The Hospitality Hangout | Hospitality Podcast

Michael Schatzberg & Jimmy Frischling - Hospitality Insiders | Expert Strategies & Trends.', Hosts: Michael Schatzberg and Jimmy Frischling | Branded Hospitality Media, Hospitality Insiders | Michael Schatzberg & Jimmy Frischling | Branded Hospitality
  • 5.0 (14)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Weekly

The Hospitality Hangout is where the restaurant industry gets real. Hosted by Schatzy, the Restaurant Guy, and Jimmy, the Finance Guy, this funny, unfiltered hospitality podcast dives into restaurant trends, food service innovation, hospitality technology, and the investment strategies shaping the future of the industry. With decades of hands-on experience operating restaurants and structuring capital markets deals, these two bring real-world insight from the kitchen to the boardroom. They connect the biggest operators, boldest founders, and sharpest investors in hospitality for conversations you won’t hear anywhere else. Each week you’ll hear from C-suite restaurant executives, franchise leaders, emerging brand founders, hospitality tech innovators, and private equity investors who are building the next era of food and hospitality. Expect insider stories, sharp opinions, real numbers, and plenty of laughs. No fluff. No corporate spin. Just honest conversations about what is actually happening in restaurants and food service. If you care about scaling restaurants, raising capital, building brands, or staying ahead of hospitality trends, this is your show. Grab a drink, pull up a chair, and let’s talk shop. Welcome to The Hospitality Hangout.

  1. 1d ago

    Einstein Bros., Bruegger’s, Noah’s and Manhattan: Four Takes on the Morning Bagel

    You could spend years getting breakfast at Einstein Bros. and Bruegger’s without realizing the two are family. At Bruegger’s, the draw is a traditional New York bagel. At Einstein Bros., as Adam Modzel puts it, “we play with our food.” As chief operating officer of Bagel Brands, Adam helps run both, along with Noah’s New York Bagels and Manhattan Bagel. Schatzy and Jimmy catch up with Adam at the QSR Evolution Conference in Atlanta. He started as a Starbucks barista, and he still remembers standing behind the counter wishing someone would ask what would make his shift easier. Now he’s the one walking into bakeries and asking. He explains why the company trimmed its menus, how a breakfast shift lets people get home for dinner, and what customers told him when he asked them to define a New York bagel. Then Schatzy makes the mistake of assuming he knows which bagel sells best at Einstein Bros. Jimmy might want to take this one. Episode Credits: Produced by: Branded Hospitality MediaHosted by: Michael Schatzberg, Jimmy FrischlingProducer: Julie ZuckerCreative Director: Adam LevineShow Runner: Drewe RaimiPost Production: Three Cheers Mediawww.thehospitalityhangout.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Einstein Bros., Bruegger’s, Noah’s and Manhattan: Four Takes on the Morning Bagel

  2. 6d ago

    The Foodfluencers: One Trick Pony on Becoming Your Favorite Peanut Butter

    Lucy Dana went to Argentina for a family wedding and found peanut butter she couldn’t stop thinking about. Back home, Call Your Mother, the bagel shop owned by Lucy’s brother and sister-in-law, needed a new peanut butter supplier. Her brother offered to become her first customer, and One Trick Pony had its opening. On this episode of The Foodfluencers, a miniseries from Hospitality Hangout, Schatzy and Jimmy sit down with One Trick Pony’s co-founder and CEO at Pepsi Studios in New York City. Lucy shares how Argentinian peanuts became the foundation of the brand, why customer complaints led to an upside-down jar, and what happened when TikTok creators started posting taste tests without being paid to do it. There are bagels, restaurant collaborations, peanut butter popcorn and some strong opinions about food trends along the way. Through it all, Lucy keeps coming back to the same goal: make something people want to buy again. As she puts it, “We’re here for the repeat buys, not the shock factor.” Episode Credits: Produced by: Branded Hospitality MediaHosted by: Michael Schatzberg, Jimmy FrischlingProducer: Julie ZuckerCreative Director: Adam LevineShow Runner: Drewe RaimiPost Production: Three Cheers Mediawww.thehospitalityhangout.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    The Foodfluencers: One Trick Pony on Becoming Your Favorite Peanut Butter

