Restaurant Technology Podcast

Cali BBQ Media
  • 5.0 (2)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Restaurant Technology is a weekly business news series hosted by Cali BBQ Media Founder Shawn Walchef. Keep up to date on the latest stories, insights, and thought leadership in the modern restaurant technology landscape. restauranttechnology.substack.com

  1. 2D AGO

    Built For Busy - Times Square Live with Toast

    To any operator reading this. We got into this business praying for busy. Not the slow nights, not the empty dining rooms. We dreamed about the chaos. The tickets stacking, the line out the door, the kind of busy that tests everything you’ve built. I remember opening our doors in 2008 on Troy Street in Spring Valley. No guarantees, just belief, grit, and the hope that one day we’d earn the kind of volume that forces you to grow or get exposed. Eighteen years later, we’re still here. Still standing, still learning. And this weekend, while Cali BBQ celebrates 18 years in business, we’re also part of something bigger, Toast Built For Busy campaign. That’s not a coincidence, that’s the work. Because “busy” isn’t just volume. It’s pressure, it’s responsibility, it’s showing up for your team and your guests when everything is moving fast and nothing can break. The truth is, most people romanticize restaurants until they feel a Saturday night rush. Operators know better. Busy means your systems matter, your people matter more, and your technology better not fail you when it counts. That’s why partnerships matter. Toast helps us manage the chaos so we can stay focused on what actually matters - hospitality. Not perfect, not polished, real. This moment isn’t just about a billboard in Times Square, that fades. This is about the operators in the trenches, the ones opening early, closing late, and doing it again tomorrow. We’re not chasing busy anymore, we’re built for it. #toastbuiltforbusy This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit restauranttechnology.substack.com

    14 min
  2. Toast on Tour - San Diego

    5D AGO

    Toast on Tour - San Diego

    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit restauranttechnology.substack.com

    11 min

  3. APR 9

    Built for Busy: Join the NYC Meet-Up in Times Square on April 16

    TIMES SQUARE MEET-UP DATE: Thursday, April 16thTIME: 10:30am (Meet-Up) ; 11:15-11:20am (Toast Billboard Goes Live)WHERE: 47th St. and 7th Avenue in Times Square NYCONLINE: Watch LIVE right here on Substack as it happens New York City, let’s make this one count. We’re taking over Times Square with Toast. At 10:30am you are invited to join us on the corner of 47th Street and 7th Avenue in the busiest intersection in the world to kick-off Toast’s new Built for Busy campaign. We will be sharing stories, making content, and honoring the hard-working spirit that makes the restaurant industry so incredible. This isn’t just about a new campaign. This is about our industry showing up to support each other. If you can’t make it to New York, you can also watch our live feed right here on Substack. Bring your team, bring your energy, bring that Built for Busy mindset. Will I see you in NYC next week? Let me know. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit restauranttechnology.substack.com

    1 min

  4. MAR 21

    2026 Media Global Tour: Join Me This Summer in Vegas, Chicago, London, and Beyond

    “Stay curious, get involved, and ask for help.” These are the three lessons my grandfather taught me, and they guide every move we make at Cali BBQ Media. We just wrapped up an incredible experience at the Restaurant Franchise and Innovation Summit (RFIS) in my hometown of San Diego. It was a powerful time making content and connections. I had the honor of being a speaker, and it was great to see other heavy hitters (and friends) in our community, like Troy Hooper and Michael Ungaro, also taking the stage to move this industry forward. As a restaurant owner and operator, I know that the most important thing you can do is invest in your own education. That’s why we’ve evolved into a full-fledged media company that travels to the biggest and most important events in our industry. We aren’t just there to attend; we’re there to tell stories from the ground about how technology and innovation are helping businesses improve. We want to connect with the best technology operators, restaurateurs, and storytellers on the planet. Here is where we will be this summer—reach out so we can collaborate or connect. March 23–26: Las Vegas | Pizza Expo + Bar & Restaurant Show Right after RFIS, we are heading to Vegas for the Pizza Expo and also the Bar and Restaurant Show. We want to capture stories about how you are learning and what tools you’re using to level up your business. If you’re going to be in Las Vegas for either of these, please reach out to us. * Learn More: International Pizza Expo and Bar & Restaurant Expo Late March / Early April: Washington, D.C. + Baltimore After Vegas, we’re heading to the East Coast for the first time to tell restaurant stories in D.C. and Baltimore. We want to talk to technology companies and operators who have customers in these cities. Whether it’s for our Restaurant Influencers show or Digital Hospitality, we want to highlight your story. * Get in touch with us: BeTheShow.media April 19–22: Phoenix | Restaurant Leadership Conference I’m heading to Phoenix for my first time at the Restaurant Leadership Conference. I’ve heard phenomenal things about this show—it’s where the best leaders in our industry go to sharpen their skills. If you’re attending, please let me know. * Learn More: Restaurant Leadership Conference Early May: Austin + Dallas | Food On Demand Our Texas swing starts with a filming trip to Austin followed immediately by the Food On Demand conference in Dallas. Food On Demand is one of the most important delivery and off-premises events in our entire industry. We hope to see you in Dallas. * Learn More: Food On Demand Conference May 16–19: Chicago | National Restaurant Association Show This is the “Super Bowl” of our industry. If you’ve followed our content, you know we do a lot of work at the National Restaurant Show with our partners. We’d love to meet you, talk shop, and share stories from the floor in Chicago. * Learn More: National Restaurant Association Show Late Summer: London + Dublin | Toast Stories International To end the summer, Cali BBQ Media is going international. We’re heading to London and Dublin to tell new Toast stories. If you know any innovative restaurants in the UK or Ireland, we can’t wait to meet them and share their journey. Let’s Connect At Cali BBQ Media, we believe every business must think like a media company to thrive today. We began as restaurant operators and are now also a full-service media agency ready to help you tell your story through professional podcasting, video production, and digital strategy. Visit us at betheshow.media to see how we can help your brand stand out. Will you be at any of these stops? Reply to this post or DM me. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit restauranttechnology.substack.com

