Browse every Hospitality Hangout episode featuring conversations with restaurant executives, hospitality innovators, and emerging industry leaders.

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chat with Stratis Morfogen, Book Author and Co-Founder of Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, to discuss Dons, dumplings, and disruption. Frischling asks Morfogen about his background in the industry. Morfogen shares that although he has owned Chinese restaurants for the last 17 years he actually grew up in a typical Greek family. He talks about his family of restauranteurs running...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chat with Buck Jordan, Founder and CEO of Wavemaker Labs, to discuss his early fascination with automation, scaling brands through robotics, and why he thinks franchising is dead. Frischling asks Jordan to share a little about his background and Wavemaker Labs. Jordan talks about first being exposed to automation 20 years ago, when he was an armor officer going through ...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chat with John Davie, CEO and Owner of The Buyers Edge Platform, to discuss his mission to help local restaurants, the importance of clean data, and how he is leveraging tech to help the environment. Frischling asks Davie about his background. Davie shares that he has spent his entire career helping small, independent, local, mom-and-pop restaurants, get some of the sam...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chat with Tom Gordon, President and CEO of Slim Chickens Restaurants, to discuss, launching a fast-casual chicken concept, robotics, and why technology is key to survival. Gordon talks about the early days of his career. He shares that after college, armed with a finance and real estate degree, he was on the stockbroker track, but he quickly learned that he loathed the ...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chat with Gary Goodman, CEO and Founder of Yumpingo, to discuss his early fascination with the industry, the necessity for customer feedback and the importance of creating a healthy company culture. Goodman and the guys chat about Goodman’s background. Goodman shares that he was born in Manchester, England, where he would go to restaurants with his family as a child. He...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chat with Meredith Sandland and Carl Orsbourn, Authors of Delivering the Digital Restaurant: Your Roadmap to the Future of Food, to discuss their new book, ghost kitchens and how to win at off-premise. Sandland talks about her background in the industry. She shares that she has spent over 10 years in the space, initially at Taco Bell, where she worked on brand turnaroun...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chat with David Bloom, Chief Development and Operating Officer at Capriotti’s and Wing Zone, to discuss his passion for the industry, strategies for scaling brands and the adoption of technology. Bloom and the guys chat about Bloom’s background in the industry. He talks about his humble beginnings growing up in New York and how restaurant life is a family affair. Bloom ...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout podcast, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “ The Finance Guy” chat with Daniel Meth, chief executive officer at Ingest and take a deep dive into restaurant data. Meth talks about his education saying, “I wanted to be a doctor and so I went to college a little bit later in life double majored in molecular biology biochemistry and cell biology neuroscience. Not because I was so smart but I found out that if you double major i...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “ The Finance Guy” were on the road and live at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago, where they chat with Dan Rowe, CEO of Fransmart, about the show, the benefits of multi-unit franchises, and the importance of landscape when considering new brands. Fransmart CEO, Dan Rowe and the guys chat about how Rowe got started in the industry. He talks about deciding as a teenager th...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chat with Bryan Solar, Restaurants GM at Square, to discuss his unique journey into the industry, the rebranding of Square, and the importance of POS innovations. When asked about his start in the industry, Solar talks about his background and coming from a family of restaurateurs. He tells the guys about his journey to working at a strategy consulting firm that helped ...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” were on the road and live at Food On Demand in Las Vegas, where they chat with Laura Michaels, Editor in Chief at Franchise Times, Alyssa Abraham, Digital Innovation Manager at Cargill, April Rogers, Director of Off-Premise and Guest Relations at Ruby Tuesday, and Maia Tekle, Co-Founder of Dispatch Goods about the conference, strategies for increasing off-premises efficien...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chat with Tony Smith, CEO and Co-Founder of Restaurant365, to discuss rising food costs, labor shortages and how his company is using technology to combat both of those challenges within the industry. Smith co-founded Restaurant365 over ten years ago and works with over thirty thousand businesses. The restaurant management software developed by Restaurant365 allows oper...