Restaurant Reset

Genius For Restaurants
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The restaurant industry is stretched thin. Margins are tight, labor is scarce, and guests want more for less. I’m Andy Grindstaff, and after years in both operations and restaurant tech, I’ve seen what works. Restaurant Reset is for leaders who know the old playbook is broken. We’ll share real stories, practical systems, and proven ways to run a tighter, smarter, more profitable operation. The industry isn’t dying. It’s evolving. Let’s reset.

  1. APR 14

    The Rick Rubin of Restaurants: How to Build a Restaurant Empire by Making Chefs the Stars with Kevin Boehm

    Kevin Boehm co-founded Boka Restaurant Group in 2002 with a single restaurant in Chicago. Today, Boka operates 30+ restaurants across Chicago, Los Angeles, and Brooklyn, serves 2.5 million guests a year, and generates more than $250 million in annual revenue. Boka restaurant has held a Michelin star for 15 consecutive years. Kevin and his partner Rob Katz won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurateur in 2019. He also co-founded the Independent Restaurant Coalition during COVID, helping secure $28.6 billion in federal relief for independent restaurants. He co-founded BIÂN, a 35,000-square-foot private wellness club in Chicago. He appeared as himself on Season 3 of The Bear. And in November 2025, he published his memoir, The Bottomless Cup, which Bloomberg named one of the best books of the year. This is a masterclass in what it means to build a restaurant group the right way. What We Cover: • The Chef Partnership Model — Why Kevin and Rob built Boka around chefs as stars, not just as employees. How they find chef partners, evaluate them, and structure creative and operational responsibility. • The Chef Audition Process — The exact science behind how Boka has started the partnership process with "a couple hundred" chefs and only gone all the way with about 14. (Spoiler: it starts with "do we think you're smart and do we like you?") • The Restaurateur as Producer — Kevin's Rick Rubin analogy for the restaurateur-chef relationship: "Rick Rubin isn't going to tell Paul McCartney how to write a song, but he might have a great idea Paul can execute." • The Argument That Changed Everything — The exact moment Kevin and Rob realized they had to stop growing and build infrastructure first. "We knew we had to go backwards to go forwards." • Michelin Pressure and What It Really Takes — Why maintaining a Michelin star for 15 straight years is harder than most people realize, and what that kind of sustained excellence actually demands. • Fear of Being Discovered as a Fraud — How "faking it" in the early days drove Kevin to learn faster than anyone around him, and why he built his identity from 20 different mentors. • Whiteboard Yourself — What Kevin would tell his 23-year-old self: get a therapist, study Buddhism, stop drinking, and stop thinking there's a finish line. • 3 Pillars of a Good Life — Kevin's simple framework for knowing if he's on track: purpose, people, and unedited footage. • The Independent Restaurant Coalition — How Kevin went from grieving restaurateur to testifying before Congress and helping secure $28.6 billion in relief. With zero political experience. • Accept People as They Are, Place Them Where They Belong — Kevin's framework for building teams without projecting unrealistic expectations. Kevin Boehm doesn't just build restaurants. He builds platforms for chefs, platforms for careers, and now, with The Bottomless Cup, a platform for honesty about what success actually costs. Restaurant Reset is brought to you by Genius™ (Link globalpayments.com/genius) from Global Payments, the restaurant point of sale system that can power orders, payments and services in any type of food and beverage setting.

