In an industry increasingly pivoting toward automation and individualized grab-and-go efficiency, the leader of the 12-unit Southern California fast-casual concept is proving that a relentless focus on human connection and from-scratch operations still drives sustainable growth.

In the latest episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, Youngberg unpacks how evolving his leadership style for a new generation of workers, leveraging real-time guest feedback technology and balancing a massive catering-and-dine-in trifecta are fueling the legacy brand's future. Mandy Wolf Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb, hosts the podcast.

Click the link to listen to learn more about Youngberg's leadership style, how the brand maintains hospitality and emotional connections in an increasingly tech-driven industry and putting people first.

Spurred by a recent acquisition and a newly designed, smaller-footprint prototype optimized for modern off-premise dining and delivery, the 140-unit chain is launching its first major out-of-state franchise expansion. By strategically targeting contiguous states like Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas, the brand aims to leverage built-in recognition from former Texans while introducing new markets to its unique hybrid of quick-service convenience and fast-casual culinary variety.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler chats with Taco Cabana's director of franchise sales and development, John Ramsay, about the brand's growth and how it is faring in the fast casual market.

"Oklahoma Louisiana, and Arkansas are the top three" the brand is growing into, Ramsay said. "I think a couple of things they have in common. Number one is that there's a large percentage of former Texans who have moved into those states. So we already have sort of a built-in marketplace and a market audience. In fact, we get solicitations all the time from people who used to live in Texas that now live in one of these other states saying, please come and put one here in my hometown.

"So I would say that's really number one is that having that sort of built in base. I think the other important piece is the menu itself. Taco Cabana, like a lot of Mexican chains that started in Texas have very much, people call it Tex-Mex. Really what it is is it's Mexican inspired food that's more common within the state of Texas. So as you look at those contiguous states, they also have various, their style of Mexican food is very similar to what you would find in Texas."

To learn more about Taco Cabana's growth and operations, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

Dodo Pizza has 1,500 stores and revenue of nearly $2 billion. It's sister company, Drink It, a coffee concept, has 150 stores in five countries.

Sweeney attributes the brand's strong sales to its customer service. "I think the key thing is to have a really good customer experience to allow the technology or the technology should enable us to have a really good customer experience because we really look after the customer, make it easy to transact business, make sure the order is easy to place, that there is good variety, but not so much that confuses everybody. Make sure that when the order arrives into our stores, that order is processed in a way that is accurate and then it's timely and priced at roughly the right level for it to be at for the consumer to accept it as a really good value product and for it to arrive on time, hot and the order to be accurate. So the systems enable all of that to happen."

Why did a pizza brand move into coffee?

"Coffee was actually quite a logical step," Kholodnov said. "So maybe during conversation, you'll find out that our business is based on tech platform. And so it was very logical when we built a strong platform to scale franchise businesses, it was logical to add something more to that. So coffee seemed like a logical step to us."

To learn more about Dodo Pizza's international operations, growth and foray into the coffee business, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

In the latest episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, Cherryh Cansler, publisher of FastCasual.com, sits down with Luke Wilwerding, Vice President of North America Sales at Elo Touch Solutions, to unpack the highly anticipated FastCasual Top 100 Movers & Shakers list. With forward-thinking brands like CAVA leading the charge, the conversation centers on an undeniable truth: tomorrow's industry leaders are winning through intelligent automation and sharp data strategies.

"Restaurants are becoming a data center that serves food," Wilwerding said, emphasizing that surviving the next decade requires operators to truly get their arms around their customer data.

From the blockbuster acquisition of Elo by Zebra Technologies to the deployment of AI-native platforms, this episode offers a masterclass in modern restaurant evolution. Cansler and Wilwerding dive deep into the practicalities of tech adoption for brands of all sizes, tackling the industry's burning questions:

• Where should an operator spend their very first AI dollar?
• Will conversational AI replace the human element, or are we moving toward a "beautiful orchestra of voice and touch"?
• How is Gen Z transforming self-service into a personalization tool?

Whether you are curious about predicting demand or optimizing labor through smart kitchen displays, this episode is your blueprint for the future of hospitality.

Listen to the full episode now on FastCasual.com

I sat down with Dannon Shiff, VP of Real Estate for Dave's Hot Chicken, and Abe Nasrallah, SVP of Real Estate at Wonder, to discuss how shifting consumer behavior, off-premise dining and changing market dynamics are shaping site selection.

Wondering about growth

Wonder, launched in 2021, has grown from a food truck concept to more than 120 locations. The company operates a multi-brand model, offering dozens of restaurant concepts under one roof, with roughly half of sales from delivery and half from in-person dining.

Nasrallah told me that Wonder designs sites for two uses: Quick pickup and in-person discovery. Urban locations prioritize high visibility and foot traffic, while suburban sites focus on grocery-anchored centers with strong access and visibility.

Wonder is targeting Texas as its next major growth market, planning about 100 locations across Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston Austin and San Antonio. Long term, the company estimates it could expand to 4,000 to 5,000 locations nationwide.

The Dave's real estate plan

Dave's Hot Chicken, meanwhile, has grown from a 2017 parking lot pop-up to more than 430 locations worldwide.

Shiff said the brand has sold franchise rights in all 50 states and multiple international markets, with further global expansion planned, while also testing nontraditional formats such as airports and food courts, including a recent opening in a New York City food court.

Delivery and off-premise dining have changed site-selection models, with decisions increasingly driven by customer data rather than traditional trade areas. About one-third of sales come from third-party delivery, while most customers still dine in.

To hear more details on both brand's strategies, check out the podcast.

After a number of ownership changes, the brand currently has 43 units. There's a new flagship in Culver City that took two years to design and create, Barajas-Najera said, and has been well received by consumers who enjoy the restaurant's retro vibes, warm colors and 1980s memorabilia. Shakey's also did a rebrand, but at the core of the company is its food, which remains the same. Shakey's is known for its thin-crust pizza, as well as its pan pizza and proprietary items like its chicken and its iconic Mojo potatoes.

With an 80s throwback style at its core, how does Shakeys keep the brand feeling cool for Gen Z while still being a home base for the Gen Xers who grew up there?

"There's the Gen X, there's Gen Z. Everyone is in there," Barajas-Najera explained. "We've created a place that has allowed people to come in and just be themselves and disconnect from everything that we're always doing, rushing. We're coining it as slow, casual, because we're not fast, we're not casual. We're just a slow casual. Come in, have a good time, be entertained."

When looking for franchisees, Barajas-Najera said they seek people who are passionate about the Shakey's Pizza brand. The Shakey's team gives its franchisees lots of support before, during and after opening.

Barajas-Najera suggests potential franchisees do their due diligence and really research a brand before signing on the dotted line. Shakey's is a brand with 70 years of experience behind it, but it's going through an exciting chapter.

"We feel like we're restarting," Barajas-Najera said. "We're just relaunching."

To learn more about Shakey's and Barajas-Najera's role in its expansion plans, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb, sits down with Enga Stanfield, co-owner of Texas-based Mattenga's Pizzeria, to uncover the tech stack driving their massive success. Stanfield shared how shifting from a grueling, hands-on survival mode to a tech-forward strategy completely changed the game, specifically highlighting their tech partnership with Owner.com.

Discover how automated SEO, frictionless custom-branded apps featuring 8-second reordering and rapid text-based customer feedback loops helped Mattenga's capture passive local sales and maintain a steady 10% to 15% growth rate — proving that independent operators don't just have to survive against the big chains, they can out-innovate them.

