Category: Podcast

Longtime restaurant exec and OpenTable advisory board member Chris DeSaye knows the bookings business as well as anyone and has a clear view of what comes next. In this episode, we talk DoorDash, artificial intelligence, and, of course, the always-evolving reservations biz. 

Rachael Nemeth runs a technology company, but she thinks like a hospitalitarian. Opus Training is a training operating system designed for multi-unit restaurants, helping empower front-line restaurant workers, including managers. In this episode, we talk about modern restaurant training, AI, and why the human touch is still supreme, even if the bots are helping. 

Topic Time Stamps:

1:00: An update on the state of the reservations business: alliances, strategies, money, and more

7:16: Conversational AI comes to the point of sale

9:36: Welcome, Rachael

13:43: What happens when large restaurant groups don’t have good data about their workforce

16:30: How good staff training translates (fast!) to better restaurant operations

20:50: What’s AI’s role, now and in the future? 

26:53: What about cameras in restaurants? (The case for and against)

33:51: When computer vision helps employees

36:29: The promise of human interaction at restaurants in an AI-infused world

Elizabeth Tilton started her career cooking in New Orleans before moving to join the marketing team at Momofuku in New York City. Years later, she’s translated that back-of-house experience to her own consultancy, Oyster Sunday, which acts as a back office for restaurants across the country. That led to a second company, OS Benefits, which provides ACA-compliant health insurance and wellness benefits to independent hospitality businesses across the country. In this episode, we talk through all the facets of dining out in 2025, and what we’re all excited for in the future.

Topic Time Stamps:

1:27: Here come apps — including OpenTable and DoorDash! — inside ChatGPT

8:00: “That cute little robot” from DoorDash.” 

11:53: Welcome, Elizabeth + all about Oyster Sunday and OS Benefits

19:30: As a consultant, what are restaurants worried about? What are you hearing at scale?

26:40: Thoughts on Emeril’s in New Orleans? (Spoiler alert: it’s incredible!) 

33:35: How restaurants can find the right balance between tech and hospitality, and who Elizabeth looks to for inspiration.

Former restaurant executives make great restaurant technology executives. Why? They’ve seen the full picture. Before Justin Falciola joined Deliverect, he was a prospect, spending years working in tech at Papa John’s and later CKE Restaurants, parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s. In this episode, we talk pizza, drive-thrus, AI, and new opportunities — plus, of course, DoorDash’s big reservations news!

Topic Time Stamps:

1:30: News! DoorDash announces its SevenRooms integration

10:00: …and they made a robot.

13:25: Welcome, Justin + more on his front-row seat to the digital restaurant transformation

23:00: Kristen makes a late arrival to the pod + Justin discusses making the leap from restaurant exec to restaurant technology exec

27:50: Why ex-restaurant people make great restaurant tech people

30:03: Should restaurant companies move faster, like at the speed of tech companies?

37:04: How AI and LLMs are changing the way we order at restaurants — and where to find the real opportunities

42:50: (Spoiler alert: the AI opportunity is in the drive-thru, but not where you think!)

Eli Feldman runs Shy Bird, a restaurant with three locations in Boston. He’s also a tech early adopter and excited (and curious!) about how AI can reshape restaurants. In this episode, we talk about Eli’s recent AI hackathon for restaurants, what tools he finds especially useful, and how we might all reimagine the future of restaurants. 

Topic Time Stamps:

1:30: Welcome back! And a Welcome Conference debrief

10:30: Welcome, Eli + all about the recent AI in restaurants hackathon he hosted in Boston (and why last-minute scheduling works great for a restaurant crowd)

13:55: What’s broken in modern restaurants? What needs to be addressed? 

16:56: Why thinking about AI as a replacement for people is the wrong idea

23:51: Cool AI idea: custom GPTs for menu development

27:41: How Eli encourages AI use at Shy Bird…

30:28: …and why some of the best tools for restaurants are not built specifically for restaurants

35:43: Do you have concerns about privacy or proprietary data?

38:39: Why the internet (and we) need a better classification system for restaurants

In this episode of the Restaurant AI Podcast, Matt Wampler, CEO and Co-Founder of ClearCOGS, sits down with Brandon Barton, CEO of Bite, to explore how kiosk ordering, AI, and deep restaurant experience are shaping the future of guest interactions.