    47 min

  2. APR 7

    John Tesar: The Chef Bourdain Called a Genius, Dallas Called Its Most Hated, and Michelin Called a Star

    John Tesar's career is the kind of arc that sounds made up. Anthony Bourdain called him "the single most talented cook I ever worked with." He later wrote Tesar into Kitchen Confidential as Jimmy Sear,— a character defined by equal parts chaos and brilliance. In 2011, D Magazine put "The Most Hated Chef in Dallas" on its cover with John's face. Eleven years later, in 2022, he earned a Michelin star at Knife & Spoon in Orlando. Tesar has seen this industry from every angle: the celebrated highs, the very public lows, and the hard-won years of building something that actually works. He ran Knife, his Dallas steakhouse, to over $16 million in revenue from 83 seats over nine years. He's licensed that brand to hotels. He's been broke, written off, and rebuilt. And he came on Restaurant Reset this week with zero interest in sugarcoating any of it. This is one of the most honest conversations we've had on the show. What We Cover: • John's blunt reality check for operators who think they can outperform their own math • Why the math of restaurant finance works completely differently at different scales • How Knife became a scalable brand from a single 83-seat Dallas steakhouse, and the specific decisions behind that number • Why John gives up control, decision-making, and P&L upside when licensing Knife to hotel partners • His take on today's commercial real estate market • Why the wrong hire costs you more than a headcount • Why he'd rather put a human being behind a job than a machine John Tesar has lived more restaurant lives than most operators will ever know. This is the conversation you need if you want to understand the real business behind the kitchen. Restaurant Reset is brought to you by Genius™ (Link globalpayments.com/genius) from Global Payments, the restaurant point of sale system that can power orders, payments, and services in any type of food and beverage setting.

    54 min

  3. MAR 31

    From One Steakhouse to 13 Restaurants and a $75M Empire: Benjamin Berg on Ego, Debt, and Giving Up Control

    What does it actually take to build a restaurant empire from a single steakhouse without a famous name, without outside investors, and without ever letting your team see you doubt the destination? Benjamin Berg has the answer. And the war stories to prove it. Berg is the founder of Berg Hospitality Group, one of Houston's most dynamic restaurant companies: 13 concepts, 1,200 employees, and $75M+ in annual revenue. He started with B&B Butchers & Restaurant on Washington Avenue, built The Annie Café & Bar with James Beard Award-winning Chef Robert Del Grande, and has since launched Turner's, Trattoria Sofia, B.B. Italia, and more. He's a Cornell-trained hospitality operator who started as a bellman and bartender, survived a business partner who got deported and sued him for $1 million before he ever served a single table, navigated pandemic debt, and came out the other side with hard-won convictions every operator needs to hear. He doesn't sugarcoat. He doesn't perform. He just tells you the truth about what this business really takes. In this conversation, Andy and Ben get real about: • What you actually need to check off before you sign a lease (and why loving your product is not enough) • Why the best restaurant concepts aren't selling food at all, and how to engineer the emotional attachment that turns guests into loyalists • How Ben went from running his own payroll in QuickBooks to leading a $75M company — and why letting go was the hardest and best thing he ever did • Why giving 30% of your company to your leadership team might be the most high-leverage growth decision you'll ever make •Why "poor parking" can nuke an otherwise brilliant concept, and what making the guest experience effortless really looks like in practice • How Ben built most of his empire on cash flow, what happened when COVID forced him into debt, and the lesson he learned at 46 that now guides every decision he makes Ben Berg is the real deal: direct, self-aware, and full of the earned wisdom that only comes from building, losing, and rebuilding. This one is required listening for anyone who owns a restaurant, manages one, or is seriously thinking about opening one. Restaurant Reset is brought to you by Genius™ (Link globalpayments.com/genius) from Global Payments, the restaurant point of sale system that can power orders, payments and services in any type of food and beverage setting.

    44 min

  4. MAR 23

    How to Build a Restaurant Brand Before You Sign a Lease with Sarah Gavigan @ Otaku Ramen