    2 min

  5. MAR 13

    Survival, Scaling, and the Restaurant Tech Stack Behind Ravenous Pig

    In this Restaurant Tech Tour, we visited James Petrakis at his Ravenous Pig in Florida to discuss the strategic tech stack that transformed a “survival-mode” startup into a hospitality group that now includes The Polite Pig at Disney Springs and a brewery operation. When James and Julie Petrakis opened The Ravenous Pig in 2007, they were filling a void in an Orlando market dominated by chains. The husband-and-wife team, both alumni of the Culinary Institute of America, returned to their roots in Winter Park to pioneer a craft food movement rooted in “everything scratch-made”. The early days were defined by grit rather than glamour. Cash was so tight that after his car was stolen, James biked to work while finishing a restaurant he could barely afford to open. Today, that resilience has paid off: James is a seven-time James Beard Best Chef South semifinalist, and The Ravenous Pig holds a prestigious Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition. WATCH MORE: James Petrakis on Restaurant Influencers on Entrepreneur.com Their menu remains an “American Gastropub” powerhouse, featuring progressive, farm-to-table dishes like Wagyu Filets, Tomahawks, and ducks that have transformed Orlando into a serious food destination. inKind: The Capital and Marketing Engine For Petrakis, inKind became the bridge to sustainable growth. inKind is a digital financing and loyalty platform that provides restaurants with upfront capital in exchange for digital gift certificates sold to their customer base. Over time, the pre-paid credit model—where guests purchase dining credit in advance—evolved into a tool that his regulars embraced. This transformed initial financial relief into a powerful loyalty and marketing engine that kept the lights on and the business moving forward even when margins were thin. * Capital Without the Bank: By leveraging inKind, Petrakis accessed funding without the rigid constraints or collateral requirements of traditional bank loans. * Automated Marketing: James replaced expensive PR firms with inKind’s native marketing tools and email blasts, which he found provided significantly more “bang for his buck”. * Frictionless Loyalty: Because the certificates are digital and stored in the guest’s email, regulars can’t lose them, creating a “loyalty engine” that provides reliable revenue. Toast: Maximizing Efficiency To manage multiple high-volume concepts, James consolidated his entire operation onto Toast. Toast is an all-in-one point-of-sale and management system designed specifically to help restaurants improve operations and increase sales. * Handheld Productivity: In the Ravenous Pig Beer Garden, five servers can manage a crowd of 200 people using Toast handheld technology. * Increased Sales: By using handhelds, orders go straight to the bar and kitchen instantly. This allows servers to stay on the floor, focusing entirely on hospitality and selling more beer. * Operational Simplicity: James noted that the system’s ease of use made it simple to roll out across the entire group, including their massive Polite Pig operation at Disney Springs. 7shifts: Streamlining Labor With some employees staying for nearly two decades, James prioritizes “quality of life.” To manage complex scheduling across his empire, he relies on 7shifts. 7shifts is a team management platform that helps restaurants simplify scheduling, communication, and labor compliance. It ensures the team has the stability they need—a cornerstone of the “family” culture the Petrakis duo has built. Resy: Managing Guest Experience To handle the flow of a Michelin-recognized dining room, the group utilizes Resy for reservations. Resy is a hospitality technology platform that powers restaurant reservations and table management. This ensures a seamless guest experience from the appetizers to the final course, which Shawn Walchef noted “keeps raising the bar”. The Strategy of Craft: Batching and Brewery Economics Petrakis also shared two key “insider” strategies that keep the business lean: * Cocktail Batching: To avoid “10-minute wait” times for craft cocktails, the bar batches its top-selling drinks for speed. This efficiency ensures guests get their first round fast, encouraging them to order more. * Vertical Integration: The brewery operation ($50 per keg via a distributor vs. $375 per keg on-premise) is only sustainable because Petrakis is his own best customer. By selling 50% of his beer at his own locations like Disney Springs and the airport, he keeps the high “on-premise” profit margin for himself. Thanks for checking out Restaurant Technology! Please share to grow our community. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit restauranttechnology.substack.com

