When Adam Brotman joined Starbucks, the company didn’t even have free Wi-Fi. A few years later, he helped architect one of the most powerful digital ecosystems in restaurant history: the Starbucks app, Rewards program, and Mobile Order & Pay system that changed how every brand thinks about loyalty.

In this episode of Restaurant Reset, Adam breaks down how it all happened and what every operator can learn from it.

We cover:

• How Starbucks built the “digital flywheel” connecting loyalty, mobile, and in-store ops

• The five-year journey from idea to mass adoption

• The operational chaos (and magic) behind Mobile Order & Pay• How to earn cross-functional trust across tech, ops, and baristas

• The real value of guest data — and what happens when you don’t own it

• Why AI will make loyalty more personal, not less• How operators can use ChatGPT to analyze data and optimize decisions

• Why Adam believes AI is about to make hospitality more human

Adam also shares his playbook for evaluating new technology (from Web3 loyalty to AI-powered personalization) and the lessons he’s carried from Starbucks to J.Crew, Brightloom, and Forum3.

If you’ve ever wondered how digital transformation actually happens inside a restaurant brand, this is the episode to study.

Timestamps:

00:00 — Intro

01:30 — The moment Starbucks Rewards became a revenue engine

03:10 — Building the Starbucks “digital flywheel”

06:30 — Learning the business from ops before pitching innovation

11:40 — How long it really took to launch Mobile Order & Pay

16:50 — Balancing sexy tech with store-level practicality

24:00 — The unseen problems new tech creates

35:00 — Delivery apps and the cost of losing your data

43:00 — How operators should really use ChatGPT

45:00 — The next evolution of loyalty: personalization + community

50:00 — AI and the future of hospitality

53:00 — Adam’s top book recommendations

Most operators try to scale their restaurants by tightening systems or adding tech and somewhere along the way, they lose the soul that made guests fall in love in the first place.

Chef Jackson Kalb never made that trade.

From being fired at 26 and sleeping in his childhood bedroom to now running seven successful restaurants across Southern California, Jackson has built a hospitality group that scales without sacrificing humanity.

In this episode of Restaurant Reset, host Andy Grindstaff sits down with Jackson to unpack the lessons, systems, and failures behind his rise from rejection to resilience.

You’ll learn how to operationalize gut instinct, design systems that listen to guests, and build culture that embraces iteration instead of fearing it.

Episode Timestamps

00:00 — Introduction and why breakfast burritos still matter

01:30 — How a free burrito giveaway turned into a line around the block

04:30 — The secret to the perfect breakfast burrito (and why details matter more than hype)

06:00 — Balancing gut instinct and data when making big decisions

09:00 — The power of learning through mistakes: “Mistakes aren’t optional. They’re required.”

11:40 — Pivoting Jemma di Mare into Ospi Brentwood: how to evolve a concept without losing culture

15:50 — Getting fired at 26, hitting rock bottom, and the vow that started it all

20:30 — Raising $90K after 450 rejections and opening a 22-seat restaurant on $3K rent

28:40 — Why ignorance can be an advantage when starting out

34:30 — What competing on Top Chef without taste or smell taught Jackson about resilience

40:00 — The invisible systems that make or break profitability

44:20 — Scaling across cities: balancing standardization with local adaptability

47:30 — How to use guest feedback as your most valuable data source

48:00 — Why stoic philosophy powers Memento Mori Hospitality (“Remember you’ll die” really means “Remember you’re alive”)

50:00 — Closing thoughts and what’s next for Jackson and Memento Mori Hospitality

Listen to this episode on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube

And make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode.

How do you bring a legacy restaurant brand back to life?

Not with buzzwords. Not with gimmicks. But by giving people food they actually crave (and making sure your team can execute it flawlessly).

Chef Mike Gieseman has spent two decades building craveable, profitable menu items for brands like Qdoba, Quiznos, and Taco Del Mar. As VP of Culinary & Innovation for REGO Restaurant Group, he led Quiznos’ comeback—reviving an iconic brand through smart menu design, operational discipline, and an obsession with flavor.