Brandon shares his 25-year journey from bussing tables in Brooklyn to running the dining room at a Danny Meyer restaurant, making the leap to restaurant tech at Averro, and eventually leading Bite—a software company bringing “e-commerce on a touchscreen” into restaurants nationwide. He explains why Bite focuses on software over hardware, how kiosk ordering can be as (or more) hospitable than face-to-face, and why technology should be an additive part of the guest experience, not a replacement for it. They dive into how AI-driven recommendations can adapt in real time to weather, regional trends, and guest behavior, the concept of “unified guest identification,” and why hospitality at scale often comes down to simple gestures—like giving away fries when you don’t have to. Brandon also shares his perspective on the fractured state of restaurant technology, why costs dropping will lead to more niche players (not fewer), and the importance of working with tech leaders who have restaurant roots.

From hands-on stories about catching escaped roosters to forward-looking ideas about AI agents and data co-ops, this conversation blends humor, operational wisdom, and a candid look at the next wave of restaurant technology.

Topic Time Stamps

00:00 Intro
02:25 Welcome Brandon Barton
03:03 Understanding the business of kiosks in restaurants
7:00 Why kiosks work for an ordering experience
10:55 Point of sale in 2025
14:46 Technology renaissance in the restaurant industry
19:13 Brandon’s background in technology
23:13 Remaining a restaurant person despite a pivot to technology
27:16 Brandon’s calling is to help restaurants embrace technology
29:50 The future of ordering and the guest experience
37:26 The psychology of kiosk ordering
40:05 Using AI to help you order
41:13 The future of the restaurant technology industry
44:34 Restaurant brands building technology
47:15 Ex-restaurant people make better technology
49:07 Relationship between technology and restaurants
52:33 What Bite is doing with AI today
55:40 Learning about how people order
57:25 The best conversations about kiosks
58:40 Advice for choosing technology
1:01:08 Best curated customer experience
1:01:30 Favorite wine
1:01:33 Favorite LLM
1:02:06 Advice for restaurant technology companies
1:02:27 The future for Bite
1:02:44 Outro

It’s a Kristen-and-Brandon summer special! The Simmer checks in on what Brandon dubs “reservation wars 3.0” as the biggest restaurant tech companies in the space — reservations and beyond — choose sides. In this episode we talk DoorDash, SevenRooms, Uber, OpenTable, Toast, Resy, Tock and more. The Simmer will return after Labor Day with more industry guests and insight. 

Topic Time Stamp:

2:19: “The most interesting subject in the space of restaurant technology right now is the alignment of enemies.” 

7:25: What do all of these tech companies *actually* want? 

17:00: Will big tech alignment strategies fill seats at restaurants? 

20:34: DoorDash + McDonald’s is an example of how the biggest restaurant tech companies are thinking about their future outside of reservations.

24:25: Given all of this evolution, what’s best for restaurant guests?

29:40: (Wait, are reservations companies still cutting restaurants checks?)

38:12: Brandon makes his prediction: “The dark horse here is the deep pockets of SevenRooms and DoorDash.”

Restaurant catering — and the tech that powers it — is hot, hot, hot. At nearly 20 years old, ezCater is poised to take advantage of the renewed interest from office workers and the restaurants that serve them. In this episode, we talk about the evolution of catering, the tech that supports it, and why a little reassurance and hand-holding goes a long way with corporate clients. 

Before Rob Edell was DoorDash’s head of DashPass, he was a restaurant tech founder building a business he eventually sold to Resy. Rob joined DoorDash years before it became the market leader it is today, and after almost a decade of the company, he’s had a front row seat to the evolving restaurant business. In this episode, we talk about DoorDash’s growth and evolution, how DashPass encourages loyalty, and what’s coming next. 

Ilir Sela has been helping local pizzerias with purpose-built tech for over a decade. Slice got its start as an online ordering platform for independent pizzerias and now offers much more: Point of sale, loyalty, delivery, and even supply chain support, printing custom pizza boxes and delivering them to customers. In this episode, we talk about first-party and third-party delivery, the newest crop of ovens, and (of course!) what makes really great pizza.