Restaurant Tech Trends

Justin Foster

On Restaurant Tech Trends, we interview movers and shakers in the restaurant industry to identify how technology is changing the way multi-unit restaurants work.

  1. 2d ago

    Kimmie Dunlay, Sr Director Foodservice @ Kept Companies

    The dirtiest corner of any restaurant tells you everything about how it's run, and Kimmie Dunlay has built a career on the infrastructure nobody sees to keep 'em clean. Today on 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends I sit down with the Senior Director of Food Service Strategy and Growth at Kept Companies, the nationwide self-performing facility partner keeping restaurant and grocery brands clean, safe, and open. Kimmie came up through restaurant ops and never lost the belief that what happens behind the line matters as much as what happens on it. 📺WATCH AND LEARN📺 👉 Why "self-performing" service is the whole ballgame for national consistency 👉 How AutoMist brings real technology to the very antiquated world of hood cleaning, and actually lowers insurance premiums 👉 The shift from reactive to preventative, and why the facilities function has to stop being seen as a cost center 👉 What "facilities intelligence" really means + data on your operation you probably don't have access to today 👉 The AI vision for turning 800 before-and-after job photos into instant answers on whether the work got done Shout outs to CarePro Painting, Restaurant Technologies, and Ecolab for the help along the way. ➕ PLUS the rapid fire round, where Kimmie reveals the hidden talent nobody on her team knows about This one opened my eyes to a corner of the industry I knew close to zero about, and Kimmie made it fascinating. Give it a watch and let me know what you think

    28 min

  2. 5d ago

    Eric Knott, CEO @ Tiki Taco

    Eric Knott spent a decade as COO of PDQ scaling 40+ stores from Tampa to New York, and he'll be the first to tell you he learned as much from what went wrong as what went right. Now CEO of Kansas City's Tiki Taco, he joined me on 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends to talk about the growth discipline he earned the hard way, the founder partnership that keeps him honest, and where AI actually pays off. 📺WATCH AND LEARN📺 👉 Why Tiki opens every restaurant 5-6 days BEFORE the grand opening 👉 How catering went from zero to ~12% of sales in under a year 👉 The "brand protector" model: how Eric actually partners with 3 founders without ego wars 👉 The Tiki Bucks playbook that turns local fundraisers into hundreds of first-time guests 👉 Where Eric lands on all-in-one vs best-of-breed across his 20-piece tech stack (shout outs to Toast, Restaurant365, Incentivo, Bikky, Byte and more) ➕ PLUS Eric and I get into a great back-and-forth on voice + kiosks, whether the "ordering guilt" factor goes away when you have to say your order out loud, and why he runs AI at 80/20 on scheduling. We also riff on how he uses Claude to turn ~100 restaurant publications a week into one Monday-morning brief. Eric is one of the sharpest, most genuine operators I have had on the show, and you can tell community is in his DNA. Give this one a watch and let us know what you think.

    41 min

  3. Jul 2

    Adam Robin, Chief Operating Officer @ Virtual Dining Concepts

    On today's 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends we go inside the wild world of virtual brands with Adam Robin, Chief Operating Officer at Virtual Dining Concepts: the company behind some of the most talked-about names out there, from MrBeast Burger to Man vs. Fries. 📺WATCH AND LEARN📺 👉 What it actually takes to build a virtual brand that breaks through the noise, and why so many of them flame out fast 👉 The hard lessons Adam carried over from his Reef Technology days about ghost kitchens, delivery economics, and what really moves the needle for operators 👉 How VDC thinks about pairing the right celebrity or creator with the right concept, and why star power alone is never enough 👉 Where Adam sees the next wave of virtual brand growth heading, and which pieces of the model are finally maturing after the early hype 👉 What separates a flash-in-the-pan concept from one with real staying power, drawn from Adam's 20+ years in food and beverage ➕ PLUS: Adam's take on where tech fits into the future of virtual dining, and the one thing he wishes more operators understood before jumping in. 🍟 Thank you Adam for the behind-the-curtain look at how VDC is reinventing what a virtual brand can be. 🚀

    31 min

  4. Jun 25

    Zach Goldstein, Founder/CEO @ Thanx

    Own the guest relationship or get rented out to the highest bidder. That's part of what we dive into on today's 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends. On this episode I sit down with Zach Goldstein, Founder & CEO of Thanx. Zach has helped restaurants turn first party data into lifetime value since 2011. Watch for a masterclass in loyalty, data, and how AI agents are transforming the guest retention game. 📺WATCH AND LEARN📺 👉 Zach's take on the SaaSpocalypse and what actually makes software defensible 👉 Where AI is REALLY changing loyalty plus the three bets Thanx is all-in on. HINT: big news this summer... 👉 The digital ratio every operator should track and why letting third-party marketplaces outgrow your first-party channels means losing your guests AND your data 📉 ➕ PLUS: the "warm hug vs. $7 discount" psychology of changing guest behavior, and why loyalty may be a restaurant's best weapon to steer the coming wave of AI ordering agents back to first-party ➕➕ PLUS PLUS: Rapid fire 🔥 - the most OVERRATED restaurant tech (you'll never guess this one), the most underrated, his one-word advice to 2011 Zach, and whether the Sacramento Kings are making the playoffs next season 🏀😂 Thank you Zach for the clinic on loyalty and LTV!

