Rock My Restaurant

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Rajat Bhakhri CEO and Co-Founder of Boston-based Incentivio, Inc.

Incentivio is a fully automated intelligence-driven guest engagement platform for restaurants and virtual kitchens that increases retention, maximizes revenue and enhances the guest experience for both first-time visitors & loyalists.

Bhakhri is a graduate of Purdue University with a degree in electrical engineering. He delivered pizza for a short period of time until his first job as a software engineer. Bhakhri moved to Boston and worked for a startup. He then started Aeturnum, a technology services company with 250+ engineers and offices in the U.S. and Asia focused on building platforms for startups in the U.S. and Europe.

“We should build a single stack solution where we can capture all the guest data,” says Bhakhri . He adds, to help increase check sizes and help restaurants retain guests. The idea was how to democratize tech for all of their customers.

Frischling says, I love that you use the democratization of. I think that’s really important and I think long time listers of the podcast know the 2/3 of the restaurants in this country are small to midsize businesses, they are mom and pop, there’s a lot out there for the big boys and God bless, we love the big boys, we respect the big boys but I do love what Incentivio is doing for everyone else or almost 2/3 of the market.

They talk about Incentivio and Uber joining forces to offer restaurants first party ordering and commission free delivery. Uber will provide delivery drivers to restaurants using Incentivio’s order-ahead solutions. Restaurant guests can order delivery directly from a restaurant’s website or mobile app, and the Incentivio platform dispatches an Uber driver for the delivery.

To hear about Incentivio’s artificial intelligence product and more, check out this episode of Hospitality Hangout.

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and special host, Rev “The Marketing Guy” bring you this episode on the road from the Fast Casual Executive Summit in Indianapolis. They chat with Kathy Doyle, President and Publisher at Networld Media Group, Jim Bitticks, President and COO at Dave's Hot Chicken, Zack Oates, Founder and CEO at Ovation and André Vener, Partner at Dog Haus.

Kathy Doyle stops by to talk about the Fast Casual Executive Summit that is now in its seventeenth year. When they started this model it was about bringing fun networking and learning together to the industry. Doyle says, “I mean I don't care what you do for a living no matter how much you love it. Some days are longer than others. So when you can throw some fun in there and people are having a good time, a lot of things get done and deals get done and people learn and they move forward when they're on the road.” She adds, "so that's the real mission of the Fast Casual Executive Summit.”

Dave’s Hot Chicken president and chief operating officer, Jim Bitticks stops by to talk about the brand and its start. He says, “Dave's Hot Chicken is a concept that started in a parking lot just five and a half years ago with three guys, nine hundred dollars, an igloo ice chest, an E-Z Up and a portable frier.” Bitticks adds, “They got strategically lucky that a Farley Elliot, a blogger from Eater LA came in on the third day and loved it, posted a blog article on it. The next day they were wrapped around the block and it never stopped.” Dave’s Hot Chicken has 84 locations today.

Oates, the founder and CEO of Ovation, stops by to chat about the show and The Perfect Pitch, which was a global contest like Shark Tank for fast casual brands. Oates said the winner was Flake Pie, out of Utah. When asked why Oates comes back to Fast Casual Executive Summit each year he says, “This is such a good place to not just meet people but reconnect with people and this is something that's really fun, as I was looking through the agenda last night it's like every single panel has an Ovation customer on it. Which is really cool to see because when we came here two years ago we did not have a single customer that was here.”

André Vener, Partner at Dog Haus shares what to expect in his session, he says they will be talking about ghost kitchens and what is going on in that space including Dog Haus’ Kroger partnership they have with Kitchen United. They talk about it being a unique opportunity in a grocery store. Dog Haus was created by three friends in 2010 with a passion for hot dogs. Vener says they have about 75 locations, in 20 states.

To hear the branded quickfire with the guests, technology that Dave’s Hot Chicken has added and more check out this episode Hospitality Hangout.