Stanfield said her favorite part of Owner.com is the reviews segment of the software. "Those reviews and those rankings, those are forever," she said. Her team responds to negative reviews quickly, but all of her restaurants have a 4.5 ranking or better.

To learn more about how Owner.com is aiding restaurants compete in today's market listen to the podcast in its entirety.

We dove into the shifting dynamics of restaurant real estate, modern data trends, and the intangible elements that make a brick-and-mortar location successful.

Here is a sneak peek at what you're missing if you haven't tuned in yet:

• The 20-year crunch: Retail availability has hit historic lows, creating the tightest market seen in two decades. Anokute explains how this supply constraint hands significant leverage to landlords — and what it means for your next lease negotiation.
• The power of 'co-tenancy': While data analytics drive modern site selection, human behavior and retail synergy remain the biggest indicators of long-term success. Discover why being close to your direct competitors might actually be the best thing for your brand.
• Debunking the hybrid office myth: Despite early fears that remote work would kill urban restaurant traffic, CBRE data tells a completely different story about where consumers are spending their dining dollars.
• AI vs. reality: Artificial intelligence is top of mind for everyone, but how is it actually being used in site selection and restaurant operations today? Hint: It's not what you think.

To get the full breakdown on navigating today's hyper-competitive real estate market, tune in to the complete conversation on The Restaurant Operator podcast.

CORE was founded 22 years and was run by volunteers up into 2015 when it hired its first employee. Eleven years later, the non-profit has several employees and is growing as much as the need is growing.

CORE is needed because in the food and beverage industry, there is no PTO — if you're not working you're not getting paid.

"If anything happens, whether it be health, injury, death or natural disaster or domestic abuse, that's where CORE comes in. That's what our mission is about. We come in and help financially during those times," Chapman said.

To learn more about CORE and how to apply for help, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

Mellow Mushroom started in 1974 and has grown to 160 units. The brand is known for its cool vibes. Each store is unique.

"I like to call them kind of unicorns. There's not one store that looks alike, which is kind of fun, but it makes it a challenge as well. But every store has phenomenal pizza and great service. That's the goal," Cecil said.

Cecil brings more than 30 years of restaurant industry experience to the table.

"There's not a day that's like any other, I like that," he said. "So one call, I'm talking to a person that wants to do five stores. Next, I'm talking to a city about getting some variances. Next, I'm talking to a construction guy about some issues on a construction site. So it really has taken everything I've done throughout my career and kind of packaged it in one role. And I enjoy it. It's a fun, fun role to be a part of."

Finding the perfect piece of real estate is the greatest challenge for the brand. That's changed over the years, and a standalone building in the right location sets the tone for a town.

"Today's franchisee is more sophisticated than they were in the past. They're a lot more educated and they they've done a lot of footwork or groundwork on their own before they reach out to you," Cecil said. "So they kind of already have an idea of what they want to do. Whereas back then, they would just reach out and, let's do this. And that cycle was pretty quick. Now they want to visit with franchisees. They want to talk to franchisees. Obviously, Discovery Day is critical in our world, too. And they want to meet the executive team. They want to meet with the CEO and ask them questions about where they see this potential business going in the next five to10 years."

To learn more about Mellow Mushroom's franchising and how the brand plans to grow in a tight market, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

Lalehzarian began his restaurant career as a dishwasher in a local restaurant in San Diego in 1998. He eventually moved on to be an assistant manager and moved upward into a senior ops position with HMS Host, opening more than 50 restaurants in airports around the nation and in Canada.

He found two partners in 2014 and eventually opened The Red Chickz in 2018.

"When we decided to get into a hot chicken concept, we flew out to Nashville and asked basically everyone from the Uber driver to the bellman at the hotel if they knew anyone in their family that knows how to make Nashville hot chicken," Lalehzarian said. "And some of those folks invited us to their homes and showed us the homestyle of Nashville hot. So what we serve in our restaurant today is exactly what we brought back from Nashville."

What sets The Red Chickz apart from other chicken concepts? Lalehzarian said there are "bold" differentiators.

"Our product is the crunchiest friend chicken in the hot chicken market, and frankly in the fried chicken market," he said. "From the start we have had a pretty innovative menu in the segment, and we are trying to keep it that way."

That includes serving products like shrimp and chicken and waffles, salads, loaded veggie plates and French toast.

To learn more about The Red Chickz aesthetic, menu development and out-of-the-box operations, click the link at the top to watch the podcast in its entirety.

Ketelhut has been with the company for years and now heads up domestic franchising. He's also a former franchisee himself.

Little Caesars is known for its streamlined operations. From a development perspective, that simplicity makes the brand more attractive to prospective franchisees compared to more complex QSR models.

"We focus on value, quality and convenience. That is our is our big messaging, right? We created Hot-N-Ready over 20 years ago, and we've always been a value brand. We cater to that value consumer," Ketelhut told Detwiler during the interview.

The brand has its own supply chain with more than 20 distribution centers around the country.

"Having that controlling the distribution channel as well is very important to a lot of franchises. When we're able to purchase food products or equipment wise more in bulk, we're able to keep those costs lower for our for our partners," Ketelhut added.

To listen to the podcast in its entirety, click the link above.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of QSRweb and Pizza Marketplace, talks to Susan Taylor, president and CEO of Juice It Up, based in Southern California, about how the brand has been leading the beverage market. Juice It Up recently opened its 100th unit in Gardnerville, Nevada.

Taylor said the definition of a meal replacement has changed since the launch of the juice brand, and smoothies and juices are no longer sweet treats after a workout. Instead, they're nutritious and fill the needs of those looking for more protein, living vegan lifestyles or needing fuel for the day.

"It's interesting the way that the segment has grown," Taylor said in the podcast. "Beverages as a complete segment (includes) everything from coffee to smoothies and juice bars. I think that consumers today are much more sophisticated and really looking for different things to be able to fuel their lifestyle that has kind of expanded the category.

"Depending on where you are in your health and wellness lifestyle journey, you can come in and you can do a fresh-made order juice using beets, celery, carrots, ginger, turmeric, anything that you want to be able to have in that, or you can build your own. And there's a pretty dedicated core of customers that really look for that."

Gen Z and millennial consumers have been shaping beverage trends as of late.

The generations that are coming up now look at beverages in a totally different way from just want something right now," Taylor added. "There's an experience. They're just they're thinking about what it provides to them from a nutritional standpoint to just how they feel like they're treating themselves as well, too."

To learn more about how Juice It Up is innovating the beverage industry, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

Carlucci opened Valentina's, named after his daughter, in the midst of COVID. Prior to that, he'd owned a pizza food truck and would take it to neighborhoods to provide pizzas to neighborhoods during the COVID lockdowns. He would sell more than 500 pizzas a week, and saved every dime to open his brick-and-mortar restaurant.

What started in a 1,500-square-foot space with 12 employees has turned into a 196-seat, 50-plus-staffed full-service restaurant. The original location was across the street from a cotton field. Carlucci would arrive at 4:30 a.m. and make pizzas throughout the day. He's since moved to a larger location and has trained a handful of pizzaiolos whom he trusts to make the brand's signature pies. He sources as much as he can locally.

Carlucci has entered and won several awards at the International Pizza Challenge at International Pizza Expo. When he creates a new pizza, though, it isn't with judges in mind — instead he thinks about the customers first. But when his pizza creations win awards, he puts them on the menu. It's been a great advertising outlet for Carlucci.