    32 min

  5. Jun 23

    Amanda Kahalehoe, COO @ Vicious Biscuit

    Brilliant biscuits + the boring work that builds a brand? Yes, please. Today on 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends I'm talking with Amanda Kahalehoe, COO of Vicious Biscuit, the Southern comfort breakfast and brunch concept scaling fast across the Southeast on the strength of over-the-top biscuit builds and a hospitality-first culture. Amanda came in from outside the industry and just helped open restaurant number 12 (with 5 more in construction). 📺WATCH AND LEARN📺 👉 Why getting the boring/infra work done first is the real key to helping emerging brands scale - and which projects she tackled before moving into franchising 👉 Her counterintuitive move for earning operator trust on technology - the opposite of what most brands do when a tool isn't working 👉 The one thing Vicious Biscuit owns instead of renting - and why it's making her skeptical of agentic AI tools flooding the space ➕ PLUS: Amanda's reframe that some guest experience friction is GOOD - and some excellent insight into how the brand achived positive comp sales two years running and a 6% traffic lift while the industry trended ➕➕ PLUS PLUS: Rapid fire gold - savory vs sweet biscuits, which coffee gets the day started, the Vicious Biscuits dish she'll defend to the death, and the career she'd have if not for restaurants Thank you Amanda for teaching us how to lay the foundation for scaling - and I'll wear that biscuit T-shirt religiously. 🚀

    48 min

  6. Jun 17

    Atul Sood, Chief Business Officer @ Curry Up Now

    On today's 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends I sat down with Atul Sood, Fractional Chief Business Officer at Curry Up Now. Atul co-founded Kitchen United as its first employee, raised over $100M, struck the Kroger deal that put ghost kitchens inside grocery stores, and launched McDonald's global delivery partnerships before that. Now he's helping the pioneer of Indian fast casual gear up for its next chapter. First came Mexican, then Mediterranean... Atul says Indian is the next wave, and Curry Up Now is the next brand. 🌯🔥 📺WATCH AND LEARN📺 👉 How Curry Up Now built a powerful 15-unit brand in the Bay Area and why franchisee interest is now heating up across the country - including in Birmingham, one of my favorite recent stops! 👉 How catering is poised to become an even more monster channel than it is today (~20% of sales - including delivery for up to 250 people on less than 24 hours' notice 😮) 👉 Where Curry Up Now is placing its AI bets and where it's holding the line. 👉 Atul's take on point solutions: "I don't think they're products. I think they're features." And why platform plays like Ovation can be so compelling for brands at Curry Up Now's stage of growth ➕ PLUS: Where Atul sees capital flowing in restaurant tech this year, some hard-won founder advice from someone who's lived it, and some protips for founders to keep mental health operating at its peak ❤️ T'was great meeting you Atul and I'm excited to see where Curry Up Now is a year from today! 🚀

    29 min

  7. Jun 12

    Adrian Deasy, Founder/CEO @ Octane Coffee

    This might be the coolest concept I've ever had on the show. On today's 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends I sit down with Adrian Deasy, Founder & CEO of Octane Coffee, the world's first fully automated, employee-free drive-thru coffee concept. A mechanical engineer by training, Adrian looked at a line wrapped around a coffee kiosk back in 2018 and asked the question nobody else was asking: why hasn't anyone automated this? 🤔80,000+ drinks served. Running 24/7. 200 drinks an hour at a single location with ONE daily service visit. 📺WATCH AND LEARN📺 👉 How Octane built a fully automated drive-thru from scratch 👉 The guest experience magic: GPS-timed drinks released so your latte is finished SECONDS before you pull up 👉 How Octane sloughs off the 20-30% labor line that every coffee concept carries, and why a 240 sq ft footprint lets them fit where a Scooters or Caribou Cabin (600+ sq ft) can't 👉 Adrian's read on the coffee drive-thru wars (Starbucks, Dutch Bros, 7 Brew, Scooters) and who he thinks has the most to lose ➕ PLUS: The "Powered by Octane" vision, why he partners with local roaster Stone Creek Coffee Roasters instead of owning the bean, and what the ideal early franchisee actually looks like. ➕➕ PLUS PLUS: Adrian's first coffee of the day, his very basic 🎃 PSL hot take, and what comes out of his mouth when the machine breaks at 2:00 AM Thank you Adrian! This one is a glimpse straight into the future of beverages. Can't wait to have you back in a year to check in on the growth story. 🚀

    41 min

  8. Jun 9

    Andrew Pudalov, Founder & CEO @ Rush Bowls

    🥣 FROM WALL STREET TO HEALTHY BOWLS 📈🥭 Today on 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends I sit down with Andrew Pudalov, Founder & CEO of Rush Bowls. After 15 years trading derivatives at firms like Morgan Stanley, Andrew walked away from finance, bet on himself, and opened a tiny 400-square-foot bowl shop near CU Boulder in 2004. Twenty-two years later that store is still kicking and Rush Bowls has grown to 50+ locations across 25 states with 100+ more units in the pipe. 😲 📺WATCH AND LEARN📺 👉 How a math geek's obsession with hard ratios (e.g. COGS 25% or less, labor 22-25%) built a low-waste, low-labor model that corporate refugees are lining up to franchise 👉 Why Andrew stayed 100% independent - NO PE - and runs his franchise system like a trading desk 👉 Where Rush Bowls is going ALL IN on non-traditional 👉 Andrew's take on AI: why he's not throwing hundreds of thousands of $ just yet ➕ PLUS: Why off-prem now runs as high as 60% of sales, the surprising day part that's growing, and a friendly debate on voice AI + kiosks ➕➕ PLUS PLUS: Rapid fire gold, including the one fruit Andrew would vote off the menu forever and a moment of total alignment on a certain pizza topping debate 🍍🍕 Thank you Andrew for the discussion and for proving that betting on yourself, and on real food, pays off. 🚀

    44 min
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About

On Restaurant Tech Trends, we interview movers and shakers in the restaurant industry to identify how technology is changing the way multi-unit restaurants work.

Information

  • Creator
    Justin Foster
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    67
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Justin Foster
  • Show Website
    Restaurant Tech Trends

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