This episode features brothers Billy and Tommy Hall of Halls Chophouse, sharing how their late father’s “service before self” philosophy, honed in luxury hotels, became the backbone of a family-run steakhouse that launched in 2009 on a rough stretch of King Street in Charleston during the Great Recession and slowly grew into a 10-restaurant hospitality group across the Southeast. They talk about treating every guest like they’re walking into their home: handshakes and hugs at the door, learning names and stories, grabbing Dr Peppers and pizzas from other businesses if that’s what it takes, writing stacks of handwritten thank-you notes every night, and viewing each shift as a “battle” to change someone’s day for the better. Along the way they dive into hiring for attitude over polish, leading by example on the floor, managing through brutal beef prices while protecting quality via long-term relationships with suppliers, balancing a 24/7 business with family life, and the deep gratitude they feel for guests who choose to spend their hard-earned money in a place that strives to make them feel seen, known, and validated.

Key Takeaways

Wil and Nicholas open by talking about “flowing like water” and how that mindset shows up in hospitality: staying adaptable, humble, and open. Nicholas traces his path from teaching skiing to unexpectedly building a career in enterprise software and QA with major pharma and tech companies, then starting a nonprofit, and finally helping open Feast Bistro in Bozeman. He describes the harsh reality of the first two years at Feast: the gap between fantasy and the P&L, mispriced menus, long hours, financial strain, and the grit required to survive COVID. What kept them afloat was humility, constant feedback from guests, and a deep belief that hospitality is about service, not ego.

Those struggles led him to create Check This Out, a simple SMS-driven retention and word-of-mouth platform built first for Feast. Traditional marketing (direct mail, email, social) felt like guesswork because he couldn’t track what actually drove revenue or distinguish new from returning guests. By counting every mailer and transcribing every comment card, he discovered that over 80% of guests came because someone they knew recommended Feast. That insight became the backbone of Check This Out: use SMS to bring guests back more often and amplify referrals with trackable, time-bound offers that clearly show who is driving traffic and sales. Throughout the episode, Nicholas emphasizes the same core ideas he’s lived by: hospitality as service, learning over knowing, capital-efficient building, and using simple tools that actually work.

10 Key Takeaways

In this lively Restaurant Owners Uncorked chat, Anesh Bodasing, founder of fast-casual Indian concept Tiffin Box, traces a 30-year hospitality journey that began with an audacious “give me 60 days” pitch to Hard Rock Café in Cape Town, winds through Canada, South Africa, the UK, and South Florida, and culminates in launching Tiffin Box in 2019 (right before COVID), surviving a bruising first year, testing a food hall, shutting the original West Palm store, and smartly pivoting to dense college-town sites (FSU/FAMU in Tallahassee, UF in Gainesville). Framing Tiffin Box as “Chipotle for Indian,” he shares lessons on branding, build-out nitty-gritty, cash-flow reality, and a service-first ethos (own the mistake, fix it fast, win loyalty), while aiming to “crack the code” for mainstreaming authentic, everyday Indian food and ultimately franchising.

Summary

Branden McRill, Detroit-raised restaurateur, operator, and Michelin-star winner, traces a career from dish pits to Alinea and stints with Danny Meyer, Jean-Georges, Alain Ducasse, Marcus Samuelsson, and more, before cofounding acclaimed NYC spots Pearl & Ash and Rebelle (earning a Michelin star within months). He then expanded to Philadelphia, while recently relocating home to Michigan. He shares a philosophy that rejects “balance” in favor of riding life’s waves, embracing calm and chaos, paired with risk tolerance and a bias for action. McRill argues hospitality pros are innate givers who deserve tools that free them to be present with guests; that’s the promise of 5-out, his forecasting and automation platform that continuously re-forecasts sales, labor, and product needs (and can close the loop on purchasing and prep), augmenting, not replacing, human judgment, especially on messy, human scheduling. He sees adoption accelerating as AI gets embedded in existing systems. 

Wil sits down with George and Amanda of Vicious Biscuit for a follow-up on their whirlwind year since they last joined Restaurant Owners Uncorked a year ago. Franchise growth, a disciplined “partners not franchisees” approach, and a tech stack that supports (but doesn’t replace) hospitality. They unpack a loyalty + first-party app launched Aug 12 that’s smashing acquisition/retention goals, clever perks (weekday free biscuit + jam bar), and a catering program tied to rewards. The brand pairs data with old-school site walks, rigorous training, and weekly franchise support to scale methodically amid real-estate, labor, distribution, and regulatory headwinds. The episode also celebrates how collaborative the hospitality industry is. and it's rising-tide ethos, with George and Amanda mentoring operator, and recent Restaurant Owners Uncorked podcast guest, Tyler Kotch,  over dinner