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chat with Robert Earl, Co-Founder of Virtual Dining Concepts and Chairman of Earl Enterprises, to discuss virtual brands, how influencers bring value to operators, and the company’s latest concept. Earl talks about growing up in the United Kingdom and how being the son of a very famous singer exposed him early on to show business, talent and brands. Earl jokes that he w...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chat with Kimberly Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Copia, to discuss food insecurity, how restaurants can track food waste and what Copia is doing to help the industry reduce carbon emissions. Smith talks about her background in the advertising tech industry and having nearly 20 years of experience in data and analytics. She shares that becoming a parent gave her a ne...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “ The Finance Guy” were on the road at the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit in Nashville. Schatzberg and Frischling chat with Laura Rea Dickey, CEO of Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants, Inc., Josh Goodman, Founder & CEO, of PourMyBeer, Cherryh Cansler, Editor of FastCasual.com and VP of Events at Networld Media Group, and Josh Halpern, CEO at Big Chicken, about the summit and latest i...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chat with Scott Gladstone, SVP of Strategy and Innovation at Dine Brands, to discuss the state of the industry, virtual brands, and how new technologies and innovations are going to drive sales moving forward. Gladstone talks about the state of the industry and shares that consumers are returning to Dine Brands restaurants in record numbers. In addition to consumers din...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Danny Klein, Editorial Director at Food News Media, about his unique leap into the industry and the debate regarding pizza and tech. Klein shares why Food News Media offers free magazine subscriptions to industry professionals. He talks about the outlet covering both QSR and FSR segments. Klein says the company’s day one goal was to help operators run their rest...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” and Sterling Douglass “The Technology Guy”, were on the road and live at MURTEC Las Vegas, where they chat with Michael "MJ" Jacober, Founder / CEO at Blanket, about the show, participating in Start-Up Alley and restaurant-technology being highlighted at MURTEC. Blanket Founder and CEO, Michael “MJ” Jacober stops by for his second time on the podcast to discuss Blanket’s mission to help multi-unit operations and fr...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Jimmy Frischling “ The Finance Guy” and Sterling Douglass “The Technology Guy”, were on the road and live at MURTEC Las Vegas, where they chat with Phil Crawford, Chief Technology Officer at CKE Restaurants, Inc., Tom Seeker, Chief Information Officer at Earl Enterprises and Astrid Isaacs, Chief Technology Officer at Bloomin’ Brands Inc., about the show and restaurant-technology being highlighted at MURTEC. Crawford stops by for his second time on t...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chat with John DiLoreto, president and general manager North America at Flipdish about digitally connecting restaurants to their customers. DiLoreto leads the business for North America at Flipdish. It is a digital technology company focused on the hospitality industry. DiLoreto says, “Specifically what we focus on at Flipdish is what we call the digital consumer experi...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chats with Jon Sherman, chief executive officer and co-founder at Sticky's Finger Joint about becoming an entrepreneur, developing a new brand, and the lessons learned. Sticky’s Finger Joint was founded in New York City ten years ago in 2012. Sherman says Sticky's makes boneless, fried and grilled chicken and it is paired with eighteen different dipping sauces with diff...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chats with Alonso Castañeda, vice president of brand development and strategy at Savory Restaurant Fund about finding emerging concepts and helping to develop the brand for fast growth. Castañeda says “the Savory Restaurant Fund is a fund that works and identifies brands in their infancy stage and when I say infancy I don't mean that the brand is brand new. They could b...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chat with Tim McLaughlin, co-founder chief executive officer of GoTab, Inc., about technology that can optimize daily operations, while improving communication between restaurant operators and their guests. McLaughlin talks about his background, he says he has been developing software since he was young and then he went to school for mechanical engineering. McLaughlin s...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy'' and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy'' chat with Nabeel Alamgir, chief executive officer and co-founder of Lunchbox about the current state of delivery and what the future will look like for restaurants. Alamgir who is on the 2021 Forbes list 30 under 30, is the co-founder of the digital ordering and marketing platform Lunchbox. The operating system for managing a restaurant's entire digital experience. Alam...