In this episode of ‘Restaurant Reset,’ host Andy Grindstaff digs into:

• The playbook for brand turnarounds and why it starts in the kitchen, not marketing

• Why "approachability" beats novelty

• The LTO formula that makes franchisees love innovation (and drives higher margins)

• The story behind the Burnt Ends Sandwich and Bison Reuben that brought Quiznos back into the spotlight

• The truth about plant-based proteins and what's next for sustainable innovation

• Why outsourcing culinary is killing originality in restaurants• How to keep innovation craveable and operationally achievable

Mike’s approach blends chef creativity with business pragmatism: simplify the kitchen, respect your brand DNA, and make food that guests can’t stop talking about.

Chapters:

00:00 — The hidden world of culinary R&D

03:00 — Why testing too much can kill innovation

07:30 — The profitability formula behind LTOs

14:00 — How to innovate inside a turnaround brand

19:30 — Nostalgia vs. novelty: getting guests to try something new

24:30 — Overhyped trends (sorry, Nashville Hot Chicken)

29:00 — Why outsourcing culinary is killing creativity

36:00 — The future of plant-based proteins

40:30 — How to revive a tired brand without losing your identity

Under 25% turnover isn’t luck. It’s a proven system.

Nick Sarillo (Nick’s Pizza & Pub) breaks down how a carpenter’s mindset turned two suburban Chicago units into high‑throughput, low‑churn operations: a purpose the team actually uses on shift, training that certifies to a 1–5 standard (not “shadow me”), a visible ladder (Rookie → Pro → Expert) tied to pay, and an accountability test that fixes problems fast: Don’t care, Don’t know how, Can’t do it. We also cover his open‑book huddles, the email that drove a 110% sales surge in five weeks, and the hard lessons from closing a Chicago location. If you lead a team, this is a blueprint you can steal tomorrow.

If your “help wanted” budget is bigger than your training budget, you’re buying turnover. Nick shows the opposite approach—engineer the job, teach life skills, and make excellence objective. The result: sub‑25% annual turnover and a team of mostly first‑job teenagers who run a 9,000‑sq‑ft, high‑volume room with confidence.

What you’ll learn:

• Write a purpose your team can use on shift. Start with a collective subject (“Our dedicated family…”), present tense, and specifics your competitors can’t copy. Put it in orientation and training; certify people by having them write down where they lived it with a guest.
• Replace “shadow me” with standards. Use a 1–5 scoring sheet per role; certify only when a team member hits 4s. Excellence becomes evidence‑based, not opinion.
• Make the restaurant a school. Post the Rookie → Pro → Expert ladder (3 skills per rung) and tie pay to certifications so progress = paycheck.
• Decompose complex stations. At the host desk, Nick trains four roles: Greeter, Seater, Filler (350 seats, headset, live map), and Host Coordinator (the strategist).
• Diagnose mistakes in 60 seconds. Don’t care, cDon’t know how, Can’t do it. If you hire for values, it’s usually #2 or #3 → retrain or reassign.
• Open‑book rhythms that matter. Weekly 20‑min huddles on sales & cash‑flow projections (not just post‑mortems) so everyone sees the runway.
• Leading through a crunch. In 2011, road construction cratered sales ~60%. Nick leveled with his community; the email (his team’s idea) drove a ~110% sales bump over five weeks and kept the doors open.
• Knowing when to walk away. He closed a Chicago location after a year: rent too high, runway too short, over‑optimistic sales. Lesson—get a conservative real‑estate model and a team that pushes back on assumptions.
• Scaling culture before units. Bake purpose, values, training, and communication tools into onboarding so culture scales with you.

Chapters

• 00:00 — Why Nick: sub‑25% turnover in two busy units
• 01:16 — From carpenter to operator: design work that means something
• 08:08 — Purpose that runs a shift (“Our dedicated family…”) + how to teach it
• 10:58 — Onboarding & values: make culture a certifiable skill
• 12:39 — Coaching & feedback: loop, performance, direct (life skills)
• 14:47 — Training over recruiting: define A‑plus and teach to it
• 16:14 — Don’t care / Don’t know how / Can’t do it (accountability test)
• 20:04 — Host stand, decomposed: Greeter/Seater/Filler/Coordinator
• 24:17 — The ladder: Rookie → Pro → Expert (pay tied to skills)
• 33:44 — 2011 crunch: open‑book huddles + the 110% “save the shop” email
• 38:08 — Chicago closure: rent, runway, realism
• 41:20 — Scale culture before units: systems that survive growth
• 43:15 — Reading list: Built to Last, Resonant Leadership, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, The Fearless Organization, Good Jobs (discussed)