Carlucci hired a mixologist to pair signature cocktails with his artisan pizzas, so there's a craft cocktail list, and curated beer and wine lists.

"I want to elevate this place. I don't want it to just be a pizzas place. ... It's not a pizza place. From the hostesses dresses to the bartenders in bow ties, to every single server, looks the exact same way," Carlucci said. "The standard is the standard here. We're not worried about what everybody else is doing. We're worried about what Valentina's is doing. How Valentina's could be better."

To learn more about how Carlucci is changing the pizza game, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

Part of what draws diners to the concept is its electric brand energy. With more than 400,000 social media followers, Houston TX Hot Chicken seems to be striking a nerve with consumers.

"The energy that you get from that level of social media followers that are engaging with our brand on a daily basis is unbelievable. So, you know, and it gives us a lot of relevance with new franchisees coming in as well, because they look at it and go, man, this brand is crazy," Simowitz said during the podcast. "And I'll share with you, quite honestly, we get a lot of potential franchise leads just from our social media and how big that social media footprint is."

Smirl joined the brand when it had already sold more than 100 units and said a lot of the brand's leads are truly organic.

"A lot of our leads are truly organic," she said during the podcast. "They are coming in because (potential franchisees) either tried the food or they've seen our social media. They've seen our content, either on LinkedIn or Instagram, something like that. So we're really lucky that we don't really have to sell that part of it. It's already really exciting to just see the brand. So I think that we get to be pretty strategic in kind of how we decide to grow.

"We don't want to just throw one restaurant across the country where our support is in Vegas. We want to be available and ideally in the same time zone for a little while at least where we can just kind of strategically grow to best support our franchisees. So we're pretty lucky in that and we don't take that for granted, but we want to be really smart about who we partner with."

To learn more about how Houston TX Hot Chicken attracts top-tier franchisees, what the brand's leaders look for in franchise partners and what the future holds for the company, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

The brand has about 115 restaurants in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and the northern part of Mexico.

The restaurants all have a lunch buffet Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Peter Piper "is an interesting concept because we target different demographics at different times of the day," Perez said. "So (the) lunch buffet is for those workers or families or a lot of construction workers, nurses, officers, people that need to grab a bite and obviously they don't want to break the bank. So our lunch buffet in the Arizona market is $10.99 for all you can eat. And we have pizza, pasta, salads, desserts and literally there's people that stack their plates with like 15 slices of pizza. Hey, no one's judging, right?"

Perez, who was born and raised in Mexico City, moved to the U.S. about 25 years ago to further his education. It's important for Peter Piper Pizza to understand the cultures and values of the communities in which they are situated.

"One of the things that I noticed being truly bilingual and native in Spanish is that a lot of brands translate. And with Peter Piper Pizza, we don't do that," Perez said. "We truly trans-create our programs and our campaigns. We want to make sure that we are using the cultural nuances from the community and that what we're trying hard to truly understand the different, you insights and holidays and traditions. So it's not only about the language, but understanding the cultural values."

The brand creates all of its PR in both English and Spanish.

"Obviously the Spanish language is integrated in everything we do — our website, our app, our campaigns, our messaging," he said. "Even when we reach out to media, we reach out in both languages. So it's really important for us to meet the consumer where the consumer is at, because a lot of the Hispanic consumers also may not necessarily speak Spanish, but consume news in Spanish."

To learn more about Peter Piper's community involvement, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

A "call and response" system ensures the front-of-house servers and the back-of-house line cooks remain perfectly synchronized; when a lead expeditor calls out an order, the collective "heard" from the kitchen staff confirms that every component, from the medium-rare steak to the allergy-sensitive salad, is being tracked in real-time. Beyond the verbal, non-verbal cues like a simple nod or the strategic placement of a physical ticket are essential for maintaining a rhythmic flow during the "rush," turning a group of individuals into a singular, cohesive unit.

For QSR and fast casual employees, there's help in the communication department. Zenzap is an app allowing communication that can be controlled by management and works between staff members.

In this podcast, Editor Mandy Detweiler talks to Guy Weiss, co-founder and CEO of Zenzap, and Shawn Walchef, owner of Cali BBQ in San Diego.

Walchef uses Zenzap at Cali BBQ. "I think one of the most important things for a modern restaurateur, a modern business owner is to have tight communications with your teams, knowing that there's so many different apps that you need to be on. You have to make sure that the most important communication that you do with your management, that you do with your front of the house staff, back of the house staff happens seamlessly and preferably it happens in a secure environment," he shared during the podcast.

Weiss points out that when an employee leaves the company, he or she can be removed from the app so as not to take proprietary information with him or her.

"I think that onboarding and offboarding is a huge challenge," Weiss said. "And when using group chats, it's just impossible to onboard and offboard, as Shawn mentioned. And there is also risk from a business perspective. Think about one of your cooks, a chef, is leaving and going on his journey. And he's basically taking all of your IP, all of your recipes, all of your knowledge.

"You can leverage it in somewhere else because he's still a part of the group chats. And even if you ask him nicely to leave those group chats, all the data until that point of time stays with him, back to his private cloud, and he's there forever. ... I think to top the productivity side of it is you will never open many group chats for different contexts, even with the same team, because it's already overwhelming."

To learn more about Zenzap and how it can help your restaurant, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

The pizza is what drew Carl Bachmann, president and COO of Riko's, to the brand. They're taking over the East Coast one bite at a time.

"That's really what enticed me to join the brand was the uniqueness of the product and the process of how we make the product and certainly the founder himself who is so passionate about this product," Bachmann said. "This process was one of those I couldn't say no kind of opportunity. So that's how I ended up here."

Rico Imbrogno, founder and CEO of Riko's Pizza, loved thin-crust pizza, and so he made it the centerpiece of his brand. It's an artisanal pizza — one Imbrogno and Bachmann have worked hard to replicate over and over as the company grows.

To learn more about this classic style of pizza and how Bachmann plans to growth the company, listen to the podcast in its entirety above.

The week of National Pizza Day, Feb. 9, pizzerias are encouraged to donate 10 pizzas to their local hospitals, first responders, shelters or soup kitchens.

Registration is open now for the event. Every pizzeria who signs up tells the orchestrators how far they deliver and what days they can deliver. Wiener and his team take that data and pull into that destination points charities and hospitals that can receive on one of those days.

"Everything that we do with Slice Out Hunger is always to make life easier for the pizzeria, but still allow them to do the community service that they want to do," Wiener said in the podcast.

To learn more about Pizza Across America, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

• The Margin Opportunity: How substituting or blending pork can alleviate the pressure of rising beef and chicken costs.
• Global Flavor Trends: How to leverage pork’s versatility to tap into popular international cuisines, from Hawaiian "Lau Lau" (pork wrapped in taro leaves) to Filipino "Pork Tocino."
• The "Carrier" Concept: Strategies for using pork—like bacon or crumbles—as a flavor driver to increase sales of high-margin vegetable sides.
• Combating Menu Monotony: How introducing new cuts helps operators avoid "protein fatigue" among regular customers.

 “Pork fits smack dab in the middle,” Hicks-Roof said during the episode. “It not only provides that nutrition, but it also provides that traditional deliciousness.”
 
 Click here to listen to the full episode and learn how to rethink the center of the plate.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb, talks to Maxwell about his operations, the cookie wars he battled and the marketing strategies that make Dirty Dough a success.

When asked what advice he would give to another restaurant or hospitality start up that might face unexpected legal or PR crises early on, Maxwell said he would be as open, transparent and authentic as possible.