10 takeaways

Wil talks with Jeff Perera, founder of Jeff’s Bagel Run, to unpack a quintessentially scrappy entrepreneurial tale: laid off in 2019, Jeff stayed home with his kids while his wife returned to work, and, prompted by her longing for authentic New York-style bagels, he taught himself to bake from scratch in their kitchen, turning a novice’s sticky-fingered mishaps (including a rescue call to King Arthur Flour’s baker hotline) into a perfected recipe that evoked childhood nostalgia for his wife. What began as porch pick-ups and 20-mile deliveries for four bagels snowballed during the pandemic into home deliveries of 40 dozen a day, farmers-market lines that braved Florida rainstorms, and eventually a first leased storefront in July 2021; by 2025 the brand boasts 24 locations (6 corporate, 18 franchised), a laser-focused “bake fresh, bring joy, build community” ethos, and a franchise pipeline of 141 signed agreements—all while rejecting scalable shortcuts like frozen products or off-site baking to preserve the artisan, open-kitchen magic that turned a love story into a booming bagel empire.

10 Key Takeaways

Kristina Garrison, a Ukrainian-raised San Franciscan turned globetrotting mom of two, and her classically trained chef husband David Garrison have just soft-opened Grub Smokehouse in a coworking-space kitchen in Youngsville/Wake Forest, NC—their non-traditional barbecue haven born from a hole-in-the-wall California burger joint shut by COVID, four-and-a-half years of culinary inspiration across Europe and Israel, and a ChatGPT-assisted leap to the Tar Heel State with five suitcases and zero local ties. In week three of word-of-mouth operations, they’re smoking everything in-house (12-day-brined pastrami, scratch sauces, seasonal salads, daily sweet-potato cinnamon rolls) on a shoestring DIY buildout, balancing 14-hour grinds with yoga, cold plunges, and an industry discount while betting that perfect-bite flavor symphonies and organic influencer meals will turn curious locals into loyal regulars in a growing melting-pot market.

10 Key Takeaways

Dimitri Syros, a Greek-American former teacher and law school graduate, launched The Breakfast Company with his mother in Sarasota, Florida, in October 2020 amid the COVID pandemic, transforming her dream of a small coffee shop-bakery into a full-service breakfast-and-lunch concept that exploded from day one. The family leveraged their multi-generational restaurant heritage, including translating his late grandfather's recipe book, to fuel rapid growth to five locations with two more opening in June 2025. Facing soaring labor costs (tipped wages rising from $6 to $15/hour), inflation, hurricanes, and immigration impacts on supply chains, Syros emphasizes preserving soulful, community-driven service over fast-casual efficiency while experimenting with drive-thrus, standardized builds, and potential franchising to scale responsibly without losing family involvement or local intimacy. He credits early closure at 2 PM, above-market pay, promoting internal managing partners, and a strong support system for staff retention and personal balance in an industry he views as society's vital gathering place despite its relentless challenges and imposter syndrome.

Wil hosts Tyler Kotch, founder of PIE.ZAA (Asheville & Charlotte), for a candid chat about spotting late-night demand, building a hyper-focused high-margin pizza concept (five-item menu, 28" pies or 12" slices), surviving COVID, navigating a painful partner split, and scaling methodically toward franchising. Tyler shares lessons on location strategy, simplifying operations to reduce waste, ditching phones in favor of in-person/email and AI ordering, fixing third-party delivery headaches via Takeout Central, and the bigger mission: build a people-centric company, communicate face-to-face, and leave a legacy—possibly across 30–100 locations—using a mountains/city/beach testbed with the FDD in motion.

10 takeaways:

Simple wins: Five-item menu; whole 28" pies or 12" slices—less waste, faster training.

Late-night niche: PIE.ZAA launched to serve post-10pm demand; pizza delivers the margins.

Go big on product & packaging: 28" pies + distinctive black boxes = walking billboards.

Location is leverage: Foot traffic/tourism/density; first 60–90 days set the trajectory.

Market fit varies: Asheville skews to whole pies/families; Charlotte South End to slices/young pros.

Phone-free by design: No live phone lines; AI ordering + in-person/email encourage real communication.

Control the last mile: Shift to Takeout Central drivers reduced delivery damage/complaints.

Choose partners wisely: Misalignment is costly; Tyler rebuilt post-split in 2022.

Franchise runway: FDD/approval pending; “mountains/city/beach” proof points precede scale.

Culture over control: People-centric leadership, low micromanagement, purpose beyond money.

Wil sits down in-person with Tim McLaughlin, technologist-turned-operator who founded GoTab after opening two Caboose breweries and confronting real service-model pain (giant spaces, staffing constraints). Years before COVID, Tim taped QRs to tables and proved guests will change behavior to avoid pain (lines), which pushed GoTab to build not just ordering but a deep KDS and, later, a POS when closed ecosystems (e.g., API roadblocks) blocked integrations. Today GoTab focuses on operations over payments, hybrid service (QR + handheld + kiosk), open integrations, and white-glove 24/7 support, while running lean and profitable (not “growth at any cost”). With Opsie for inventory/costing, expansion in higher-labor markets like Australia, and an operator-first pricing philosophy (inspired by Costco’s cap idea), Tim argues tech should feel invisible, amplify hospitality, and never replace it.

10 Takeaways