    10 min

  6. MAR 3

    Go Inside NYC's Famous Levain Bakery on a Restaurant Tech Tour

    At a Glance: How Levain Bakery Powered Their 19-Location Expansion * Tech Vision: CTO Gustavo Cardona, a former NASA data analyst applied an “engineer’s point of view” to the cookie business. * Visibility Boost: A partnership with Marqii that streamlined Google Business Profiles, leading to a 13% increase in “noticeability” in just four months. * Core Engine: Toast serves as the exclusive POS, utilized for its robust API and Kitchen Display Systems (KDS) to sync high-volume storefronts. * Freshness Guarantee: Using PDQ (Pretty Damn Quick) as an Order Management System to ensure e-commerce customers are only charged the day their cookies are baked and shipped. When you think of Levain Bakery, you might picture the legendary six-ounce cookies and lines stretching around New York City blocks. But behind that warm, gooey center is a sophisticated technological engine designed for growth. The leader of the company’s tech vision? Gustavo Cardona who’s tech journey led him from NASA to a cookie company that has scaled to almost 20 locations. I was lucky enough to spend time with Gustavo inside Levain Bakery where I got a chance to try their absolutely amazing treats. A former engineer who once worked at the Space Telescope Science Institute on data for the Hubble telescope, Gustavo treats the bakery’s tech stack like a precision instrument. His “small but mighty” team uses an “engineer’s point of view”— A/B testing new tools to ensure they maintain the brand’s soul while operating at an enterprise scale. LEARN MORE about the story of Levain Bakery on our Restaurant Influencers video podcast series on Entrepreneur.com. 1. The Operational Heart: Toast For Levain, Toast is the central nervous system of every physical bakery. Gustavo moved the brand to Toast specifically for its customizable platform and robust API. In a high-velocity environment like Levain Bakery, the back-of-house needs to stay perfectly synchronized with the front-of-house rush. He highlights the impact of Toast’s Kitchen Display Systems (KDS): “First of all, back of the house, simple KDS. All the orders come through... storefront and marketplace, it’s all that.” This integration allows the team to manage a high volume of orders in real-time without losing the “neighborhood bakery” quality. 2. Owning the Map: Marqii & Google Business Profiles One of the most significant hurdles for a growing brand is digital “fragmentation.” With 19 locations, keeping Google Business Profiles accurate and engaging is a massive undertaking. Levain utilizes Marqii to solve this. By centralizing their profiles, Marqii acts as a single source of truth for location data and store hours. * The 13% Noticeability Bump: On the advice of the Marqii team, Levain simplified their naming convention on Google (changing specific neighborhood titles to simply “Levain Bakery”). The result was a 13% increase in noticeability in just four months. * Search Optimization: Marqii helps them capture customers who aren’t just searching for the brand, but are searching for keywords like “best chocolate chip cookies in New York.” 3. The Digital “20th Location”: PDQ Levain’s e-commerce business has become so large that Gustavo considers it their 20th location. To manage the complexity of shipping a perishable product, they rely on Pretty Damn Quick (PDQ) as their Order Management System (OMS). PDQ allows Levain to execute a custom “bake-to-ship” workflow: “The day we bake it, the day we ship it, the day we charge it. Because now we know you’re going to get your cookies.” This logic ensures that customers are only billed once the product is fresh and ready for transit, maintaining the high standards Levain is known for. 4. Data-Driven Insights: MRI Software & Verkada To understand the “Levain Impact” in new markets like Beverly Hills or Chicago, the team relies on foot-traffic intelligence. By using MRI Software integrated with Verkada camera systems, Levain tracks traffic patterns moving both inside and outside their stores. This data is funneled into Tableau, which Gustavo also uses as an inventive intermediary to bridge data from the Toast API into their NetSuite finance platform. This high-level visualization ensures every expansion move is backed by hard data rather than guesswork. Levain’s success proves that high-tech and high-touch aren’t mutually exclusive. By empowering primary partners like Toast to handle operations and Marqii to dominate search, Gustavo Cardona has cleared the path for his team to focus on what matters most: the community and the cookies. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit restauranttechnology.substack.com