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael0Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “ The Finance Guy” chat with Jeff Handler, chief executive officer and President at Hopdoddy Burger Bar & HiBar Hospitality Group.

Handler grew up in the business, he has been in the industry for more than thirty years. He shared, “My dad was a tavern owner and growing up, if I wanted to spend time with my dad that meant kind of sometimes early mornings and weekends hanging out at the tavern picking quarters out of booth seats and cleaning the grill and cleaning beer lines and emptying pool tables.” Handler joined Hopdoddy Burger Bar in 2016 as CEO and in 2021 he was also named CEO of HiBar Hospitality, a growth-focused umbrella company owned by L Catterton that in 2022 completed its first acquisition, Grub Burger Bar.

The guys ask Handler about Hopdoddy and he says, “I don't care what you call us as long as you call us the best burger place you've ever been to.” He adds, “That's what we aspire to do. Hopdoddy plays in the better burger space. We look to be disruptive and really rethinking, reshaping kind of what a better burger joint looks like and acts like.” Hopdoddy is based out of Austin, Texas and currently has 50 locations really from coast to coast.

Handler talks about what differentiates Hopdoddy and says, “So what makes Hopdoddy different I think it's that we really are open minded to what a burger is. Most people just think it's a bun and meat and some toppings and we look at it as a vessel for flavors. Anything that we can grind, grill, we're going to make a burger out of it and so we've done some pretty cool creative things with different proteins.”

Off-premise is a focus topic on this show and Handler shares his tips and some recommendations for operators that may still be struggling since the pandemic. Handler said, what they learned quickly was they could be profitable, they could take care of the guests and they could take care of the team members by getting them back to work. Hopdoddy’s off-premise business was about 12% and post-pandemic is now at 40%.

To hear about the founders of Hopdoddy and how Hopdoddy’s tackled engineering the food for takeout plus experience, check out this episode of Hospitality Hangout.

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “ The Finance Guy” bring you this episode from FSTEC. They chat with Daran Han, Cargill Digital Business Studio Lead, Stacey Hey, Digital Product Owner of Kitchen Blueprint, Jessica Stanchfield, Digital Product Owner of Hot Take and Nate Shrader, Digital Product Owner of Chekt.

Cargill Digital Business Studios is a startup studio backed by Cargill investment and expertise, designed to incubate and scale digital businesses within Cargill that address the most urgent problems facing our global food and agriculture system, now and into the future. Han says, “over the last couple decades we've really kind of doubled down around investing in new solutions and integrating the way that we bring our entire offerings to our customers.” He added, “so we're kind of found on the history of entrepreneurship over the last 165 years as we think about what's ahead for us and we look at the environment that we serve and agri-food everything we're seeing is a digital disruption starting to come in and impact the environment that we operate in and as Cargill we're investing in a digital business studio.” Han explains that it is a place where they incubate and build new businesses from the ground up, meshing the capabilities, expertise and the resources at Cargill, doing good work to impact the environment.

Stacey Hey, the digital product owner of Kitchen Blueprint stops by to talk with the guys. Kitchen Blueprint creates transparency with data and insights to show where costs are going, where loss is happening and how processes can be more efficient across the back-of-house. Hey says that, “there's a whole host of new opportunities that come to bear whether that be optimization of profits. Whether that be reduction of labor reliance. Whether that be whole new opportunities to automate areas of the restaurant they otherwise would not have gone or would have gone undiscovered so that's really the heart of what we focused on.”

Digital product owner, Jessica Stanchfield of Hot Take, the food-focused research platform that connects businesses to their customers stops by to chat with the guys. Stanchfield says that Hot Take is an innovation and insights platform. They bring the consumer voice and insights into the innovation process and that they are critical to making better business decisions.

Checkt’s digital product owner Nate Shrader stops by to talk about Chekt, a contactless food pickup system designed to meet the demands of high-volume foodservice environments. Shrader says, “it's a modular smart food locker solution designed to transform take out and pick up for restaurants and really anyone who is a really high congested food service provider. So stadiums, colleges, and universities as well.”