  3. Oct 27

    Mellow Mushroom Refuses to Be Just Another Pizza Chain

    Psychedelic art, Holy Shiitake pizza and restaurants with personalities of their own. Mellow Mushroom has spent more than five decades giving people plenty to talk about over a pie. Now it’s adding new ways to order, visit and eventually earn rewards. This episode of Hospitality Hangout features Ahsan Jiva, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Transformation at Mellow Mushroom. He joins Schatzy and Jimmy to share how college pizza nights at Auburn helped lead him from consulting to the restaurant business. The conversation covers Mellow’s return to counter service, plans for Mellow Mushroom Rewards, and the kitchen technology helping teams give customers more accurate wait times. Ahsan also explains why art, merchandise and local personality matter, and why shared ghost kitchens don’t fit the experience he wants guests to have. Plus, the guys taste Mellow Rollz, debate pineapple on pizza and discover Ahsan’s go-to order: Holy Shiitake with steak. Episode Credits: Produced by: Branded Hospitality MediaHosted by: Michael Schatzberg, Jimmy FrischlingProducer: Julie ZuckerCreative Director: Adam LevineShow Runner: Drewe RaimiPost Production: Three Cheers Mediawww.thehospitalityhangout.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Mellow Mushroom Refuses to Be Just Another Pizza Chain

  4. Oct 22

    The Foodfluencers: Gato Dates Went From Shabbat Dinner to Erewhon

    Tonya Reznikovich kept asking her friend Gabriella “Gabi” Labi for more of the chocolate-covered dates she made for Shabbat dinner. Eventually, asking for another batch turned into writing a business plan. The founders of Gato Dates join Schatzy and Jimmy for The Foodfluencers, a Hospitality Hangout miniseries, to share how that homemade dessert became a brand built around Medjool dates, creamy nut butters and dark chocolate. Gabi and Tonya trace their journey through Los Angeles farmers markets, collaborations with brands including Seed + Mill and Coconut Cult, and the samples that got Erewhon’s attention. They explain why taste comes first, how they found their earliest customers without paid advertising, and why getting people together in person still matters. The conversation also gets into peanut butter dates versus Snickers, the staying power of Dubai chocolate, and their ambitions to bring Gato into more cafés, hotels and gifting occasions. Plus, a plan to win over Bethenny Frankel, a dream Goop Kitchen collaboration, and a little friendly disagreement over Instagram versus TikTok. Episode Credits: Produced by: Branded Hospitality MediaHosted by: Michael Schatzberg, Jimmy FrischlingProducer: Julie ZuckerCreative Director: Adam LevineShow Runner: Drewe RaimiPost Production: Three Cheers Mediawww.thehospitalityhangout.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    The Foodfluencers: Gato Dates Went From Shabbat Dinner to Erewhon

  5. Oct 20

    Farrelli’s Pizza and Why People Come Back for More Than the Pizza

    Clayton Krueger started washing dishes at Farrelli’s Pizza when he was 16. Today, he’s the Chief Marketing Officer—and he still isn’t above jumping back into the dish pit. Recorded on location at the QSR conference in Atlanta, this episode of Hospitality Hangout brings Clayton together with Schatzy and Jimmy to talk about the family-run Washington pizza company where his career began. Clayton explains what makes Farrelli’s Northwest-style pizza different: a thicker rise, a slower bake and enough toppings to make a meal of it. The conversation covers honey cream cheese finishers, a Pizza of the Month competition between kitchen leaders, and why an attention-grabbing pizza can bring someone through the door—even when they end up ordering pepperoni. They also get into the people behind the brand, growing a family business, and choosing restaurant technology that makes the guest experience better. Plus: Hot or Not, Clayton’s must-order pizzas, and a Pizzawich that gives Jimmy another sandwich argument to deal with. Episode Credits: Produced by: Branded Hospitality MediaHosted by: Michael Schatzberg, Jimmy FrischlingProducer: Julie ZuckerCreative Director: Adam LevineShow Runner: Drewe RaimiPost Production: Three Cheers Mediawww.thehospitalityhangout.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Farrelli’s Pizza and Why People Come Back for More Than the Pizza

  6. Oct 15

    The Foodfluencers: Why Alice Mushrooms Wants You to Eat Chocolate Every Day

    Most wellness routines begin with a pill, powder, gummy or bitter tincture. Alice Mushrooms began with a different question: what if the supplement were the part of your day you actually looked forward to? On this episode of Hospitality Hangout’s Foodfluencers series, Charlotte Cruze, co-founder of Alice Mushrooms, joins Jimmy and Schatzy to talk about turning functional mushrooms into decadent daily chocolate supplements. Charlotte shares how her background in media, branded storytelling and food studies eventually brought her together with co-founder Lindsay Goodstein, a former pharmaceutical executive searching for more approachable alternatives to traditional supplements. The two met during the pandemic, worked together across the country for months before meeting in person and began developing Alice around a simple insight: if something is unpleasant to take, people are unlikely to make it part of their routine. Episode Credits: Produced by: Branded Hospitality MediaHosted by: Michael Schatzberg, Jimmy FrischlingProducer: Julie ZuckerCreative Director: Adam LevineShow Runner: Drewe RaimiPost Production: Three Cheers Mediawww.thehospitalityhangout.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    The Foodfluencers: Why Alice Mushrooms Wants You to Eat Chocolate Every Day

