The first stuffed bagel was born on New Year’s Eve 2021. From leftover pizza sauce. 🍕🥯 Jeremy was making pizza for dinner and bagels for brunch the next morning. Too much sauce, one wild idea: stuff the pizza inside the bagel. The first one burst open like a calzone. Every…
What if every restaurant in America raised just $130? Billy Shore explains Restaurant Week for Kids, launching April 18–24, 2027, with the goal of bringing restaurants together to support No Kid Hungry. Chipotle and Tropical Smoothie Cafe are already part of the effort, with restaurants able to use customer round-ups,…
Pumpkin spice all year? Nick Wiseman of Little Sesame wants no part of it. He plays Hot or Not with pickle-flavored soda and ice cream, hot honey, truffle everything, chili crisp, and nostalgic childhood flavors. Pickles may still be hot, hot honey survives, and nostalgia always wins. #HospitalityHangout #LittleSesame #PumpkinSpice…
Before Chris Tomasso became CEO of First Watch, one of his early restaurant jobs nearly took his eyebrows. Working at his uncle’s pizza restaurant, Chris leaned too close to the oven and came out missing both eyebrows. From pizza-oven disasters to leading First Watch, every restaurant career has to start…
Some people bring wine to the Hamptons. Jeremy brought bagel dough. 🥯 Ten friends, one house, and fresh bagels every morning. He’d roll them the night before, proof them overnight, and bake them for everyone at breakfast. His party trick turned into Moonrise Bagels.
If it has a bun, is it still a sandwich? Billy Shore of No Kid Hungry says hot dogs are hot dogs, hamburgers are hamburgers, and tuna on rye is a real sandwich. Then someone brings up chicken on a burger bun and the whole sandwich rule starts falling apart.…
Little Sesame x Fishwife? Nick Wiseman says Fishwife is his dream brand collaboration. He also picks Instagram over TikTok, admits to a 4.71 Uber rating, and keeps his bagel classic with cream cheese, whitefish salad, smoked salmon, tomato, red onion, capers and dill. #HospitalityHangout #LittleSesame #Fishwife #NickWiseman
First Watch employees can be home by 4:30. CEO Chris Tomasso says the daytime-only schedule is a big reason First Watch sees strong tenure and low turnover. No dinner shift, more time with family, and a restaurant brand that is still growing and hiring. #HospitalityHangout #FirstWatch #ChrisTomasso #RestaurantJobs
Ketchup on a bacon, egg and cheese almost ended a marriage. 🥯🍅 We played Hot or Not with the co-founders of Moonrise Bagels, and things got heated. Pickles on everything? GLP-1s? Influencer marketing? Breakfast for dinner, which apparently brought them together? ❤️ Your turn. 🔥 or 🧊 👇 🍅 Ketchup…
ChatGPT vs. Claude? Billy Shore has a system. The No Kid Hungry founder asks ChatGPT a question, pastes the answer into Claude, and asks Claude what it thinks. Then he picks whichever answer he likes better. Gemini? Sitting this round out. And yes, even vacation ideas for Tuscany or the…
That hummus in your Sweetgreen bowl? It might be Little Sesame. Co-founder Nick Wiseman says Little Sesame has grown to around 4,000 stores, including Whole Foods and Sprouts, while also supplying hummus to Sweetgreen. You may already be eating the brand without realizing it. #HospitalityHangout #LittleSesame #Sweetgreen #Hummus
Hard Rock once ran a Times Square ad listing its “fried items”: onion rings, chicken tenders… and Keith Richards. Chris Tomasso tells the story of how the Rolling Stones legend spotted the joke on a New York cab, sent Hard Rock a letter, and somehow turned a cheeky campaign into…
What if your daily supplement tasted like chocolate? Charlotte Cruze, co-founder of Alice Mushrooms, joins Hospitality Hangout’s Foodfluencers series to talk about building a functional mushroom brand that sits somewhere between wellness, food, beauty and indulgence. Before Alice, Charlotte spent years in media and branded content before earning a master’s…
The greatest inventions of all time: the car, the fax machine, and the stuffed bagel. Not necessarily in that order. 🥯 We went on a Flavor Safari to Moonrise Bagels and tried the stuffed bagels with every in-house sauce. I’m mooning it, people. 🌙 Pick your dip 👇 🌿 Herbaceous…
Protein coffee is going mainstream. Gregorys Coffee founder Greg Zamfotis explains how the brand moved beyond protein smoothies into protein cold foam and other drinks — and why it switched from plant-based pea protein to whey for a smoother mix with milk. #HospitalityHangout #GregorysCoffee #ProteinCoffee #ColdFoam
First Watch had about 55 restaurants when Chris Tomasso joined the brand. After stops at Hard Rock Cafe and Cracker Barrel, Tomasso joined First Watch as CMO and eventually became President and CEO as the breakfast brand expanded into hundreds of restaurants across the country. Today, First Watch is still…
The only stuffed bagel in the world is on West 8th Street! We took The Flavor Safari to Moonrise Bagels. Subscribe to the Hospitality Hangout on YouTube for more of The Flavor Safari → https://www.youtube.com/@hospitalityhangout
Ever notice the glasses in the Gregorys Coffee logo? Founder Greg Zamfotis explains how his signature glasses and hair became the brand icon back in 2009. The clever part: the glasses can also look like two coffee cups. The founder basically became the logo. #HospitalityHangout #GregorysCoffee #BrandDesign #Coffee
Why are more CMOs becoming CEOs? First Watch CEO Chris Tomasso says marketing has a unique job: representing the guest and bringing the customer’s voice into the biggest decisions. At First Watch, restaurant operators and the guest experience sit near the top of the funnel — even if finance has…
Billy Shore, founder and executive chair of Share Our Strength, joins Hospitality Hangout to talk about building the No Kid Hungry movement and why the restaurant industry can play such a powerful role in ending childhood hunger. Billy shares how Share Our Strength grew from a $2,000 credit card advance…
She was the breadwinner. He was the bread maker. 🥯 One Instagram post. A dozen orders in a couple of hours. Then their apartment. Then farmers markets, selling out every time. Now Moonrise Bagels has its own shop, home of the first and only stuffed bagel. Ever had a side…
Would you trust a food influencer you don’t actually know? Gregorys Coffee founder Greg Zamfotis says influencers can put a restaurant on his radar, but recommendations from people he knows and trusts carry more weight. Yelp-style mass reviews are one thing; genuine recommendations from your own circle can be much…
The Sopranos pinball machine has a cussing mode? First Watch CEO Chris Tomasso says Jimmy and Schatzy have no chance against him because he has one at home. Then the debate moves to another pinball classic: The Addams Family. #HospitalityHangout #FirstWatch #TheSopranos #Pinball
Is a bagel a sandwich? Moonrise Bagels says 100% yes. But a stuffed bagel? That’s a whole new category. We went on a The Flavor Safari to Moonrise Bagels, home of the first and only stuffed bagel, and the co-founders settled the debate. Subscribe to the Hospitality Hangout on YouTube…