To hear customer stories from each of the guests plus the quickfire questions from Texas, check out this episode Hospitality Hangout.

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout podcast, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “ The Finance Guy” were on the road and with a special edition live from FSTEC in Dallas.

Andy Freivogel is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Science On Call. He has over twenty-five years experience in both technology and retail. He also spent years creating specialized data networks and systems for end-user support in the residential digital services arena. Freivogel stops by to talk to the guys about the show, Innovation Alley and Science On Call, a tech support platform for restaurants. Freivogel says that the theme of the show is optimism and enthusiasm, people are happy to be back.

CEO of Copia, Kimberly Smith stops by and chats with the guys. Copia’s technology allows businesses to safely donate their excess food to nonprofits and access tax deductions. Copia is helping the industry track food waste. Smith shares that Copia has just closed a Pre-Series A with Branded Strategic. Smith says from an operation standpoint they are continuing to grow. She adds that operators that are not focusing on solutions to donate their waste are missing out on tax benefits.

Stephanie Sollers, CEO at Virtual Dining Concepts, stops by and talks about the new brick-and-mortar launch of MrBeast Burger. Virtual Dining Concepts creates large virtual brands with celebrities, media companies and influencers, helping them expand their businesses into the food category. Sollers says the ethos of the company is to bring these concepts into restaurants and kitchens that have extra capacity.

Chris Keating, EVP at Winsight comes by to talk about this year's FSTEC. The show had over 700 operators. They talk about the panel CEO’s in the hot seat, and Keating says that chief executive officers are technology professionals now.

To hear more from all of the guests that stopped by to chat with Schatzberg and Frischling at FSTEC, check out this episode Hospitality Hangout.

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “ The Finance Guy” chat with Jay Fiske, President of Powerhouse Dynamics, a Middleby Company while in Dallas at the FSTEC Conference.

As president Fiske is responsible for leading all strategic and day-to-day company operations. He is a technology executive and investor with over twenty years of experience building businesses and innovative technology products to market.

Fiske says, “Powerhouse Dynamics, we are a Boston based technology firm and we are the folks behind the open kitchen internet of things platform. We help large multi-site restaurant operators manage their critical infrastructure more efficiently, save money on energy, reduce risk on food safety, help make sure all their cooking equipment is up and running and producing high- quality products.” He adds, “So think about this as the internet of things. The critical back of house infrastructure and you know driving those kinds of efficiency that this visibility and control and connectability suddenly affords these multi-site operators.” Restaurants can use Open Kitchen to connect, analyze, and control equipment like refrigeration, HVAC as well as a large range of kitchen equipment brands to automate essential facility functions.

The guys ask Fiske, “can you share with our listeners about what Open Kitchen is doing to help operators maintain their equipment before they even break and have issues? And the importance of what we're learning from you is the smart kitchen.” Fiske says as Open Kitchen integrates with different types of equipment and makes and models, the business case for connectivity really varies by the kind of equipment. There is a common theme across all equipment for uptime and maintenance. Fiske says Open Kitchen can give operators insights to the data and all you to be proactive on prioritizing any issues.

Schatzberg makes a point and says that what he really loves about Open Kitchen is that it can integrate with equipment from many manufactures, not just Middleby. Fiske says that when operators are integrating with Open Kitchen that their data can not be shared with anyone else.

Frischling talks about how data is a hot topic and asks Fiske, “Can you share the role that the Internet-of-Things (IoT) generated data is playing with Powerhouse Dynamics Open Kitchen and how is it helping everyone?” Fiske says that they provide the infrastructure to get all the raw data to the cloud and it is creating the business tools around the data for effective outcomes.

To hear about the foodservice feud plus Frischling and Schatzberg answer to the talking back question, where they see automation going in foodservice, check out this episode of Hospitality Hangout.

