Restaurant AI

Matt Wampler
  • 5.0 (9)
  • Technology
  • Updated Semiweekly

Restaurant AI with Matt Wampler is your weekly deep dive into the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence and its transformative impact on the restaurant and hospitality industry. Hosted by tech entrepreneur and industry insider Matt Wampler, this podcast explores how AI is reshaping everything from kitchen operations and customer service to marketing, labor management, and the guest experience. Whether you’re a restaurant operator, tech innovator, or hospitality enthusiast, each episode delivers insights, expert interviews, and real-world use cases that help you stay ahead in a competitive and tech-driven landscape.

  1. 1d ago

    R.AI Podcast Special | Fresh KDS x Groucho's: Building the Restaurant Operating System

    In this special episode of the Restaurant AI Podcast, host Matt Wampler, Co-Founder and CEO of ClearCOGS, sits down with Deric Rosenbaum, President and CTO of Groucho's Deli, and David Corts, CEO of Fresh Technology, for the show's first three-way roundtable. Groucho's Deli has been making sandwiches since 1941, before the interstate system existed. Deric spent 26 years building its franchise infrastructure, its distribution company, and now its technology platform, turning an 85 year old brand with more than 30 locations across three states into one of the most AI-forward operations in the industry. David spent 30 years in enterprise software before betting on the kitchen, and his Fresh KDS now sits at the center of it. Together with ClearCOGS, they are building a connected back of house operating system, and this is the unfiltered version of how it actually works. Matt, Deric, and David get into why the tech stack is dead and the operating system model is replacing it, the four layers every brand has to get right before AI stops hallucinating, how Groucho's built Frank, an AI agent franchisees can query on demand, why forecasting is just algorithms and math, which SaaS tools survive the coming consolidation, and the question that opened the show: is AI making us smarter or dumber? Whether you're an operator drowning in disconnected tools, a franchise leader dragging a legacy brand into the AI era, or a technology founder deciding whether to play nice with other vendors, this one shows you what the future of the back of house looks like from the people building it. Connect with Deric Rosenbaum on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deric-rosenbaum-grouchos/ Learn more about Groucho's Deli: https://www.grouchos.com Connect with David Corts on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcorts/ Learn more about Fresh KDS: https://www.freshkds.com Connect with Matt Wampler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewjwampler Learn more about ClearCOGS: https://www.clearcogs.com

  2. Aug 25

    Bennett Maxwell on Cookie Wars, AI Agents, and Building a Business That Runs Itself

    Bennett Maxwell took a single cookie shop to 450 franchises sold, turned a lawsuit from the biggest name in cookies into national headlines on CNBC and Good Morning America, then sold the brand and went all in on building a business that runs itself on AI. In this episode, host Matt Wampler talks with Bennett, founder of Dirty Dough and CEO of Franchise KI, about architecting AI agents he can trust to run the day to day, selling hundreds of franchises without spending a dollar on ads, and his case that intelligence is about to become as free and invisible as flipping on a light. A conversation that is equal parts war story, playbook, and look at the future every operator is heading into. Connect with Bennett Franchise KI: franchiseki.com Instagram: instagram.com/bennettmaxwell35 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bennett-maxwell-703717126 Listen and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and clearcogs.com/podcast ClearCOGS helps restaurants turn the data they already have into practical daily guidance for prep, ordering, and labor, so operators can make better decisions before the day gets away from them. Because when you have a clearer view of what's coming, you can run a more profitable restaurant. Show notes and full episode: https://www.clearcogs.com/podcasts/podcasts-bennett-maxwell-ai-agents-franchise/

