Kasey Anton is (where do I start?) a restaurateur, financial whiz, coach, podcaster, and author of Profit First for Restaurants. In her own words, "People don’t open restaurants because they just want to start a business. People open restaurants because they are building a dream.
You can create the restaurant of your dreams, be profitable, pay your vendors, your staff, yourself, and savor the joys of hospitality, without the stress and uncertainty."
Would-be successful restaurant owners: avoid this episode at your own peril!
Photo Credit: Rachel Carroll
Chef Newman Miller joins me from deep in the heart of bourbon country for this episode. As the owner of Mr. Tubs and Scout and Scholar, Newman explains how, after cooking all over the world, he's been able to focus on his craft as a chef and entrepreneur only a few miles from the tobacco farm where he grew up.
Who wrote the book on relentless growth in the hospitality industry, and specifically the professional kitchen? None other than Chef Franck Desplechin, who joins The Restaurant Incubator today and offers up some incisive tips and strategies for enhancing your own career and your team's as well.
Don't forget to share this episode and give us five stars. That's the only way this podcast can grow!
Chef Chetan Shetty of Passerine in NYC embodies Fernand Point's reflection that when it come to cooking, one must be a student for life.
Today's conversation ranges from the granular (scaling out your recipes in grams and training your cooks on technique) to the grand (designing your restaurant space to maximize form, function, and profit).
If you need help planning or developing the business side of things for your own restaurant, check out these templates.
Hit the subscribe button--and don't forget to give us five stars!
Photo credit Todd Holder
Ready to open your restaurant but unsure how money actually gets from the guest's wallet to your bank account? Or what to do with it then? I break it down for you at a granular level in this episode.
Follow us and give us five stars! It's the only way this podcast will grow and help the chefs and entrepreneurs who can benefit from this information.
If you want budgeting and business planning help, I've built tools for you to use.
Stay humble, stay hungry, and let's get this bread.
Christin Marvin is an industry voice to whom you should listen. On the heels of a 20+ year career in restaurants, rising from line cook at 15 to managing partner and scaling brands to 48 locations, she founded Solutions by Christin and created the Independent Restaurant Framework (People, Process, Profit). Listen closely for her generous free offer to Restaurant Incubator listeners near the end of the episode!
Christin is the author of ‘Multi-Unit Mastery’ and ‘The Hospitality Leader’s Roadmap’, showing operators how to grow without burning out.
She's also the host of The Restaurant Leadership Podcast, a top-ranked show for restaurant owners and operators worldwide.
If you are working on your own concept and would like budgeting and business planning templates, I've created these for you. Don't forget to give this podcast five stars on your streaming platform!
What's it like to be one of the NYTimes' 50 Best Restaurants in the USA? Oh, AND a James Beard Best New Restaurant? Ian Boden joins The Restaurant Incubator to answer those questions.
The chef and owner of The Shack and Maude and The Bear, Ian has made a home for the past twenty years in Staunton, VA. He tells us about the difficulties of opening an inn, the bare-knuckle financing of The Shack, and how he expects his team to hold their own standards independent of what guests think.
Still thinking about opening your own restaurant? I've built budgets and business plans for you already--click here to find them.
Stay humble. Stay hungry!
Photo credit: Stephanie Whitehall Photography
A partner in San Francisco's Lazy Bear and principal of the heralded Machete and Yokai (in Greensboro, NC), Tal Blevins brings a wealth of knowledge about service culture, staff knowledge and training, and restaurant build-outs to today's episode--but that's just the tip of the iceberg.
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Whether you're expediting, taking a reservations call, or writing a recipe, the fastest and safest route from A to B is clarity. Ignore it at your own peril. In today's episode, we explore how clarity, and its lack, impact different moving parts of hospitality and your restaurant's operations.
If you're thinking of opening your own restaurant, check out these digital tools I've built to help you.
Stay humble. Stay hungry!
Jeremy Walton of The Citizen, Fonville Press, and Scout in Alys Beach, FL joined me for an incisive and illustrative interview. You'll be a better owner and operator for listening to his insights on building culture, infrastructure, and sustainable businesses on today's episodes.
If you're planning to open your own restaurant, I've built some tools to help you.
Stay humble. Stay hungry!
Eleven cookbooks you can use to catalyze not only your professional career but also your knowledge, appreciation, and enjoyment of the culinary. Please do let me know what cookbook you thin should've been included by leaving it in the comment section!