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “ The Finance Guy” chat with Robert Irvine, world-class chef, fitness authority, philanthropist and restaurateur. Irvine has appeared or hosted in several shows on television, including Food Network’s Worst Cooks in America, Next Iron Chef, Restaurant Express, Chopped: Impossible, Guy’s Grocery Games: Impossible, A Hero’s Welcome, Food Network Star, ABC’s Body of Proof, ABC Family’s Melissa and Joey plus more. Irvine is known for his support for our nation’s military and believes that his success would not be possible without the men and women that so bravely defend our freedoms.

Frischling asks Irvine to share how he got started in food and he says, “so basically eleven years old I started to cook in home economics class at school because there were thirty girls and me and I thought what a great way to get a girlfriend.” He adds, “I made my first Quiche Lorraine, I took it home and realized that pastry, egg, a little bacon, onion, some garlic and cheese made a meal that somebody would be really happy.” Irvine at fifteen years old said he joined the military. When Irvine was nine years old he said he had become a sailor, now he cooks. He says, “food to me is the ultimate passion job, a lifestyle, whatever you want to call it because it affects so many other people.”

Irvine for many years was involved with the Gary Sinise foundation. Schatzberg asks Irvine about the Robert Irvine Foundation which Irvine founded in 2014 to support the veterans and veteran causes that need the most help. Irvine says,” I wanted my focus to be so strategic on food fitness, mental fitness and physical fitness. So pretty much everything to do with physical and mental health. He says about the foundation “that there's just a whole bunch of things that we do but mainly to give freedom back to those that have lost it.”

Irvine talks about not being a fan of virtual kitchens but after a meeting with Robert Earl of Virtual Dining Concepts, he has converted. Virtual Dining Concepts and Irvine teamed up to create Robert Irvine’s American Heroes, a virtual sandwich brand that will have a direct impact on supporting our nation’s military heroes.

The guys ask Irvine about Irvine Spirits in partnership with Boardroom Spirits, creators of handcrafted vodka, rum, whiskey, and more. He talks about hand picking the botanicals himself for Irvine Spirits.

To hear more about Irvine’s many successful businesses, his dedication and passion for supporting the military and his FitCrunch Campaign, check out this episode of Hospitality Hangout.

This month on Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” are taking a break from their usual interview episodes and bringing you a Best Of season of all your favorite segments. They bring back “Best Of” old favorites such as “Which Came First” and “The Crystal Ball Moment.”

In this episode they feature a Best Of Who Would You Beat Quickfire question with special guest and Co Founder & CEO at Chowly, Inc., Sterling Douglass. Schatzberg and Frischling would ask each guest who they would choose to have better odds of beating in a selected game. Frischling says, “It is by far the funniest question, and one where I will say, I hold the record as the stronger competitor over Schatzy. We’ve had funny answers throughout the season such as Schatzy being compared to a skinny can of shaken soda waiting to pop.”

Schatzberg asks Douglass, “If you were to challenge Jimmy or I to a game of Paintball, who do you have the better odds of beating?” Douglass answers definitely Jimmy.

You can check out the best of episode to hear Steven Simoni who at the time was the chief executive officer at Bbot choose who he would have the better odds in beating at Scrabble. Michael Jacober, CEO of Blanket gets asked about Clue, Clockedin’s chief executive officer, Eric Smith’s question was a round of bowling. Smith sounds like he was going to choose Frischling but picks Schatzberg.

To hear all of the best of who would you beat answers to the questions they asked CEO of Ingest, Daniel Meth’s challenge response to Slip N’ Slide, Targetable, CEO, Andrew Nash pick his odds for Gin Rummy, Minnow’s CEO, Steven Sperry’s choice for Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, who Mighty Quinn Barbeque’s co-ceo, Micha Magid picks for Pin The Tail On The Donkey, Josh Goodman, chief executive office of PourMyBeer answer for thumb war and Dispatch Goods CEO Lindsey Hoell gets asked who she has better odds of beating at Yahtzee. Ivan Matkovic, CEO of Spendgo gets asked who he would have better odds of beating in a game of risk. Matkovic picks Schatzberg.

