Restaurant Leadership Podcast: The Show for Multi-Unit Operators Ready to Scale

Most multi-unit restaurant operators don’t have a growth problem, they have a focus problem. When your leadership team doesn’t know what matters most for the next 90 days, everything turns into a fire, your ops meetings drift into venting, and you become the decision bottleneck for every location. We walk through the most underused tool in a multi-unit operator’s arsenal: the quarterly planning meeting, and why it’s often the difference between a restaurant group that scales and one that stal...

Ever wonder why “Everything’s fine” keeps blowing up into last-minute fires? We dig into the uncomfortable truth: avoiding one-on-ones quietly drains profit, trust, and talent—and we put a real number on it with a $75,000 turnover case. As restaurant operators scale, hallway chats and line-side banter feel productive, but they miss the root causes. We walk through a simple, repeatable one-on-one system that reveals what’s actually happening across locations, builds psychological safety, and k...

Peak season is here and the schedule is bleeding. We sit down with leadership and customer service expert Michelle Pascoe to unpack why restaurants are seeing more call‑outs, how assumptions about today’s workforce backfire, and what owners can do right now to stabilize staffing without burning out their best people. From hiring scripts that set crystal‑clear expectations to team norms that harness Gen Z’s group mindset, this conversation is a playbook for calmer Saturday nights and happier c...

Here is my calendar link so you can book time with me: Book a Call with Christin We break down how fear of callouts can lead to costly overstaffing and how chronic callouts can wreck service, burn out managers, and drain profit. Two real cases show how cross-training, intentional scheduling, and a clear callout protocol restore accountability and margin. • Cross-training servers and bartenders to de-risk shifts • Publishing schedules early and honoring aces in places • Tying roles to guest i...

Guests don’t come to a full‑service restaurant for a transaction; they come hoping to feel something. We dig into how to deliver that feeling on purpose through connected hospitality, turning routine steps into genuine moments of care that guests remember long after the check drops. We start by grounding everything in food, then layer in the human element that differentiates you in a crowded market. You’ll hear how: We reframed performance reviews into get‑to‑know‑you conversations.Why...

Growth shouldn’t mean chaos. We lay out a practical roadmap for independent multi-unit restaurant owners who want scalable systems, stronger leaders, and healthier margins without losing the creativity that makes their concepts special. From the early cracks that show up at three and seven units to the org design that prevents constant firefighting, this conversation blends hard-won lessons with a clear framework you can apply right away. We start with people: defining leadership roles, hir...

Milestones matter when they sharpen your focus. As we hit 100 episodes, Christin welcomes chef Britt Rescigno of Fiama in Sun Valley, a TV chef turned mountain-town restaurateur who pairs sexy, high-end Italian with a culture built on respect. The conversation cuts through hype and gets tactical about what it takes to open strong, stay open through off-season, and keep a team engaged when the crowds thin. Britt shares the boundary that makes running a restaurant with her spouse w...

A revolution is brewing in hospitality leadership, and it begins with a radical notion: your most sacred guest is you. This powerful conversation with transformational coach Mike Messeroff introduces the concept of "self-hospitality" - the practice of extending the same care to yourself that you offer guests and customers. For an industry characterized by burnout and depletion, this perspective shift provides a practical pathway to sustainable leadership. "You cannot give away what you don...

What happens when food becomes more than sustenance—when it transforms into a vehicle for social change? In Denver's vibrant culinary landscape, two organizations have been quietly revolutionizing how we think about restaurants, community, and access for nearly two decades. Kristen Rauch, Executive Director of Eat Denver, and Carrie Shores, owner of Same Cafe, join us to discuss their groundbreaking work and their upcoming collaboration: Savor the Season. Since 2006, both organiz...

Restaurant owners, are you struggling to maintain steady growth despite your marketing efforts? The answer might be simpler than you think. In this eye-opening episode, Ewan Thompson, Chief Performance Optimizer for Hospitality Benchmark Services, reveals the startling truth about guest retention that could be costing you six figures in revenue. Did you know that returning restaurant guests spend 20% more per visit than first-timers and bring in 10-15% more people with them? Yet the ha...

Joe Fontana, founder of Fry the Coop, is redefining what it means to build a fast-casual chicken empire with heart. From his Chicago-based restaurants, Joe shares the unexpected journey that took him from a failed meatball concept to creating what he proudly calls "the number one chicken sandwich in Chicago" – double-fried in beef tallow for that perfect crunch. What makes this conversation particularly fascinating is Joe's candid discussion of his viral moment. When thieves broke into one o...

"Do you know your business well enough to change it?" In an era of economic uncertainty, this thought-provoking inquiry challenges all leaders to deeply understand their operations before attempting transformation. Ever wondered what happens to all that used cooking oil from your favorite restaurants? Alissa Partee, COO of Restaurant Technologies, pulls back the curtain on an innovative solution that's transforming restaurant kitchens nationwide. What began as a leap of faith joining a resta...