When he was slapped with a lawsuit by a competing brand, Maxwell recommended to "get business advice from business people, get legal advice from legal people. But, if you're in that scenario, I would just be as open and transparent about everything."

Hear the cookie wars story and how Maxwell came out victorious by listening to the entire podcast.

Jackson spoke about the public relations and advertising the pizza brand does. Hungry Howie's differentiates itself by offering flavored crusts. Jackson said the butter cheese is the top crust flavor, but the brand does unique LTOs like a sweet heat bacon.

Hungry Howie's also has a deep dish pizza and recently launched a Detroit-style pizza. Jackson said Detroit-style pizza accounts for up to 8-9% of pizza sales right now.

"To be an authentic Detroit style, it's having the sauce on the top. And most of the other brands claim it's Detroit style, but it's not, because it doesn't have the sauce on the top," Jackson explained.

The brand's strategy for communicating the brand's commitment to quality ingredients and food preparation standards for the public involves top-quality ingredients and fresh dough.

"We still make our dough fresh in store every single day," Jackson said. "We also use 100 % real mozzarella cheese. I believe we are one of the only brands that can say that we use 100% real mozzarella. Most of them are a blend. A lot of the larger pizza places are now using the frozen dough. So we're going to continue to stand by being that fresh pizza that we want to give our customers. So we'll continue to do that as long as we can."

To learn more about Hungry Howie's operations, growth and public relations success, click the button at the top of the page.

Barry Bagels was started by a 21-year-old operator named Barry Greenblatt who along with his partner, bagel-maker Peter Johnson, opened their first location in Sylvania, Ohio in 1972.

Since then the brand has grown to Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and a recent development deal signed for 30 units in Texas.

Nusbaum talked about the hub-and-spoke model in which the "hub" is the first store in any market with about 1,600 to 2,200 square feet. That store has the bagel-making capabilities. The bagels are then delivered to the "spoke" locations.

"Spoke locations, which need no HVAC, no walk-in cooler (and) no walk-in freezer, can be built for a fraction of the cost of the hub location. And since we're not baking there, you don't need a grease trap or the HVAC or anything like that," Nusbaum said.

To learn more about Barry Bagels' operations, click the link at the top of the page.

Together, they explore how restaurant technology is transforming every stage of the guest experience from self-order kiosks and drive-thru innovation to AI-powered kitchen management.

Wilwerding explains how Elo's platform approach is helping operators boost speed, accuracy and flexibility, whether it's a bustling fast casual kitchen or a multi-channel ordering environment. From interactive displays to AI-enhanced voice ordering and computer vision for accuracy, Elo's innovations are redefining what's possible for restaurant efficiency.

As Wilwerding notes, the walls between fast casual, QSR and casual dining are crumbling, and it's technology that's breaking them down. The future of restaurant operations, he says, belongs to the brands that embrace innovation, not resist it.

Sponsored by Elo Touch, this conversation offers a glimpse into how top-performing brands are using tech to deliver faster, smarter, and more personalized dining experiences.

Tel Aviv Grill began 11 years ago as a small kosher market making shawarma, skewers and sandwiches in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. "And, very quickly, it became a very tangible part of the community. Everybody in the area knew about it and it kind of grew out of that market," Peleg said.

Peleg came on a managing partner about five years ago.

The original restaurant quickly grew too big for several locations and now has three units.

Consistency has been the brand's biggest challenge.

"I don't want somebody to have like a shawarma in one location and then a couple of days later to go to one of our other locations is completely different. It kind of breaks the entire purpose," Peleg said. "So it's very hands-on, it's very time-consuming and it takes a long time to make sure your team is on board and knows exactly how to prepare and present the product the way we would like."

To learn more about Tel Aviv Grill, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

With a formal culinary background and years working with mixer giant Hobart, Soller said he was primed and ready to open his own restaurant.

"I love pizza," Soller said. "I was thinking about a lot of things, but I kept coming back to pizza. In my experience with Hobart and then later in sort of corporate world, I traveled quite a bit for work. And when I would go to a city, I would go to three or four pizza places in a night. I'm more of a student of the business.

"I'm more of a restaurateur than I am a pizza chef. I love pizza. I can make pizza. My team is much better at it now than I am. But I saw some concepts out in the world that I thought I could morph into what would be a really great opportunity would eventually turn into Old Scratch Pizza."

The brand uses wood-fired ovens, and Soller calls his pizza "Midwesternly Neapolitan." Soller opened in a mostly industrial area, which he drove past every day coming home from work.

"And I saw that it was a couple of blocks away from our big hospital," Soller said. "It was right around the corner from University of Dayton. It was the it's right on the edge of downtown. It was close enough to University of Dayton Stadium to be one of the closest places with a parking lot to UD Stadium. And I just saw that I saw the potential in it. And, you know, we were pretty busy from day one. We took off right off the bat."

To learn more about Old Scratch Pizza, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

Mitchell, who will moderate the CEO Happy Hour Panel (Oct. 7 at 3:45 p.m.) provides a sneak peek into what attendees can expect. With over 30 years of experience, including leadership roles at Papa John's and Cicis Pizza, he brings a wealth of knowledge to the discussion. In the podcast, Mitchell shares his hope for an open and honest conversation among the panelists, emphasizing the need to get into the weeds on what's truly top of mind for these industry leaders.

A look at the all-star panel

The podcast serves as a great introduction to the all-star lineup of industry leaders joining Mitchell on the panel. The group includes:

• Jessica DePetro, President and CEO, Bagel Brands
• Claudia Lezcano, CEO, Fuku
• Michele Maerz, President, Salata
• Sarah McAloon, Interim Brand President, Del Taco
• Sherif Mityas, CEO, BRIX Holdings
• Kelly Roddy, CEO and President, WOWorks

This powerful group is set to discuss the pressing issues facing restaurant operators and what's needed to succeed in 2026 and beyond.

A deeper dive into The Restaurant Leader's Playbook

During the conversation, Cansler and Mitchell also discuss HungerRush's publication, The Restaurant Leader's Playbook. Mitchell highlights the critical role technology plays in driving efficiency and impact within restaurant operations, a core principle he's championing at HungerRush.

The conversation then pivots to HungerRush's Menufy, an online ordering platform. He also cautions against common mistakes when choosing an online ordering system, urging them to consider if the platform solves their most critical problems, protects against fraud and allows them to maintain ownership of their brand.

Tech-Driven Growth

The episode also features an interview with Harris, who will moderate a separate panel, "Tech-Driven Franchise Growth: Leveraging Innovation for Scalability and Support." This session will focus on how technology can be strategically employed to optimize franchise operations, streamline communication between franchisors and franchisees, enhance data management for performance insights and support rapid and sustainable growth.

Harris shares her excitement about the panel's lineup, which includes:

• Aaron LeClair, Vice President of Technology, Jeff's Bagel Run.
• Sam Stanovich, SVP Franchise Leadership, Big Chicken.
• Peter Wiley, Director of Marketing & IT, Hot Head Burritos.
• Mehdi Zarhloul, CEO, Crazy Pita Restaurant Group

Register here for the Summit.

In the beginning, consumers could purchase any pizza in any size for $10 on Tuesdays. Over the years, however, with the rising costs of labor and ingredients, individual Papa Murphy's stores have altered their $10 Tuesday promos. Today, guests can get any pizza for $10.99 to $13.99 depending on the location, and some Papa Murphy's operators have limited the type of pizza that can be ordered.