  3. Aug 11

    John Davie: the future of AI through the eyes of the largest restaurant GPO

    In this episode of the Restaurant AI Podcast, host Matt Wampler, Co-Founder and CEO of ClearCOGS, sits down with John Davie, Founder and CEO of Buyers Edge Platform and CEO of CollectivIQ. John started Buyers Edge in 1998 at 21 years old, knocking on restaurant doors with no resume and no credibility, kept afloat by his father's retirement account. Today the company is the leading digital procurement network in foodservice, serving hundreds of thousands of operator locations across four divisions, with more than 40 acquisitions and what John believes is the largest, most diverse data set in the industry: over 110 billion in cleaned, normalized foodservice transactions. The conversation covers the business model that gets vendors to willingly pay for restaurant savings, how Buyers Edge evaluates acquisitions through a data lens, and the state of the restaurant industry through the eyes of someone with a finger on its pulse since the nineties. Then it turns to AI: the shadow AI problem hiding inside every company, the $700,000 enterprise license that started it all, and the moment an AI confessed to John that it had been fabricating facts 25 prompts deep into a major acquisition. That wake-up call became CollectivIQ, a consensus engine that queries the leading AI models at once, makes them argue when they disagree, and routes every prompt to the most honest answer. John also breaks down digital direct reports, AI employees with names, personas, and real delegated work, and shares his advice for CEOs still hesitating on AI. This episode is for restaurant operators drowning in unused data, foodservice executives weighing their AI strategy, and anyone who has ever stared at an AI answer and wondered if it was true. Connect with John Davie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-davie-5788a18 Connect with Matt Wampler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattwampler Learn more about ClearCOGS: https://www.clearcogs.com Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:23 What Is Buyers Edge Platform? 03:26 Door to Door: The Five-Year Grind 08:40 Becoming a Data Company 11:57 How Buyers Edge Makes Money 13:31 The Four Divisions of Buyers Edge 17:31 The Acquisition Playbook 27:01 Digitizing the Back of House 41:38 The $700K Bill That Sparked Collective IQ 46:37 When the AI Fabricated Facts 54:46 Digital Direct Reports 01:12:37 Advice for CEOs Waiting on AI Show notes and full episode: https://www.clearcogs.com/podcasts/podcasts-john-davie-buyers-edge-ai-data/

  4. Aug 4

    Noah Glass: Second Party Ordering and the Fight to Get Profit Back to Restaurants

    In this episode of the Restaurant AI Podcast, host Matt Wampler, Co-Founder and CEO of ClearCOGS, sits down with Noah Glass, Founder and CEO of Olo. Noah invented restaurant online ordering in 2005, before the iPhone existed, survived eight wilderness years at twelve employees, scaled revenue 50x after product market fit, took Olo public in 2021, and took it private again in 2025 in a two billion dollar deal. Now he's picking a fight with the economics that drain restaurant profits. Matt and Noah get into why marketplace customers are rented transactions, the daily deals lesson the industry keeps forgetting, the second party ordering model launching later this year with zero commission and full guest data for restaurants, what agentic ordering actually looks like, and the one thing Noah says you can never outsource: the human touch. Whether you're an operator wrestling with third party economics, a founder in your own wilderness years, or a technology leader watching AI reshape ordering, this one delivers the long view from the person who started it all. Connect with Noah Glass on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nhglass Learn more about Olo: https://www.olo.com Connect with Matt Wampler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewjwampler Learn more about ClearCOGS: https://www.clearcogs.com Show notes and full episode: https://www.clearcogs.com/podcasts/podcasts-noah-glass-olo-second-party-ordering-restaurant-profits/

  5. Jul 21

    Podcast Legend Eric Cacciatore on How Independents Take Back the Restaurant Industry

    In this episode of the Restaurant AI Podcast, host Matt Wampler, Co-Founder and CEO of ClearCOGS, sits down with Eric Cacciatore, founder and host of Restaurant Unstoppable, the longest-running podcast in the restaurant industry with nearly 1,300 interviews of America's most successful restaurateurs. Eric grew up in his parents' small-town restaurant, spent a decade becoming a commercial pilot, and walked away at 27 to pursue hospitality. Thirteen years later, he has the deepest archive of operator conversations in the industry, and some uncomfortable conclusions about where it is headed. Matt and Eric trace restaurants back to the colonial public house, the original social platform at the center of every town, and dig into why Eric believes the obsession with scale is pulling the industry away from its roots. Eric makes the case for fewer restaurants and more owners, breaking down the models proving it works: employee ownership trusts, one percent partner buy-ins, and depth-over-span growth. Then the conversation sharpens: Eric argues the digital marketplace is owned by technology platforms, whoever spends the most wins, and independents are feeding a marketing machine that was never built for them. On the hopeful side, he shares why AI has him optimistic, including the operator who vibe codes every morning and replaced his software subscriptions for ninety dollars a month, and lays out his vision for taking the industry back through community, ownership, and the Restaurant Unstoppable Network. Visit Restaurant Unstoppable: https://restaurantunstoppable.com Connect with Eric on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-cacciatore-ab41b375 Connect with Matt Wampler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewjwampler Learn more about ClearCOGS: https://www.clearcogs.com Show notes and full episode: https://www.clearcogs.com/podcasts/podcasts-eric-cacciatore-independent-restaurants-marketing-ownership/

  6. Jul 15

    Shaz Khan: Running a Restaurant Brand with an Engineer's First Principles Mentality.

