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 Otto Othman, Chief executive officer and Co-founder of PINCHO, a premium Latin street food concept. Othman was born and raised in Brazil and moved to the United States when he was sixteen. He was a software developer for years, then design and advertising. Prior to PINCHO he was a creative director for a large advertising agency. Othman says, “I'm a big computer...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout podcast, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and special guest host Sterling Douglass were on the road at MURTEC and spoke to Angela Diffly, Co-Founder of the Restaurant Technology Network, Carissa DeSantis, CTO of Brix Holdings, Frazer Nagy, CEO of Tablz, Geoff Alexander the President and CEO Wow Bao and Zerrick Pearson the CIO at Five Guys Enterprises. The discussion begins with Diffly the co-founder of RTN, Restaurant Technology Network, a mem...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Jacob Jaber, Co-Founder of Philz Coffee and Consumer Investor. In 1978 Phil Jaber purchased a convenience store and in his off hours, he blended and tested coffee, looking to make the perfect cup. Philz Coffee was born and has gone from starting from one store to seventy-five. Jaber says, “I love people, I've been in business since I was nine years old. I starte...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with James O'Reilly, Chief Executive Officer of Smokey Bones. O’Reilly has been in the restaurant industry for 25 years. Prior to joining Smokey Bones as CEO in 2019, he was President and CEO of Long John Silver’s. O’Reilly held leadership roles at other restaurant brands, including Sonic Drive-in, Pizza Hut, and KFC. “Our tagline is meat is what we do and what that...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Anton Nicholas, Managing Partner at ICR. ICR is an integrated communications firm. Nicholas says, “We do everything from public company investor and public relations to private company consumer public relations and brand public relations. We also do a ton in the transaction support world and crisis communications.” Nicholas is responsible for managing the firm’s...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Sterling Douglass, Co-Founder & CEO of Chowly. Douglass says “Chowly is a leading point-of-sale integration company. We're enabling restaurants to expand and maintain different off-premise capabilities. So you know today we're seamlessly integrating orders from all the biggest platforms. So, Grubhub Uber Eats, DoorDash, and when Google food ordering came out las...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Wade Alle, SVP and Chief Digital Officer for Brinker International for a special Super Bowl episode where they talk about kitchen automation and the importance of a back to the basics game plan on strategy. Brinker International a leader in casual dining restaurant companies whose brands include Chili’s Bar & Grill, Maggiano’s Little Italy as well as virtual bra...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Bo Davis, co-founder and chief executive officer of MarginEdge. Davis before founding MarginEdge was the founder of Wasabi, a group of conveyor belt sushi restaurants currently operating in DC and Boston. Before Wasabi, he was in the US Peace Corps serving in Macedonia, earned an MS in Finance from London Business School, and founded an educational software comp...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout podcast, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “ The Finance Guy” were live from the Restaurant Marketing Summit where they talked with Robert Guarino, partner at Chef Driven and Andrew Nash, chief executive officer of Targetable. Guarino is a New York City restaurateur that has been in the city managing and owning restaurants since 1996. Chef Driven is a multi-concept restaurant group with all of their locations in New York Ci...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout podcast, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “ The Finance Guy” were on the road at the ICR Conference 2023 in Orlando, Florida with guests Jim Balis, Managing Director, Capital Spring, Scott Lawton, CEO & CoFounder, Bartaco and Fred LeFranc, CEO, Results Thru Strategy. Balis leads CapitalSpring’s Strategic Operations Group. He stops by to talk with the guys at ICR to discuss what’s new at CapitalSpring. Balis shares the news...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Trevor Shimizu, co-founder and chief revenue officer of Brizo FoodMetrics. It is a data and analytics provider for the foodservice industry, analyzing 1.3 million eating and drinking establishments in Canada and the United States. Shimizu played professional ball for a few years before getting into technology. Frischling repeats one of his favorite podcast topic...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Tablz chief executive officer, Frazer Nagy. Tablz is an immersive 3D booking experience that is redefining the future of dining by enabling diners to select and to the table of their choice. Nagy talks about getting started in the restaurant industry, he says, “I think like a lot of successful founders and a lot of people in our space that make this jump, it's b...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Dave Harris, chief information officer as well as chief technology officer at Shake Shack about how technology can enable and enhance the guest experience. Harris has been with Shake Shack for four years and has led technology teams across companies in retail, hospitality and consumer packaged goods. Some companies include Virgin Atlantic, Avis, JetBlue, Yankee ...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Nick Stone, Founder and chief executive officer and Amy Hom, chief operating officer and chief people officer from Bluestone Lane. Stone talks about Bluestone, an Australian-inspired coffee shop, cafés & lifestyle brand committed to providing a genuine daily escape for all our locals. They offer premium coffee and healthy and delicious food through an ‘Aussie’ a...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with R.J. Melman, President of Lettuce Entertain You, a fifty-one year old restaurant group that is privately held with over one hundred and twenty restaurants across the country in thirteen different states. It is based out of Chicago, Illinois. Melman’s dad, Rich Melman started the company back in 1971 when he opened a restaurant with his best friend Jerry Orzoff. ...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Aaron Noveshen, Founder and CEO of Starbird and Founder and Chairman of The Culinary Edge. The Culinary Edge is a food and beverage innovation firm that was started by Noveshen over twenty years ago and Starbird is a fast-casual chicken chain that their team created after identifying chicken was about to grow significantly. The guys talk to Noveshen about the s...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout podcast, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “ The Finance Guy” were on the road at the Restaurant, Finance and Development Conference in Las Vegas with guests Andrew Smith, Managing Director of Savory Fund, Andy Wiederhorn, Chief Executive Officer of Fat Brands and Tim McLaughlin, Chief Executive Officer of GoTab. Smith is Managing Partner of Savory Management, a Mercato Partners value-add management company, that focuses on...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Carin Stutz, president and chief executive officer at Native Foods. Stutz has been in the industry for five decades and worked with brands such as Red Robin, Wendy’s, Cosi, Applebee’s and more. Stutz said looking back at her career and her early start at McDonald’s, she loved being in the restaurant business. Native Foods, the plant-based fast-casual brand launc...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy”chat with André Vener, partner and co-founder of Dog Haus. Dog Haus is known for its signature all beef Haus Dogs and handcrafted proprietary Haus Sausages, as well as its 100% genetically tested, humanely raised, hormone- and antibiotic-free Black Angus beef from Creekstone Farms. The founding partners are three friends who share a passion for creativity, quality and comm...

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Mani Kulasooriya, Co-Founder & CEO of Cut+Dry plus the guys introduce a new segment, Trivia Tuesday and share a fun trivia question about their guest at the end of the show. Cut+Dry is an all-in-one commerce enablement platform for foodservice distributors. It was created to provide distributors, their customers, and their suppliers with a single digital platfor...

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 el...

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...

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 tave...

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 incu...