"I would say Papa Murphy's was built on $10 Tuesdays," Massey said. "I've been around the brand now a little over a year, year and a half. And I don't talk to anybody that doesn't bring up the Tuesday promotion. So I would say that there's a lot of brand equity that is built into $10 Tuesday. And ultimately, it's something that our franchise partners know and love."

To listen to the podcast in its entirety, click the link at the top of the page.

Tech plays a big role in Newk's growth strategy, with the brand leveraging self-service kiosks and partnerships with third-party delivery.

"We continue to try to meet the guests where they want to (and) how they want to access the brand," Paci said. "So as a result obviously we've continued to invest in third party delivery. We've got online ordering. We've got kiosks in store. You can order table side in our stores. So (we are) really trying to make it as convenient as possible and continuing to upgrade."

The brand just upgraded its website and is in the process of upgrading its app to make those more frictionless, Paci added.

"And when I talk about that, in the past the website was kind of a static advertising page. It's now more of an e-commerce website where if we're showing you a product, you can click on that product and it goes right into ordering that product as opposed to kind of just taking you to the site where you have to then scroll through and pick what you want to order."

To learn more about Newk's Eatery and third-party delivery, its value for the money and how food quality tops it all, click the link at the top of the page to listen to the podcast in it's entirety.

Mooyah is all about the better burger business, with buns baked in house and hand-punched fries. Ingredients are prepped daily in house and the brand uses certified Angus beef.

"Our burgers are as good as steak," said Beth Stockmoe, vice president of operations for Mooyah. "But that's really always been who we are. We are really serious about food, but we don't take ourselves too seriously. And that's kind of our niche in the market. You go into our restaurants, you have great food and a great time."

Stockmoe said making so much in house is all about quality.

"We know that our burgers taste the best because of the ingredients that we use and because of the care that we put in," Stockmoe added. "Hand-punched fries are always going to be better than a frozen product, but it's also a way to reduce food cost."

To learn more about Mooyah's operations with everything made fresh as it's ordered, its competitive advances in a crowded burger market and why its milkshakes are to die for, click the link and listen to the podcast in its entirety.

Todd Saroki and his brother Curtis Saroki cut their teeth working in a kitchen in a uncle's gas station. They eventually took what they learned and opened Saroki's in a large gas station pavilion.

"We opened up with just our own recipes," Todd Saroki said. "We learned as we went, and we were doing well in the pizza space. We liked our pizza, but we didn't love it. When we were thinking about opening up our second location ... we said we have to have better pizza."

Todd Saroki went to a pizza show, sat in one of Gemignani's seminars, and eventually went to Gemignani's International School of Pizza.

Today they use high-quality ingredients and brick ovens to make their pizzas. Curtis Saroki said they tried using conveyor ovens in some of their restaurants but didn't like the way the pizza came out, so they eventually went back to brick ovens again.

"We're very involved in operations," Curtis Saroki said. "Both of us were operations guys before we started franchising and I'm still going to locations to make sure that everyone's keeping up with the quality."

To learn more about the Sarokis' pizza journey, click the link at the top of the page to view the podcast in its entirety.

Potts has more than 30 years of experience working in diverse industries including Valvoline and Fazoli's. She graduated from college and achieved her dream job working for an agency for Fazoli's. She left the food service industry for about seven years and worked in automotive, where she learned a wide range of new skills. She wanted to return to restaurants given she considers herself a foodie. "I love food. I still kept up with all the (food) industry news in restaurants and so I saw this opportunity to and thought, 'What a great chance to get back into restaurants,'" she shares in the podcast.

At the time of our interview, Potts had been with A&W for just two months, but the brand is already thinking about next year.

"There's been a lot of advances, a lot of changes since I've been gone but the business itself is the same," Potts said. "You're just trying to provide a great experience and hope customers come back to you."

The brand has three locations, all of which operate differently. The main restaurant and brewery is in downtown Mebane where the brand does all its beer manufacturing.

Neapolitan pizza is the brand's biggest food seller, with favorites like cheese and pepperoni the favorites. There's a pizza called Family Friendly which has cheese, pepperoni and a local sausage. The 412 is a barbecue chicken, bacon, local hot honey and jalapeno, and the Sweet and Salty features prosciutto, sliced figs, goat cheese, arugula, and a balsamic glaze.

"We make our dough," Williams said in the podcast. "We make our sauce. We typically buy in a lot of shredded cheese, but we do slice our provolone and slice our Swiss cheese as well. We do some sandwiches as well so we do cross utilize some ingredients there."

To learn more about Bright Penny's brewery and how well beer goes with pizza, click the link at the top to listen to the podcast in its entirety.

Don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group YouTube page for more great restaurant interviews.

Neary took her leadership role last year, but Taco John's has been serving up tacos and its signature Potato Oles since 1969.

"We're a great legacy brand," Neary said. "We've got second-generation franchisees in the business. We've got a lot of really amazing operators who are here to honor the integrity of the historical brand that's got a lot of legs in front of it to grow forward."

Honoring the brand's rich history while innovating to gain new demographics is one of the brand's current operational goals. Neary said continual communication with the brand's franchisees and guests to understand the core assets of Taco John's that it "can't sway from" and where it can innovate to take it to the next level are primary targets.

For instance, the brand is testing AI in its drive-thru and has been for the past year or so.

"We're at a 93% to 94% accept rate which means that 6% of the time a human has to intercept the order because it's not going smoothly, but 93%, 94% of the time the AI voice ... is able to take the order for the guest and is able to do a great job delivering that great Taco John's experience that people are used to," Neary added.

To learn more about Taco John's and its innovations, listen to the podcast in its entirety. Don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group podcast channel for more great restaurant interviews.

The Atlanta pizzeria brand, known for its unique hybrid pizzas and passionate customer base, is ready to expand with franchising. Today, it has five units.

Looking ahead five years, Krolick said he expects Blue Moon Pizza to be larger.

"We do have a five-year plan," he said. "Our goal is to start franchising in early 2026."

As a professor of franchising at a university in the city, Krolick said franchising is a unique business "because it sounds really eat, but in reality it's kind of a pseudo-partnership. The business model has got to be such that both sides are making great money. And we want to make sure that we put our franchisees in the best position to succeed. And that requires detailed systems as we're building out. It requires a great business model which we already have and it requires a system that is truly ready to understand, recognize, deal with and be a true advisor and supporter to the franchise system."

The brand watches other companies to gain insight into how to treat its customers.

"We ... are making sure our employees know what it is that we are expecting out of them and what our customers, more importantly, are expecting," Goldt said. "We've been able to show them that if they give the service that we expect from them, and that they're capable of giving, they will get the reward financially from the customers, they will get it from the appreciation from the customers, they will get it from the hours they get to work with us and so forth, and also the enjoyment they get from being in the restaurants and being in that work environment."

Click the link above to listen to the podcast in its entirety, and don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group podcast channel for more great restaurant interviews.

Perera and his wife, Danielle, call themselves bagel fanatics. When Perera lost his job in 2019, he began making bagels for his wife at home. He then spread the love to family and friends, who told him he should sell the bagels. Eventually, he did locally.

In 2021, they opened the first Jeff's Bagel Run in Ocoee, Florida. Today, the brand has 15 stores in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Texas.

Perera said consistency across his brand starts with quality training.

"Whenever we have a new team start, a new franchisee join the system, we're going to put them through really extensive training so they can learn what it's like to be an owner of a Jeff's Bagel Run and to make sure that they have that as part of their DNA," Perera said. "That is going to be the first foundation."