  7. Oct 13

    No Child Should Go Hungry: Billy Shore on Building Something Bigger Than Yourself

    Billy Shore, founder and executive chair of Share Our Strength, joins Hospitality Hangout live from the Prosper Forum for a conversation about building the No Kid Hungry movement, bringing the restaurant industry together and what it means to spend a lifetime working on a problem bigger than yourself. Billy and his sister Debbie founded Share Our Strength in 1984 with a $2,000 credit card advance. More than four decades later, the organization behind the No Kid Hungry campaign has raised more than $1 billion to fight hunger and poverty and built partnerships across restaurants, business, government, education, health care and entertainment. But Billy says the real work is not simply raising money. It is getting more people to believe they can make a difference. He explains why the restaurant industry has been part of Share Our Strength from the beginning. Chefs and restaurateurs already spend their lives feeding people, and Billy believes those skills, relationships and platforms can become powerful tools in the fight against childhood hunger. Episode Credits: Produced by: Branded Hospitality MediaHosted by: Michael Schatzberg, Jimmy FrischlingProducer: Julie ZuckerCreative Director: Adam LevineShow Runner: Drewe RaimiPost Production: Three Cheers Mediawww.thehospitalityhangout.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    No Child Should Go Hungry: Billy Shore on Building Something Bigger Than Yourself

  8. Oct 8

    The Foodfluencers: Free the Hummus With Little Sesame’s Nick Wiseman

    Nick Wiseman, co-founder of Little Sesame, joins Hospitality Hangout’s Foodfluencers series to tell the story of how a tiny hummus pop-up in a Washington, D.C. basement grew into a national food brand. Nick’s background is restaurants through and through. He started cooking professionally as a teenager, worked the fine-dining circuit in New York, and met future Little Sesame co-founder Ronen Tenne while working the fish station at a Michael White restaurant. Years later, they reunited in D.C. with the idea of bringing restaurant-level food to more people, with fewer rules and a lot more fun. Little Sesame began in a 500-square-foot basement beneath DGS, a Jewish deli Nick was operating in D.C. The original goal was modest: serve a few dozen people a day and make better use of the space. Instead, customers immediately responded to the freshly spun hummus, and the pop-up began doing several times the volume the team expected. Then COVID changed the business. With downtown office traffic gone, Little Sesame started hand-packing pints of hummus and selling them out the front door. A few weeks later, a Whole Foods forager reached out. That opened a new challenge: how do you turn restaurant-quality hummus with a five-day shelf life into a grocery product without loading it with preservatives? Nick explains how the team spent about a year working through food science and eventually used high-pressure processing to preserve freshness while keeping the ingredient list clean. Episode Credits: Produced by: Branded Hospitality MediaHosted by: Michael Schatzberg, Jimmy FrischlingProducer: Julie ZuckerCreative Director: Adam LevineShow Runner: Drewe RaimiPost Production: Three Cheers Mediawww.thehospitalityhangout.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    The Foodfluencers: Free the Hummus With Little Sesame’s Nick Wiseman
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5
out of 5
14 Ratings

About

The Hospitality Hangout is where the restaurant industry gets real. Hosted by Schatzy, the Restaurant Guy, and Jimmy, the Finance Guy, this funny, unfiltered hospitality podcast dives into restaurant trends, food service innovation, hospitality technology, and the investment strategies shaping the future of the industry. With decades of hands-on experience operating restaurants and structuring capital markets deals, these two bring real-world insight from the kitchen to the boardroom. They connect the biggest operators, boldest founders, and sharpest investors in hospitality for conversations you won’t hear anywhere else. Each week you’ll hear from C-suite restaurant executives, franchise leaders, emerging brand founders, hospitality tech innovators, and private equity investors who are building the next era of food and hospitality. Expect insider stories, sharp opinions, real numbers, and plenty of laughs. No fluff. No corporate spin. Just honest conversations about what is actually happening in restaurants and food service. If you care about scaling restaurants, raising capital, building brands, or staying ahead of hospitality trends, this is your show. Grab a drink, pull up a chair, and let’s talk shop. Welcome to The Hospitality Hangout.

Information

  • Creator
    Michael Schatzberg & Jimmy Frischling - Hospitality Insiders | Expert Strategies & Trends.', Hosts: Michael Schatzberg and Jimmy Frischling | Branded Hospitality Media, Hospitality Insiders | Michael Schatzberg & Jimmy Frischling | Branded Hospitality
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    329
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © A Branded Media Experience
  • Show Website
    The Hospitality Hangout | Hospitality Podcast

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