    What does it actually look like to build a cult restaurant brand in a boomtown city and then have the guts to pull back before it kills you? Sarah Gavigan didn't set out to open Nashville's first ramen shop. She moved back to Tennessee after two decades in LA film and music production, couldn't find a decent bowl of ramen anywhere in the city, and started cooking 50 pounds of pork bones at 2am in her backyard. Three years of pop-ups. No lease or culinary training or restaurant experience at all. In 2015, she opened Otaku Ramen in Nashville's Gulch. It was profitable from day one, because she'd spent three years building a brand before she ever built a kitchen. She expanded. She rode Nashville's boomtown momentum. And then she started to see what almost every hot-city founder misses until it's too late: the hype cycle ends. The developers fluff you. The taxes rise. The big boys move in. And the thing that got you here won't keep you here. Sarah closed her East Nashville location after 16 months. Then closed West. Her operating philosophy: "Screw Up Fast." Ego is expensive. Correction is free. And the founders who survive long-term are the ones who can tell the difference between the two before the market does it for them. What We Cover: • Why Sarah's #1 piece of advice to any founder is to survive three years as a pop-up before you sign a single lease (and what those three years actually build) • How private equity, skyrocketing development costs, and property taxes create a five-year shelf life for restaurants in "hot" cities — and how to spot the ceiling before you hit it • What Sarah's 48-hour framework actually looks like when something goes wrong with food, service, or numbers, and why ego is always the enemy of a fast fix • Why umami is a neurological response (not just a flavor), how stacking amino acids triggers serotonin and dopamine, and why Sarah says a ramen cook's only job is to create happiness in a bowl • Why Sarah's father told her never to hire consultants, why she didn't listen, and what she lost because of it — plus her argument for why founders need operating partners, not advisors • Sarah's bar for every aspiring restaurant owner: you need to be able to tell her your food costs and profit margins after three martinis. If you can't, you're not ready • How three years of ramen pop-ups gave Sarah something money can't buy — a loyal audience waiting on day one — and why the brand always has to come before the brick and mortar • The Super Happy Noodle story: why Sarah invested in a noodle manufacturing operation, why her customers rejected it, and what she learned about "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" • Book Recommendation: The Long Tail by Chris Anderson and why Sarah thinks the next generation of founders needs to study customer pattern behavior more than any business book Whether you're running your first pop-up, thinking about signing your first lease, or managing multiple locations in a market that's getting hotter by the day… this episode is packed with honest, operator-level truth from someone who's lived every part of it. Restaurant Reset is brought to you by Genius™ (Link globalpayments.com/genius) from Global Payments, the restaurant point of sale system that can power orders, payments and services in any type of food and beverage setting.

    52 min

  5. MAR 17

    The Chef Who Almost Became a Pharmacist: Ben Diaz on Building a Brand Before the Brick-and-Mortar

    Ben Diaz didn't set out to become a chef. He thought he was going to be a pharmacist, until he followed a girlfriend to the California School of Culinary Arts and cooking took over. He never looked back. What followed was two decades of building in the most demanding kitchens in Southern California. Hotels. High-volume events. Catering for 1,000 people at JW Marriott, Omni San Diego, Luxe City Center… places that don't forgive improvisation. Places that force you to preset yourself the night before, because tomorrow doesn't wait. He trained formally in France, earned certifications most chefs never pursue, joined the boards of culinary organizations, and quietly built one of the most complete operational skill sets in the industry. Then he did something most chefs don't do: instead of rushing to sign a lease, he built the infrastructure first. CBDcuisine, his culinary consulting brand, has been running since 2010: menu engineering, SOPs, HACCP development, and yes, POS troubleshooting and KDS formatting (not something you see on many chef bios). He wrote a book. He launched Tacos El Chapin, a pop-up taqueria built on the flavors of Guatemala, Southern Mexico, and Central America. He built brand partnerships with Cambro, Lumina Farms, and Kikkoman. He's been on television. And through all of it, his message has stayed the same: it's never too late to learn, to pivot, or to start over, because the kitchen has room for anyone willing to put in the work. He's not in a rush to open his permanent restaurant. He's building it right. What We Cover in this episode of Restaurant Reset: • How Ben went from pre-pharmacy to culinary school on a whim • Why a chef's temperament is the single fastest way to lose or keep a kitchen • What Ben actually means when he says he's "in search of the perfect taco” • The specific zero-waste kitchen techniques Ben uses that never feel like cost-cutting to the guest • Ben's three-question framework for evaluating any distributor relationship • Why saying yes to every sponsorship deal is the fastest way to become forgettable • The operational instincts that high-volume hotel kitchens force you to develop and that most independent restaurant chefs don't learn until it's too late If you've ever wondered whether there's a smarter path to opening your own place, this episode is the blueprint. And if you're somewhere in the middle of a pivot, wondering if you're too late to start over in this industry, Ben's answer is clear: you're not. Restaurant Reset is brought to you by Genius™ (Link globalpayments.com/genius) from Global Payments, the restaurant point of sale system that can power orders, payments and services in any type of food and beverage setting.