To learn about about how Perera has expanded his bagel empire, click the link at the top.

Pollo Campero began in 1971 in Guatemala, mostly in central America. It came to the U.S. in 2002 in Los Angeles and is still operating today.

"It has a historic following not only in Guatemala but now it's starting to resonate in the U.S.," Escarcega said.

Pollo Campero has had to work hard to differentiate itself from others in a chicken-heavy field. There's a lot of competition, but the brand has maintained its authenticity.

"We never forget our roots of the recipes that we've had as far as seasoning and the way that we prepare the food," Escarcega said. Using pressure fryers has given the chicken tender, unique flavors. They also want the customer experience to be unique.

To learn more about how Pollo Campero is standing out in a crowded market, watch the podcast in its entirety. Don't forget to subscribe for the Restaurant Operator Podcast for interviews with all the top restaurant brand interviews.

The brand was founded in 2012 by Michael Astoria who's still involved with the brand today. Astoria traveled the country and found D.C. was a blank slate and ripe for a gourmet pizza brand.

"Really, there wasn't a staple pizza here in D.C.," Burns said in the podcast. Astoria built one shop, unsuspecting that it would take off.

Burns said the brand got "too corporate" and lost the edginess it was known for after Astoria stepped away from &pizza in 2018. He came back into operations, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Astoria wanted to stay as the creator and founder, but didn't want to run it on a daily basis.

Enter Burns, who joined about a year and a half ago.

"It's been everything I thought it would be," Burns said. "It's a really fun brand and we're just trying to kind of bring it back to its roots of the fun, urban-centric college campus brand when it first started."

The brand has begun franchising. Burns said &pizza wanted to stay corporate for a long time thinking it could grow faster and the leadership team could control the brand.

Burns said he believes &pizza should have franchised six or seven years ago when it was at its peak. "It's such a cool, fun brand," he said. "Everybody loves it. There's a need for it in the market. Potential franchisees have been reaching out for years trying to franchise this brand, and to me to be at 45 restaurants, or 46 with a couple of airport units, is a shame."

To learn more about &pizza's franchising efforts and how it has increased business listen to the podcast above in its entirety.

Tekin and Sobocincki have history when Tekin worked for Sobocincki at a restaurant he owned years ago. During his interview, Tekin told his boss he'd like to open a business with him someday. They stayed in touch as Tekin opened his own businesses and in 2018, Tekin contacted his former boss about a business opportunity he had.

That business? A Nashville hot chicken concept.

"There was nothing like it in Connecticut," Sobocinski said. He wanted to do a brand, however, and initially said no. He was invited to meet the other two founders, and Sobocinski was "blown away" by them and the food. He was in.

Tekin said there was a story created behind the brand they wanted to create, and at the same time they were doing rigorous recipe testing.

"After three or four months of work, I just felt like something was missing in the organization," Tekin said. That would have been Sobocinski, who Tekin said always created a brand with his restaurants.

The brand has recently grown from four stores to nine in just 10 months.

To learn more about Haven Hot Chicken's operations, listen to the podcast in its entirety at the top of the page.

In today's episode of the Restaurant Operator podcast, Jordan Schild, president and CEO at Premier Food Trucks, shared several tools to food truck success with moderator Bradley Cooper, editor of Food Truck Operator.

He noted in the podcast that one common mistake food truck operators do is purchasing a used truck as an attempt to save money, only to face very expensive repairs and lost sales down the road. He instead said that it's very important to get a great truck up front, and the cost savings will come over time.

He shared other insights including:

The three biggest features every food truck needs.

• How to make a food truck stand out.
• Avoiding key early mistakes.
• How Premier Food Trucks helps operators.
• Listen to the podcast in full above.

Donatos started in 1963 when its founder, Jim Grote, started a small pizza shop in the sound end of Columbus, Ohio based on principles and values that even today make Donatos a standout in the pizza industry.

The brand is founded on three tenets: lead with love, follow the Golden Rule and do the right thing.

"If we do those, we know we'll have a successful business in the end," King said.

Donatos has 180 traditional restaurants across the U.S. and 270 units inside Red Robin restaurants.

"Donatos has always been about abundance, great toppings, great quality and super consistent," King said.

To learn more about the Donatos Pizza story, click the link at the top of the page.

Don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group YouTube channel for more great podcasts with industry leaders.

"CORE is a national non-profit," Chapman said. "We provide financial support to food and beverage service employees in this industry. It's a crisis, whether it's an injury, health issue, a natural disaster, death in the family (or) domestic abuse. Really, honestly there is a need for this because there's so many times that service employees — if one of these things happens — they're working reduced hours or none at all, and quickly, stress, hopelessness and fear — they all quickly creep in."

CORE steps in and helps employees financially so they can focus on what's important. It's about bridging the financial gap so employees can resume working "without leaving a trail of debt behind," Chapman said.

To learn more about CORE Gives and how restaurant employees can apply, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

Don't forget to subscribe to Networld Media Group's YouTube page.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb, speaks with GRUBBRR Chief Revenue Officer Parrish Chapman about the brand's guarantee.

Chapman said the GRUBBRR guarantee is simple: the kiosk brand guarantees its work and stands behind it.

"We know operators today have a lot of cost pressures, they have a lot of news about their business and operations, what they really need to do to improve their operations, how to automate and the GRUBBRR Guarantee at the highest level is saying if you do business with GRUBBRR and our kiosk platform, we will guarantee our results or you don't pay us," Chapman said. "It's that simple. We want operators to know when they go with GRUBBRR that they can trust us, that we're a great business partner and we're going to help their operations."

Restaurant brands are lots of pressure, including the rising cost of goods, recruitment and retention, the economy and more. GRUBBRR kiosks shift labor pain points away from the POS and increases speed of service.

"The benefits are really huge and we wanted to echo this out to the marketplace and let operators know that we believe so much in it that we are standing behind our ability to be a successful technology platform for their business," Chapman added.

To learn more about the GRUBBRR Guarantee, listen to the podcast in its entirely. Don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group podcast channel.

The brand was founded in 1985 in two small California towns and will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year. Riva and her husband, Bob, came aboard as franchisees in 1990 and opened five of their own Pizza Factory locations. In 2012, the founders were ready to leave and sold the company to the Rivas.

"The culture of Pizza Factory is so much about community and it's individuals being able to come and work in a town or a city. Some of our stores are in really small towns, so it allowed people who wanted to be self-employed and live in a small town and actually accomplish that," Riva said.

Pizza Factory connects with its communities with owner/operators who are residents of the towns their shops are in.

The brand was recently acquired by Wonder Franchises. "After 12 years, it can to a point where I knew it was time to bring on some extra resources," Riva said. "Another set of eyes, and bring on that support system that I felt that as an office and for the franchisees, really we are the steward of the brand. The franchisees are who we work for, and I felt that is was time to bring on another set of eyes and that youthfulness."

With rapid changes in social media, digital and tech stacks, Wonder will help Pizza Factory into the future. "Bringing them on was one of the ways I felt we could support the franchisees better as well as accelerate growth."

Listen to the podcast to learn more about Pizza Factory and Wonder Franchises future. Don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group YouTube Channel.

Lion's Choice got its start in 1967 and is a legacy brand in St. Louis with 30 restaurants. The brand uses top round roast beef that is hand-trimmed and slow roasted for at least three hours in the restaurant every day.

"It's really butcher-shop quality," Burmer said. The roast beef is sliced razor thin which gives it a "great flavor and texture that really sets us apart."

There's also a secret seasoning on the roast beef for added flavor.