Apologies for the frame-freeze at the end of this one. Had some video issues in the studio ...
If you are opening a restaurant and want a boost with the business planning and budgeting, I've created some tools for you to use here.
Stay humble. Stay hungry!
How will you succeed working at Mileta, the Lexington, KY restaurant of partners Dallas Rose and Chef Alex Green? Well, you'd better be hungry, for starters. In today's episode we discuss choosing your restaurant site, what you can and can't DIY during the build-out process, and take a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of menu engineering that will give you fresh insight into a topic you may not have considered in a while.
Looking to open your own spot? I've built some tools that may be of use to you along the way.
Stay humble. Stay hungry!
Photo credit: Jessica Ebelhar
You're destined to be a chef, and right now you're a cook. How do you go from Point A to Point B? In today's episode, I discuss four mindsets that will keep you pointed in the right direction and get you where you want to go faster and better equipped.
If you'd like to see the budgeting and business planning tools I've built to help you develop or course-correct your own restaurant project, click here.
Stay humble. Stay hungry!
For the tools that will save you weeks of time and thousands of dollars during your restaurant opening and afterwards, click here.
Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, and having cooked his way north from Costa Rica to Minneapolis by way of Silicon Valley, Chef Martin Morelli has amassed a wealth of knowledge and kitchen wisdom. His insights on workplace culture, internal hospitality, and guest relations will help you see things from the vantage point of a chef who is at once passionate, composed, and thoughtful.
The Restaurant Incubator doesn't accept sponsors or paid ads--the only way we grow is from your shares and ratings. If you enjoy this episode, forward it to two friends who have a bright future in the restaurant industry. Stay humble. Stay hungry!
Thinking about opening your restaurant? I've built some tools to help you.
Nathaniel Hawthorne said (something along the lines of) "Restaurants are always rising and falling in America." This is an industry where the sands never stop shifting, and today we examine how you can adapt your business--and your mindset--to respond with agility and alacrity.
If you could use help with the business side of the restaurant business, here are some tools to help you.
Ryan Rogers owns and operated M. Peppers, Bar Vetti, Feast BBQ, and Royal's Hot Chicken in Louisville, KY. In this episode, we go in-depth on lease negotiation, cost savings, and managing your business's cash flow. Ryan is a gold mine of actionable information for both fledgling and veteran restaurant owners.
We don't accept paid ads or sponsors; we grow by listeners like you sharing the podcast with others. Send it to two friends right away!
If you're struggling to cobble your concept together, check out this digital toolkit I've put together for you.
Do not pass GO, do not collect $200, and for Girardet's sake do not open a restaurant or bar or food truck or frozen banana stand without a proper, thorough business plan and budget. Today's episode will walk you through the Whys and Wherefores.
Stay humble, stay hungry.
If you're thinking of opening a restaurant, I've built some digital tools that you may find useful: click here.
Alex Brandwein signed his lease for Brandwein's Bagels in February 2020--for some, the worst possible moment. On today's podcast, he shares his story of success and discusses proof of concept, crafting a proposal, when and why your business needs a mission statement, and how he buys barley malt syrup.
Don't miss this episode with a truly inspirational and genuine businessman, baker, and entrepreneur. (If you're in town, I recommend the Reuben on a WWE (whole wheat everything) bagel.) Stay humble; stay hungry!
Dreaming of your own restaurant? If you find that you need a little help with the business side of the restaurant business, check out these tools. I've spent over a decade building and refining them, and they'll save you time and money.
Red wine is cherished, it's romantic, and it's almost essential to a fine meal. In this episode, you'll get a crash course on how to taste, pair, and sell red and rose' wines. Six grapes, a little basic chemistry, and you're good to go. Stay humble. Stay hungry!
Still looking to open your own restaurant? I've built a suite of digital tools to get you up and running--check it out!
Gabe Barker opened Pizzeria Mercato in 2016. As it comes up on a decade of thriving business in Carrboro, NC, Gabe joined me on The Restaurant Incubator to talk about how he takes care of his crew, the level of detail he went into when planning his restaurant, and how pizzaiolo-ing forces you to be both a chef and a baker.
If you're picking up what I'm putting down, please forward your favorite episode to two friends who have a bright future in our industry! Stay humble. Stay hungry.