    In this episode of the Restaurant AI Podcast, host Matt Wampler, Co-Founder and CEO of ClearCOGS, sits down with Shaz Khan, Co-Founder and President of Tono Pizzeria + Cheesesteaks. Shaz calls himself an accidental restaurateur. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota and was building a career in industrial automation when his best friend Antonio Gambino convinced him to enter the pizza business in 2016. A decade later, they are building out their sixteenth location across four brands, and Shaz serves on Toast's Customer Advisory Board. Matt and Shaz dig into the 1 a.m. no-show call that turned an engineer into a restaurant systems guy, why five and ten unit restaurant groups are building tech stacks light years ahead of large organizations, what Shaz has actually built internally with AI and why he rolls it out slowly on purpose, and why he believes hospitality must always sit above the systems, no matter how capable the technology becomes. Whether you are a restaurant operator wondering where AI actually fits, a multi-unit founder building your own tools, or a hospitality tech leader watching small operators close the gap, this episode is one of the most grounded conversations yet on running restaurants with an engineer's first principles mentality. Connect with Shaz Khan on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/shazkhanmn Learn more about Tono Pizzeria + Cheesesteaks: tonomn.com Connect with Matt Wampler on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matthewjwampler Learn more about ClearCOGS: https://www.clearcogs.com Show notes and full episode: https://www.clearcogs.com/podcasts/podcasts-shaz-khan-restaurant-systems-ai-tono/

  7. Jun 16

    David Cantu: The $150 Billion Problem Hiding in Restaurant Back Offices

    In this episode of the Restaurant AI Podcast, host Matt Wampler, Co-Founder and CEO of ClearCOGS, sits down with David Cantu, CEO of Craftable and one of the most experienced operators and builders in hospitality technology. David co-founded HotSchedules and spent over two decades scaling it into one of the most widely used labor management platforms in the restaurant industry. He later served as CEO of Black Box Intelligence before joining Craftable's board and stepping into the CEO role with a clear mission: build the back office the restaurant industry has always needed but never had. In this conversation, Matt and David dig into why restaurant margins are higher than most operators realize and why the industry has been conditioned to stop looking too soon. David shares the story of saving 600 basis points in five months at an iconic Austin restaurant simply by tying managers to all controllable costs, not just food and labor. He breaks down why the painful end of week inventory count may soon be a thing of the past, what it actually takes to get managers emotionally connected to profitability, and why he sees the SaaSpocalypse as noise compared to the real opportunity sitting inside the back office right now. Whether you are a restaurant operator trying to unlock hidden profitability, a multi-unit brand still running on legacy back of house tech, or a hospitality tech executive watching the AI boom unfold, this episode gives you one of the most grounded and practical perspectives on where the industry is heading and what it will take to get there. Connect with David Cantu on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jdavidcantu Learn more about Craftable: craftable.com Connect with Matt Wampler on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matthewjwampler Learn more about ClearCOGS: clearcogs.com Show notes and full episode: https://www.clearcogs.com/podcasts/podcasts-david-cantu-restaurant-margins-back-office-craftable/

  8. May 26

    R.AI Special | Shawn Walchef: What Really Happened on the Floor of the Biggest Restaurant Show on Earth

    In this special episode of the Restaurant AI Podcast, Matt Wampler sits down with Shawn Walchef, founder of Cali BBQ and Cali BBQ Media, fresh off the floor of NRA 2026 in Chicago. They break down what the show actually looked like this year, why confusion was the biggest theme around AI, what the best brands did differently, and why getting outside your four walls matters more than ever. Shawn also shares how Cali BBQ nearly went out of business in 2008 and how betting everything on social media saved it. Connect with Shawn Walchef on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/shawnpwalchef Learn more about Cali BBQ Media: calibbq.media Connect with Matt Wampler on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matthewjwampler Learn more about ClearCOGS: https://www.clearcogs.com #RestaurantAI #NRAShow #NRA2026 #RestaurantTech #AIinHospitality #CaliBBQMedia #RestaurantLeadership #RestaurantStorytelling Show notes and full episode: https://www.clearcogs.com/podcasts/the-nra-show-recap-ai-hype-real-insights-with-shawn-walchef/

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About

Restaurant AI with Matt Wampler is your weekly deep dive into the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence and its transformative impact on the restaurant and hospitality industry. Hosted by tech entrepreneur and industry insider Matt Wampler, this podcast explores how AI is reshaping everything from kitchen operations and customer service to marketing, labor management, and the guest experience. Whether you’re a restaurant operator, tech innovator, or hospitality enthusiast, each episode delivers insights, expert interviews, and real-world use cases that help you stay ahead in a competitive and tech-driven landscape.

Information

  • Creator
    Matt Wampler
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    40
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 ClearCOGS, Inc.
  • Show Website
    Restaurant AI

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