Akash Mirchandani is a Partner at Kitchen Fund, a leading investment firm focused on the emerging restaurant space. Kitchen Fund aims to fuel the brands that are changing how we eat, including investments in some popular restaurants you may have heard of such as sweetgreen, CAVA, and Curry Up Now. Prior to Kitchen Fund Akash worked in Blackstone’s Private Equity Group, graduated from Harvard where he was captain of the golf team, and deepened his passion for the food industry through a brief...
Host Bryan Tublin shares his top 10 lessons learned from Season 1 of My First Restaurant. Top 10 Lessons Learned: Know why you’re getting into the businessTest your concept first!Timing and momentum mattersRaise enough capital – Things always cost more and take longer than you thinkChoose the right contractor for your buildoutCentralized Commissary vs. Store-Level Production? There’s no right answerDo, Delegate, or DeprioritizeTake care of yourself firstLook for self awareness and a growth mi...
“I work really hard, and my staff works really hard, so I have to be in love with that city and that community to do the work that I do.” — Dominica Rice-Cisneros is the Chef & Owner of Bombera in Oakland, California. During her long career as a line cook, Dominica worked her way up in fine dining establishments such as Chez Panisse and The Four Seasons, before opening her first restaurant Cosecha to showcase her take on California Mexican cuisine. Forced to close Cosecha during...
“You want more happy employees that are gonna turn to happy guests, and in order to do that you don’t want your team to feel overwhelmed.” — Mistie Boulton is the CEO of Oren’s Hummus, and the President and Founder of EyeSpy Critiquing & Consulting, a mystery shopping and operations improvement business for the service industry. Mistie brings 20+ years of restaurant industry experience to this conversation, where we dive deep into why she decided to start a mystery shopping busine...
“Don’t ever even consider opening a restaurant unless you have worked in and ideally managed one.” — This week’s guest is Gabriel Baldinucci, co-founder of Baldinucci Pizza Romana, a “fast premium” pizza restaurant based in Austin, Texas. In this interview we discuss the origins of the concept, as well as: Why Gabriel believes the market for “fast premium” concepts is increasing as consumer palates become more sophisticatedWhat the team did prior to opening to build buzz and refine their reci...