    25 min

  7. FEB 18

    Feeding People, Not Landfills with Food Donation Technology

    The US food system has a staggering logistical failure: while 60+ million tons of food are tossed into landfills each year, millions of Americans still face food insecurity. I wanted to introduce you to Copia, a technology platform that automates food redistribution to solve the logistics of hunger. To see how technology can finally bridge the gap between fine dining and frontline need, we took a journey to New York City so we could document the “full circle” of food rescue. As Copia CEO Kimberly Smith told me, the hospitality industry has always wanted to help, but the barrier has always been friction: “The reality is if it’s too slow, it’s not reliable, it’s inefficient, you’re going to throw it away because that’s the easiest thing to do.” We started in the 35,000-square-foot kitchen of Mercado Little Spain in Hudson Yards, a flagship of the José Andrés Group (JAG). JAG, a world-renowned hospitality organization led by Chef José Andrés, has become the gold standard in food donation because they have made it operationally efficient and seamless to turn what was once a wasted commodity into a valuable asset. ‘Three-Minute Habit’ In the Little Spain commissary kitchen, Head Chef Ernesto Rodriguez walked through a process that has transformed a once-burdensome task into a seamless daily habit. * Designated Storage: Surplus food is moved to a designated fridge for Copia. * Safety & Tracking: Items like world-class Spanish paella are weighed and marked with prep labels and temperature checks. * The Technology: To trigger a pickup, they use the Copia app. “We just click it, put the weight, click submit, and then we have just a delivery guys come here and pick up everything. Copia handles the rest,” Chef Ernesto explained. This is the same fantastically prepared food that was served to guests just hours earlier. It is repurposed to help those in need. The “magic” that makes this stick is the Copia app, which handles the logistics that usually lead to waste. Kimberly Smith said this entire digital log takes just three minutes a day, removing the excuse that donation is too time-consuming for a high-volume team. Once the chef hits submit, the platform manages the logistics, dispatching drivers to pick up the items so the kitchen can focus on its next service. The Quality of Dignity Following the delivery led to Chance for Change, a program by the Neighborhood Coalition for Shelters (NCS). This facility provides counseling and support for community members managing homelessness and substance use disorders. Here, the arrival of Michelin-standard food from a group like JAG does more than just fill a plate—it restores a sense of dignity. Drucilla Williams, a LCSW from Chance for Change, explained the profound psychological shift that happens when high-end hospitality meets social services. “I think that sometimes that people think because they’re homeless that they don’t have a say, they don’t have an opinion, they don’t have choices, right? They enjoy the quality of the food. They enjoy the amount of the food. All of those things really help them engage and feel comfortable.” By seeing the process go from a kitchen scale to a community table, the lesson becomes clear. “You can take your surplus food instead of throwing it into landfill, you feed people instead,” she said. The Takeaway This partnership serves as a proof point for the entire restaurant world. If a fine-dining powerhouse can seamlessly integrate a donation program into their operations, then you can too. Most people enter the hospitality business not to make a lot of money, but to make an impact. By utilizing technology like Copia to bridge the gap between service and social responsibility, restaurants can finally align their daily operations with that core mission. Having your food arrive at shelters is a way to make an impact in the very communities where your restaurant operates. * Copia: gocopia.com | @gocopia * José Andrés Group: joseandres.com | @joseandresgroup * Mercado Little Spain: littlespain.com | @littlespain Ready to start your own donation story? Visit gocopia.com or download the app on the Apple or Google store to get donating today. Please share this newsletter with someone who might learn something from it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit restauranttechnology.substack.com

