visit tokyorecordbar.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Al Lucas: Go Work for a Chain 04.09.2026 43min

  What if the fastest way to become a great independent operator is to go work for a chain?Al Lucas spent 21 years at Chart House, starting as a dishwasher and leaving as a vice president. He took that to Stephen Starr, then to Defined Hospitality, where Kalaya just won Outstanding Restaurant at the 2026 James Beard Awards. When a young cook asked him for career advice, Al told him to get out of independent restaurants as fast as possible.In this conversation, we get into the fundamentals most independents never get taught, how Al and his partners choose who is worth building a restaurant around, and why the room at the Beard Awards is full of operators who will be gone within a year.If you learned this business by figuring it out alone, this will show you what you missed.To learn more about Defined Hospitality, visit definedhospitality.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Amanda Signorelli and Nick McMillan: Legacy Doesn't Equal Profit 01.09.2026 39min

  What if the thing you are most proud of in your business is also the thing quietly draining it?Amanda Signorelli and Nick McMillan took over the Golden Steer in 2019, the oldest steakhouse in Las Vegas, open since 1958. Neither of them came from restaurants. They came from tech, inherited a brand with more history than margin, and had exactly one year to learn the business before COVID shut it down.In this conversation, we get into why they rebuilt the financial model from scratch instead of fixing the old one, why none of us have any business running their own social media, and the lessons learned growing the brand to new markets.If you are sitting on a brand people love and numbers that do not work, this one is for you.To learn more about Golden Steer, visit goldensteer.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Telly Justice & Camille Lindsley: Repel the Right People 28.08.2026 44min

  What if the customers you're driving away are exactly why your restaurant works?Telly Justice and Camille Lindsley built HAGS into one of New York's most talked-about restaurants by refusing to be for everyone. An 18-seat queer fine-dining room in the East Village, a tasting-menu-only model, pay-what-you-can Sundays, and a point of view sharp enough to repel anyone who doesn't belong there.In this conversation, we get into why planting a flag makes you more distinct than your neighbors, why you need eight reasons to be different instead of one, and why scaling a concept means getting it out of your head and into the people you train.If you're afraid a strong opinion will cost you customers, this one will change how you think about who you're actually for.To learn more about HAGS, visit hagsnyc.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Ashley Morris: Product-Market Fit Forgives Every Mistake 25.08.2026 37min

  What if the reason you survive your own mistakes has nothing to do with how smart you are, and everything to do with your product?Ashley Morris spent years in finance before he bought the sandwich shop he was obsessed with in college. Today he's the CEO of Capriotti's and Wing Zone. He'll tell you the real asset he bought was product-market fit so undeniable it gave him room to make every mistake in the book.In this conversation, we get into why product-market fit forgives the mistakes that sink everyone else, why owning your data means nothing until you know what to do with it, and what actually transfers when you scale into a second brand.If you're grinding against the current and can't figure out why, this one shows you where to look first.To learn more about Capriotti's Sandwich Shop, visit capriottis.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Nick Wong & Lisa Lee: We Opened at 40 on Purpose 21.08.2026 43min

  What if the smartest thing you can do for your restaurant is refuse to rush it?Nick Wong spent twenty years in kitchens like Momofuku and UB Preserv while peers opened their own places at 28. He waited until 40, and his partner Lisa Lee left a tech career at companies like DoorDash and Facebook to build it with him. Together they opened Agnes and Sherman, an Asian American diner in Houston, on their own terms: two days off a week and staff benefits from day one.In this conversation, we get into why patience beats FOMO in a fear-driven industry, how they engineered product-market fit for a category of one, and why they invested in their team before profitability made it easy.If you're rushing to prove something, this one will make you slow down.To learn more about Agnes and Sherman, visit agnesandsherman.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Dave Shah & Camilla Caremoli: One Unforgettable Restaurant Beats Twenty 18.08.2026 34min

  What if the operators most likely to build something unforgettable are the ones who have never run a restaurant?Dave Shah and Camilla Caremoli had never worked a shift in hospitality before opening CasaDamí. Dave built a global tech studio and thinks in brand. Camilla comes from four generations of an Italian food family and thinks in operations. A year in, they've built the kind of room a community actually shows up for.In this conversation, we get into why they chased one unforgettable location instead of twenty, how they learned to separate real feedback from noise, and why the relationships built inside a room outlast any menu, wine list, or buildout.If you're an operator who believes experience is the only edge that counts, this one will challenge you.To learn more about CasaDamí, visit casadami.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Hamed Mazrouei: Thin Margins Are a Lie 14.08.2026 38min