Burmer said consistency can be a challenge with so much done in-house.

"That's very, very important," he said, adding the same type of ovens at all the stores helps keep the recipe the same no matter the store.

To learn more about the secret to Lion's Choice's success, click the link at the top. And don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group YouTube channel.

The brand was founded in 2013 in Savannah, Georgia. The first location had a stone oven, which is from where the brand takes its name. Though the brand enjoys its double entendre namesake, there's actually no cannabis involved in the recipes, though Stoner's does use it in its marketing.

"We kind of pivot depending on the marketing we're in," Stetson said. "If we're on a college campus, I think we're very outgoing with the name. If you go into one of our locations we'll have #legalizemarinara, #ownajoint, #getbaked -- those kinds of play on words of cannabis and pizza simultaneously. But, then you go into some other demographics where it's more of a community and it doesn't resonate as well. We, in those markets, will drop the 'Joint' from our signage as 'Stoner's Pizza.'"

He said he doesn't want to lose that family of four ordering a pizza on a Friday night and the franchisees strive to be local pizzerias in their respective communities. The brand also delivers to a lot of schools, so it's cognizant of how the brand stands in the community.

"We use it to our advantage when we can and obviously pull back when we need to," Stetson said.

To hear how Stoner's Pizza Joint is weathering the economy and more, click the link above.

Don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group YouTube channel for more exclusive podcasts.

Spicer said customer experience is one of the things that sets Clutch Coffee apart from competitors.

"It's from the moment you drive onto the property, and the environment we have and the music that's playing outside, the runner who's outside taking that order face to face, all the way through picking up that drink," he said, adding "and taking that first sip before you leave. That's a huge element for us."

The brand doesn't compromise on quality, Spicer said, and works with an award-winning roaster out of Washington state whom he said is fantastic at what they do.

To learn more coffee secrets from Clutch Coffee, listen to the podcast in its entirety above. Don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group YouTube channel here.

The brand launched in 2000 to fanfare from local residents and has 20 restaurants across central Texas with several more under construction.

"We're just getting started spreading barbecue out to the rest of the world," Haley said.

With Texas such a barbecue-competitive state, how does Smokey Mo's compete in a saturated market?

"I think for us, it's really about just caring about the product, so we're a neighborhood barbecue," Haley said. "We're a smaller format barbecue than a lot of the other chains that are out there. We're more similar in size to, really, some of the craft barbecue locations, and what we do is we're incredibly consistent. We have a training process and recipes, and we're not relying on one person's expertise. We've really learned how to get the understanding of how to create the barbecue and spread it out to our store managers and our cooks and pitmasters and cutters in the store."

To learn more about how Smokey Mo's creates its tasty barbecue and how it operates, listen to the podcast above. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

"We're looking for owner-operators," Comeaux said in the podcast. "Right now at this stage of where we're at in growth, eventually we'll be looking for multi-unit franchisees that own 10 to 15 other units for other concepts that are looking for a second brand to sink their teeth into."

Comeaux said the product helps Crust stand out in a heavy pizza field.

"It's premium quality," he said, adding the dough is made in house every four hours. "Our sauces are all proprietary blends — our pizza sauce, marinara, Ranch, Alfredo ... the sauce are amazing that you can put on the pizza or dip. ... We created our own propriety cheese about a year ago, and when we did that we were able to save 50 cents per pound on cheese."

To learn more about Crust Pizza Co.'s operations and how the brand is building its own tech stack, click the link above.

Bojangles recently ran a trial using Grubbrr's kiosks and is now rolling them out amongst the brand's 800 units.

"It's part of an ongoing effort on our part to reach the guest the way the guest most wants to be reached," said Del Valle. "We realized there's a generation out there that, frankly, doesn't like talking to people and so we wanted to have options where our traditional guests perhaps would want to go over and talk to one of our team members and engage in a two-way relationship there. We know there's other guests who just want to get in and order their food and move."

Del Valle said an added benefit to kiosks that is allows front-line workers to focus on order accuracy and the taking away interaction with the guests for order fulfillment.

Parrish said the Bojangles team was thoughtful when it came to testing kiosks.

"They asked all the right questions," he said. "They had metrics that they had agreed on ahead of time. What was important to their brand was not replacing human interaction. We wanted to double down on that and have order accuracy and take the stress off the front counter and then monitor the metrics."

To learn more about the Grubbrr and Bojangles partnership, click the player at the top of the page.

Metevier has more than 30 years experience in the restaurant industry. He previously served as the company's president and COO before taking the reigns as CEO earlier this year.

Metevier said the restaurant business is not for the faint of heart.

"I always find it funny when I talk to prospective franchisees ... people will tell me 'Hey, when I retire, I want to open a restaurant. That's the opposite of retiring!" he said.

To listen to the podcast in its entirety, click the link above.

The brand was started by two entrepreneurs in Auburn with one making varieties of chicken salad out of her home. The first Chicken Salad Chick location opened in Jan. 2008 with drive-thru and carryout only. The founders made 40 pounds of chicken salad to sell, opened at 11 a.m. and by 1 p.m. were sold out.

"The business took off. It had a cult following," Deviney said. "Eventually they expanded that first location from just drive-thru and takeout."

Franchising began in 2012.

To learn more about Chicken Salad Chick, click the link above to listen to the podcast in its entirety.

Zane said he and his brother were raised in the Detroit, and grew up eating square pizza, now known as Detroit-style pizza.

"You thinking about where we're at right now in 2024 with the hyper gentrification of pizza," he said. "Back then, there was just round and square pizza. Round pizza could have been a number of different things. Square pizza could have been a number of different things, whether its was a sheet-pan pizza from an Italian bakery or Grandma-style pizza, and then we had Detroit with the caramelized edges."

It took the brothers traveling to different parts of the country to realize that they were fortunate to have different styles of pizza in Detroit.

Zane moved to Austin in 2009 with his wife and kids and sought out pizza like he had at home "and we realized quickly it didn't exist," he said.

Zane and Brandon began examining what it would look like if they started their own pizza brand in Austin. They wanted to bring Detroit-style pizza to Austin, and used a recipe they were both comfortable with. It took almost two years to open their first location, a pizza trailer.

Brandon said what sets Via 313 is now focused on consistency and service. Though they won't compare their pizza to other Detroit-style brands, they instead focus on the customer and efficiency.

"Service was a thing that could separate us," Brandon said. "You really can't debate whether service is good or not or if we're the best at service. That's not debatable. That's really important to us."

To listen to the podcast in its entirety, click the arrow above.

Pudalov said 9/11 was a trigger for leaving the financial world. His wife worked in the Twin Towers and her first day back from maternity leave was the day the towers came down. He moved his family to Boulder, Colorado, and looked for something "dynamically different," he said.

"I loved entrepreneurship and I was pretty darn good at what I did," he said, "so it afforded me the opportunity, quite frankly, to try something very different and kind of fine tune my skillsets."

He said living in Manhattan 20 years ago, there was little thought to health and wellness in the restaurant industry. He launched Rush Bowls in Boulder.

"When I started this idea of a meal concept, I wanted to go somewhere near a college where students would be more adept at testing and trying new things than a more mature clientele," Pudalov added.

To listen to Pudalov's journey as he launched Rush Bowls, click the link above.

The idea came about after there was a prison break in one of the towns where she operates a Little Caesars store. They brought in K-9 units from three or four states for several days.

"We were feeding the officers," Dunn-Marshall said. "They don't get support for what they do."