    8 min

  8. FEB 6

    Community Technology For Your Restaurant | TECH STACK RUNDOWN

    TECH MENTIONED: * Toast Marketing — Retargeting and Loyalty * Marqii — One-Stop Listing Management * Google Business Profile — Local Search Visibility * Palona.ai — AI Voice Automation * Ovation — Real-Time Guest Feedback You can also join the conversation on our Rising Tides Live series every Wednesday and Friday at 10am (PST) What’s on your Community Tech Stack? Building a restaurant is about the people who gather around the table as much as it’s about the meal. At my restaurant Cali BBQ in San Diego, we’ve found that magic happens when the connection you build with guests continues long after they’re done eating. My mission with my company Cali BBQ Media is to share the tools that have helped us turn casual guests into a true, lasting community. This is the second installment in our 4 Cs series (Commerce, Community, Content, Communication). We previously broke down our Commerce tech stack, and we are releasing the next two soon—Communication and Content—so make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss those deep dives into how we run our business. Here is the breakdown of the Community Tech Stack we use to stay connected. 1. The Digital Front Door: Your Website The most important asset in our community stack is our own website. While social media is great for reach, your website is where you truly own the relationship. I see so many owners creating incredible content on social media, but that work often stays on those platforms instead of living on their own “digital storefront”. By hosting content, selling BBQ, and managing catering orders on our site, we can re-target the guests who visit us and treat them with actual loyalty. It’s the one place where content, commerce, communication, and community all live under one roof. * Link: CaliBBQ.media * Link: BeTheShow.media 2. The Relationship Driver: Toast Marketing Maintaining deep relationships with guests is hard work, and I’m so happy that Toast built marketing tools directly into their platform. It prevents us from having to manage six different disconnected systems just to stay in touch with our community. We use the data from people spending money online and in our restaurant to retarget them through integrated loyalty, email, and SMS marketing. It allows us to reach back out to the people who already love what we do and keep that conversation going. * Link: Toast Marketing & Loyalty 3. The Listings Master: Marqii There are dozens of spots online where your restaurant information lives, from TripAdvisor and Yelp to Tesla and Apple Maps. It is incredibly easy for someone to get your hours of operation or your menu wrong. We use Marqii as our single source of truth. Instead of logging into every individual site to fix a typo or update holiday hours, we use one dashboard to push the correct info everywhere. It even allows us to respond to all our reviews from one place, ensuring our community feels heard without our team getting lost in a dozen different browser tabs. * Link: Marqii 4. The Local Hub: Google Business Profile Google is making massive investments in how small businesses show up locally. If you are a restaurant owner, this is digital real estate you cannot ignore. We treat our Google Business Profile as a living document. Keeping it updated is the fastest way to stay connected to the local community exactly when they are searching for what we do in real-time. If you haven’t logged in lately, now is the time to get it updated and engage with the people looking for you. * Link: Google Business Profile 5. The 24/7 Host: Palona.ai We now have “Shawn AI” answering our phones. It’s an incredible automation that ensures we never miss a community connection just because the restaurant is busy. On Father’s Day alone—one of our busiest days of the year—Palona.ai answered over 150 calls that my staff didn’t have to touch. The AI gives directions and even allows guests to place orders via Toast using Voice AI. It keeps the phones ringing and the guests happy without adding stress to the team during the holiday rush. * Link: Palona.ai 6. The Problem Solver: Ovation Ovation is one of our favorite tools because it allows us to have a conversation with a guest before a bad experience becomes a permanent public review. If we forget a side of jalapeño cheddar cornbread in a to-go order, the guest can text the manager on duty immediately through the app. This gives us a chance to fix the problem in real-time. When we make it right, it actually encourages people to write more five-star reviews on the platforms that matter. It’s about being proactive and leading with hospitality. * Link: Ovation 7. The Live Connection: Rising Tides & Pitch the Tide To build community, you have to stay connected and avoid “posting and ghosting” on social media. We host live shows every week to stay connected with other owners and our local fans. Rising Tides is our virtual town square where owners, operators, and tech pros gather every Wednesday and Friday at 10 a.m. Pacific to share secrets. We also just launched Pitch the Tide on Fridays, where tech brands pitch their products and you—the community—get to ask questions and give them direct feedback. It’s all about lifting each other up. * Link: Rising Tides Live Join the Digital Hospitality Community We’ve been in the restaurant business for almost two decades, and the media business for half of that. We’re giving away everything we’ve learned for free on this Substack and wherever you find our content. Whether you have questions about newsletters, B2B content marketing, or social media, we have the resources to help you. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the next part of our 4 Cs series! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit restauranttechnology.substack.com

    6 min
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Restaurant Technology is a weekly business news series hosted by Cali BBQ Media Founder Shawn Walchef. Keep up to date on the latest stories, insights, and thought leadership in the modern restaurant technology landscape. restauranttechnology.substack.com

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