    51 min

  6. MAR 10

    The Michelin-Rated Chef Who Won Top Chef and Walked Away from Fame: Nick Elmi's Story

    Nick Elmi won Top Chef Season 11 in New Orleans. Most winners parlay that into a media career, a fast-casual empire, or a product line. Nick went back to Philadelphia and opened a 22-seat restaurant called Laurel. For 12 years, he cooked in that kitchen. He earned a James Beard nomination for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic. Michelin came to Philly and listed his restaurant. Before that, he trained under Georges Perrier (one of the greatest French chefs in American history) and built a mentorship tree of his own, sending cooks into kitchens across the country. Then, in November 2025, he closed Laurel. Not because it failed. Because the lease ended and he decided it was time. In this conversation, Nick opens up about why he chose the kitchen over the celebrity circuit, the math that every operator needs to do before they open (and most don't), and a personal transformation that changed everything: quitting drinking in September 2017… losing 20 pounds, becoming a better husband and father, and showing up for his restaurant in a way he couldn't before. Nick rarely does interviews. This one is different. What We Cover: • Why Nick turned down the ‘Top Chef’ fame machine and went straight back to the line, and what that choice cost him and earned him over 12 years • How you treat your team on Monday morning determines how they treat your guest on Friday night, and why most operators get this backwards • Nick's blunt advice for anyone with a "vision": sit down with a calculator first. Seats × turns × average check = your actual business. Dream later.Why Nick asks every candidate "Where are you coming from?" instead of "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" and what it reveals • How getting sober in 2017 transformed Nick's leadership, his marriage, his body, and his ability to show up for his team every single day • What it looks like to end a 12-year run not in crisis, but in control and why more operators should think about their exit before they need one • Why Nick brings the same intensity to a $1.5M restaurant as a $7M one, and what that says about what actually drives great operators If you've ever wondered what happens after you "make it" in this industry or if you're building something and want to hear from someone who did it quietly, did it well, and walked away with no regrets: this is the episode. Restaurant Reset is brought to you by Genius™ (Link globalpayments.com/genius) from Global Payments, the restaurant point of sale system that can power orders, payments and services in any type of food and beverage setting.

    57 min

  7. MAR 3

    Why Having Shaquille O'Neal as Your Business Partner Is Both a Superpower and a Curse with Josh Halpern @ Big Chicken