Human handlers pay for the food and vet visits themselves, perhaps using a small stipend from the department.

"The bubble tea category has been around for quite some time," Henry said in the podcast. "It kind of started back in Asia, typically in Taiwan in the early 1990s. Taiwan is known for its night markets where people can walk around and try different food cuisines that are up and coming."

Gong Cha is in 27 countries around the world. To learn more about Gong Cha's focus on quality, its employees and customers, click the link above.

Keegan started with a brewery, but found his customers would have a beer and then leave to go find food. He tried bringing in food trucks, but that didn't seem to work. Instead, he started his own pizzeria using the best ingredients he could find.

"We run a full pizza kitchen in all of our stores and it's really a full pizza restaurant by every measure, but being a brewery, we call it a taproom, and the majority of our taproom sales is pizza," Keegan said.

To learn more about beer and pizza sales, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

"We open about a store a week," Gordon said. "We do 50 to 60 domestic stores every year, and we do international stores every year, too. We do business in the U.K., and 54 of those stores are in the U.K."

The brand recently opened its first store in Berlin as well.

Gordon said the food is the hero at Slim Chickens, and is paramount to the brand's success as it grows.

"The food has to be the thing that draws people in," he said.

McColgan admits launching a brand was more difficult than he and his partner thought, "but we were passionate about eating well, and we felt like there wasn't a brand out there — certainly not at scale — where we felt like we could eat at every day," he said.

Hetsel says Cicis, which is a buffet concept, is doing well with positive sales, and the brand is currently looking for ways to leverage technology to increase those sales.

"One of the great things we try to do is if you don't see your favorite pizza, we'll make it for you," Hetsel said. Pizzas are cooked in about three and a half minutes.

The biggest change the brand has made over the years is improving and increasing its "eatertainment" and game rooms.

The Korean fried chicken brand has been in the U.S. since 2006. The chicken is double fried and hand brushed, making it a standout in the competitive chicken market. "It's amazing and addictive, but then we also have Korean comfort food dishes to complement our fried chicken. It's very approachable to the American palate," Millikan said.

The brand has 137 locations in the United States and 445 globally.

Bradley Cooper, editor of Food Truck Operator, spoke with Chris Ruff, CEO and president of Glympse Inc. to discuss more about how food trucks can generate profits, with a particular focus on location tracking in today's episode of the Restaurant Operator podcast.

In order to create a loyal customer base, food trucks need to communicate their location clearly with guests, especially when they are constantly moving around to different events and locations. During the podcast, Ruff shared insights including:

• Business insights from Glympse.
• How Glympse' location tracking services can help food trucks.
• What makes it different from Google.
• Success stories with clients.

Bradley Cooper, editor of Food Truck Operator discussed with Bolanos a number of key points surrounding the food truck industry, such as navigating regulatory issues and how to properly handle marketing. Some of the topics covered include:

• Bolanos' journey in the food truck industry.
• How food trucks can build for the future.
• First steps for food truck operators.
• How Trailer King Builders can help food truck operators.

You can listen to the podcast in its entirety above.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of QSRweb and Pizza Marketplace, talks to Dan Hawkes VP of product design for Givex, to learn how Givex's conversational AI programs is helping restaurants reduce labor and increase order efficiency.

Many restaurants are expanding their reach with dedicated catering programs. These programs offer restaurant-quality food for events, from corporate lunches to social gatherings. Diners can expect menus tailored to their needs, with options ranging from boxed lunches to full buffets. This trend benefits both restaurants and customers. Restaurants gain a new revenue stream, while customers enjoy delicious food for their events without the hassle of cooking. Catering programs are also becoming increasingly user friendly, with online ordering and customizable menus. This convenience is fueling the popularity of restaurant catering, making it a delicious option for busy lifestyles.

At Biscuit Belly, the brand started catering as an added convenience for their customers and because there aren't many breakfast catering choices in the area.

Coulter said they were initially hesitant to add catering because the brand is built around a large biscuit sandwich.

"It's fine to order a couple here and there, but it's hard to replicate that in mass," she said, "and so we knew that we wanted to go down this path (and) that it was going to take us to entirely clearing out heads" about catering.

To listen to Coulter's catering journey, click the link above.

"The concept of automated pizza is relatively new to North America but has been around Europe for almost 20 years," Tomlin told Detwiler. "We found this technology platform — we being my business partner and myself — in France, and we were just amazed that this technology platform had not yet made it to North America."

The pizza vending machine helps with square footage, rent, waste and wages. It bakes an 11-inch pizza in under three minutes in 65 square feet, Tomlin added.

To listen to the podcast click here.

Detwiler spoke to leaders at Longboards Wraps and Bowls, Kansas City International Airport, Hawaii Brothers and more.

"The Restaurant Franchising and Innovation Summit offers a wealth of information for restaurant leaders and brands," Detwiler said. "The annual event highlighted some of the most pressing issues in restaurants today, including growth, technology and innovation, restaurant delivery, marketing and more."

Listen to what these brands had to say about attending the summit here.

Kalibrate, which began in 1970, started on the fuel and convenience side and eventually moved to location intelligence, specifically within the hospitality, retail and restaurant domains.

"Today, a large portion of our business looks to the restaurant community and looks to identify from a global perspective who your customers are, where they're located, and the value of those customers and how that translates into a location intelligence offering," Wetzel said.

Online ordering has grown since the pandemic, and Smith said it has been a "seesaw battle" for many operators. "The more orders they get obviously drives more money to their bottom line," he said. "But the challenge is trying to get more of that dollar for online ordering."

Ordering sites take a great percentage of online orders, up to 30% for Uber Eats, Skip (a Canadian delivery service) and GrubHub. Givex's clients are working to try to regain some of that percentage, Smith said.

"How they're doing it now is through a many-faceted approach," Smith said. "It combines some loyalty, it combines some private apps, and if they made the right combination, they can claw back some of that 30%"

Lybeer said it's an exciting time for technology brands in the restaurant space as more restaurants rely on it in both the front and back of the house.

"Costs are going through the roof," Lybeer said when asked what some of the industry's biggest challenges are today. "The cost of everything — the cost of food, the cost of real estate, the cost for labor and so that's putting a lot of stress on the industry and really, in almost any industry — even if you go outside of restaurants — usually when there's pressure on an industry technology is used to make it more efficient."

Lybeer said restaurants have traditionally been behind the curve, but the opportunity and the challenge for restaurants is to figure out how to use technology to battle some of the pressures they're facing.

To listen to the podcast in its entirety, click here.

Gorman said CORE's mission is "to be there for all parts of the restaurant industry." A group of beverage executives met at the National Restaurant Association and a conversation was struck up about the lack of support for the restaurant industry. That discussion led to CORE, now it its 20th year.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to Hisham Abdulfattah, partner and executive chef of Willow Street Pizza in Willow Glen and Los Gatos, California, about menu development.

Abdulfattah said his first job was working in a kitchen washing dishes at age 14. He later moved on to prep and cooking at a taqueria.

"I fell in love with the atmosphere of a restaurant and the fast-paced environment," Abdulfattah said, adding he went to a culinary academy right out of high school. "I worked probably every position in a restaurant, including front of the house."

During the pandemic, he got a loan and bought food truck, and one of his partners owned Willow Street Pizza, which he later invested in and now co-owns.

"There's something for everyone on their menu," Abdulfattah said. "Willow Street is a place where you can go and feel very comfortable and warm."

To learn more about Abdulfattah's approach to menu development, click the link to listen to the podcast in its entirety.