Tune in to hear the challenges and learn who Scott Siegel, chief executive officer from Curbit, Clayton Wood, CEO of Picnic, Rob Carpenter of Valyant AI, Kimberly Smith, chief executive officer of Copia, Taj Adhav CEO of Leascake, Zack Oates, Ovation CEO, Brandon Barton, CEO of Bite, Gary Goodman CEO of Yumpingo and Agot.AI CEO, Evan DeSantola on this best of episode on Hospitality Hangout.

This month on Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” are taking a break from their usual interview episodes and bringing you a Best Of season of all your favorite segments. They bring back “Best Of” old favorites such as “Top of the Tech Stack” and “Which Came First.”

In this episode they feature a Best Of Top Of The Tech Stack with special guest, Sterling Douglass, Co Founder & CEO at Chowly, Inc. Top of the Tech Stack first made an appearance in season 2 and held up strong through season 6. Branded is all about the tech stack, each guest who played “Top of the Tech Stack” was asked, what areas of hospitality technology would they recommend that operators have on the top of their tech stacks?

This month on Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” are taking a break from their usual interview episodes and bringing you a Best Of season of all your favorite segments. They bring back “Best Of” old favorites such as “Best of On The Road” and “Top of the Tech Stack.”

In this episode they feature a Best Of Which Came First with special guest and Co Founder & CEO at Chowly, Inc., Sterling Douglass. Frischling says, “the idea for this segment came about over a common joke that the only other industry slower to embrace technology behind hospitality is coal mining. This got them thinking, is hospitality that far behind or actually ahead of the game? Each guest on Season 6 got to take their very best guess on whether hospitality was ahead of the game, or not, in a string of fun questions.

Here are a few of the Best of Questions:

Which came first, the first online pizza hut delivery order or the first online amazon order?
Which came first, the digital menu board or the first digital billboard?
Which came first, the restaurant drive-thru or the bank drive-thru?
Which came first, the automated baggage claim at airports or the supermarket conveyor belt checkout lane?
Which came first, the ability to make a restaurant reservation online or the ability to make an airline reservation online?
Which came first, the car wash or the dishwasher?


The first question went to Evan DeSantola, CEO of Agot. Which came first, the restaurant drive-thru or the bank drive-thru? The answer is the bank drive-thru. Schatzberg says the first drive-thru in America was Hillcrest State Bank out of Dallas, Texas in 1930. It was Harry and Esther Snyder, of the In-N-Out Burger chain that built the first drive-through restaurant in 1948. Fun fact, so In-N-Out because the restaurant name promised exactly what it delivered: In-N-Out.

The guys close out the Which Came First episode with Robert Earl, Co-founder of Virtual Dining Concepts and Chairman of Earl Enterprises. Earl’s question was which came first, the clothing iron or the waffle iron? The answer is the waffle iron. The waffle iron was created in 1869, by Cornelius Swartwout of Troy, N.Y. The Clothing Iron was not invented for another 13 years when Henry W. Seely patented his electric flatiron on June 6, 1882.

To hear the questions they asked Lindsey Hoell, Founder & CEO of Dispatch Goods, Alonso Castañeda, VP of Brand Development & Strategy at Savory Restaurant Fund, Scott Siegel Co-Founder & CEO of Curbit, Tim McLaughlin, CEO of GoTab, Jon Sherman, Co-Founder and CEO of Sticky’s Finger Joint, John DiLoreto, President of Flipdish US, Danny Klein, Editorial Director at Food News Media, Scott Gladstone, SVP Strategy & Innovation at Dine Brands and Kimberly Smith, CEO of Copia , check out this best of episode on Hospitality Hangout.