    What does it actually take to go from 2 locations to 50 (with hundreds more in the pipeline) without VC money and without losing your mind? Josh Halpern, Chief Business Officer of Crave Worthy Brands and the architect behind Big Chicken's explosive growth, sits down with Andy Grindstaff to pull back the curtain on one of the most unusual brand-building journeys in the restaurant industry. Yes, Shaquille O'Neal is involved. Yes, there's a Charles Barkley sandwich story that involves a live TV moment on TNT. And yes, Josh turned down over 6,000 franchise applications in three years. But underneath all the Shaq-sized stories is a deeply practical, hard-won playbook for how to scale a restaurant brand without torching your franchisees, your culture, or your quality. Josh came up through Fortune 100 giants (Procter & Gamble, Clorox, Anheuser-Busch) before landing in fried chicken. That CPG background gave him a lens most restaurant operators never develop: the difference between the shopper and the consumer. The person whose credit card taps the terminal and the person with the sandwich in their hand? They're often not the same person. And if your loyalty program, your promotions, and your marketing don't account for that gap, you're burning money and missing your actual customer entirely. Whether you're running one location or managing a multi-unit portfolio, this episode is packed with frameworks, stories, and hard truths that will change how you think about growth, guests, and what legacy actually looks like in this industry. Topics covered: • Why Shaq is the greatest trial mechanism on earth — and why that's also a massive risk• The shopper vs. consumer distinction that most restaurant loyalty programs completely miss• The Four Wins framework and how it applies to franchisees, suppliers, and guests• Six Sigma thinking applied to straws, ramekins, and franchise unit economics• Why Big Chicken merged into Crave Worthy Brands — and what multi-brand scale actually buys you• The Myers-Briggs profile of hospitality (and why AI can't replicate it)• How younger guests see themselves as brands — and what that means for your loyalty strategy• The one hard truth about scaling that founders refuse to face• Book recommendations: True North by Bill George, Founderology by Kathleen Wood, and Culture That Rocks by Jim KnightRestaurant Reset is brought to you by Genius™ (Link globalpayments.com/genius) from Global Payments, the restaurant point of sale system that can power orders, payments and services in any type of food and beverage setting.

    53 min

  8. FEB 24

    From Cashier to CEO: Carin Stutz on Building a 40-Year Restaurant Career (And Why We're Failing the Next Generation)

    Carin Stutz started working at McDonald's in high school to help pay for college. She never left the restaurant industry. Over the next four decades, she climbed from hourly employee to the C-suite… serving as COO of Red Robin, President of McAlister's Deli, CEO of Cosi and Native Foods, and holding leadership roles at Wendy's, Applebee's, and Brinker International (Chili's, Maggiano's). In 2022, she was inducted into the Fast Casual Hall of Fame. But ask her if it's easier for women to reach the top today, and her answer is immediate: "Absolutely not." In this conversation, Carin shares hard truths about restaurant leadership: from the real reason young workers see this as a "stepping stone" career (hint: we're doing it to ourselves), to why she was passed over for promotion seven times before a mentor told her the uncomfortable truth that changed everything. What We Cover: • The Restaurant PR Crisis – Why managers complaining about their jobs is killing our talent pipeline, and what "feeding people's souls" really means • Financial Literacy for Operators – How to read a P&L, why your Google rating determines if you "exist," and the STORM framework for turning around struggling restaurants • Women in Leadership – Carin's experience being told "How do I tell my wife I have a woman as a boss?" and why women today still face the same uphill battle • Franchising Done Right – What franchisors owe franchisees (and vice versa), why corporate needs "skin in the game," and how to balance innovation with protecting the brand •Technology + Hospitality – How to implement kiosks and automation without losing the human touch that keeps guests loyal • The GLEAM Network – Carin's mentorship organization that's paired over 600 people, runs a 9-week bootcamp for hourly employees, and hosts in-person leadership events to show emerging leaders this can be a real career • Career Advice That Changed Everything – The question Lou Klassen asked her that shifted her entire approach: "Who is in the room when the decision is made?" If you've ever wondered whether restaurants can be a viable long-term career—or if you're leading a team and want to inspire the next generation—this episode is required listening. Restaurant Reset is brought to you by Genius™ (Link globalpayments.com/genius) from Global Payments, the restaurant point of sale system that can power orders, payments and services in any type of food and beverage setting.

    53 min
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About

The restaurant industry is stretched thin. Margins are tight, labor is scarce, and guests want more for less. I’m Andy Grindstaff, and after years in both operations and restaurant tech, I’ve seen what works. Restaurant Reset is for leaders who know the old playbook is broken. We’ll share real stories, practical systems, and proven ways to run a tighter, smarter, more profitable operation. The industry isn’t dying. It’s evolving. Let’s reset.

Information

  • Creator
    Genius For Restaurants
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    18
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Genius For Restaurants
  • Show Website
    Restaurant Reset