  What if the thin margins crushing your restaurant aren't the industry's fault at all?Hamed Mazrouei came into restaurants as a total outsider. He built Vivant, the managed network company that keeps thousands of restaurants online, and he refuses to accept the beliefs operators treat as gospel.In this conversation, we get into why the thin margins operators blame on the industry actually come down to volume, why guest retention is the highest-leverage metric almost nobody fixes, and why simplification is the one trait every successful founder shares.If you've been blaming the business for numbers you have the power to change, this one will make you rethink everything you assumed was fixed.To learn more about Vivant, visit vivantcorp.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Ryan Volberg: Double Revenue Without New Guests 11.08.2026 40min

  What if the new customers you keep chasing are the reason your restaurant isn't growing?Ryan Volberg has spent more than two decades building the tools restaurants actually needed, from the first cloud POS to earned wage access. Now, as founder of Guestologie, he's attacking the most expensive blind spot in hospitality: the anonymous guest who walks in, gets seated, and leaves without anyone realizing they could have been a regular.In this conversation, we get into why frequency beats acquisition every time, why status is the cheapest loyalty tool you own while discounts are the most expensive, and how to grow revenue from the guests already sitting in your dining room.If you're spending to fill seats instead of keeping the right ones, this one earns its time.To learn more about Guestologie and how they help restaurants see and keep their highest-value guests, visit guestologie.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Adam Weisblatt: How Smaller Restaurants Win 07.08.2026 36min

  What if the smartest way to grow in a market full of closures is to keep every restaurant small?Adam Weisblatt co-founded Last Word Hospitality and turned Found Oyster, a 777-square-foot oyster bar, into a seven-restaurant group that keeps expanding while famous names around it close.In this conversation, we get into why a tiny footprint takes the pressure off your rent and your margins, why he builds every concept around talented people instead of clever ideas, and why making your operators owners is the only way to grow without burning out.If you're convinced you need a bigger room to make real money, this one will change how you think about scale.To pre-order his upcoming book, For the Love of Restaurants, visit https://a.co/d/0cGZmQ5t._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Jon Murray: Get More Profit From Your People 04.08.2026 38min

  What if spending more on your staff is the fastest path to a more profitable restaurant?Jon Murray washed dishes at Applebee's and spent six years in music before rising to Chief Restaurant Officer at Indigo Road, running more than 20 concepts on someone else's terms. Then he walked away to build Noko and Kase in East Nashville on a people-over-profit model most operators would call reckless.In this conversation, we get into why he hands 5.5% of sales back to his team, how four-day workweeks and free therapy dropped his turnover to 15% in an 80% industry, and why he believes loving your people is the real driver of margin.If you think you can't afford to treat your people well, this one will change the math.To learn more about Noko and Kase, visit nokonashville.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Tobin Ellis: Your Labor Problem Is a Design Problem 31.07.2026 41min

  What if your biggest profit leak is hiding behind the bar, in the engine your guests never see?Tobin Ellis spent 30 years behind the stick before he started designing bars for a living. As founder of Studio Barmagic, he's redesigned everything from NFL stadiums to five-diamond resorts, once lifting a landmark hotel bar's revenue 131% in a single quarter.In this conversation, we get into why your labor problem is really a design problem, why the money is made during peak volume instead of slow Tuesdays, and why he builds every bar for the bartender first, the guest second, and the investor last.If your margins are thin and your weekends are leaving money on the table, this one shows you where to look.To learn more about his work designing high-performance bars and to grab his book, Bar Design Essentials, visit barmagic.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
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  Helen Johannesen: Ownership Isn't the Win You Think 28.07.2026 39min

  What if owning a restaurant isn’t the win you think it is, but a risk most people misunderstand?Helen Johannesen didn’t just step into ownership, she sacrificed for it. Walking away from financial stability and taking a major pay cut, she bet on herself and a single restaurant that could have gone either way. Today, she’s a partner behind one of LA’s most respected hospitality groups and the force behind a wine brand built on trust, not intimidation.In this conversation, we unpack what ownership really demands, and why it’s not a universal path. Helen breaks down the illusion of revenue versus profit, why equity isn’t the right incentive for most teams, and how she built a wine program that rejects exclusivity in favor of access. If you’re chasing ownership—or questioning it—this episode will force a reset.To explore her selections and join the club, visit helenswines.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com