Episodes

Ben Morgan, Tyler Morgan, and Mallory Morgan of 1925 PubHouse in Anderson, Indiana join Digital Hospitality to share how a family restaurant is evolving in public. From losing a job during COVID to embracing smartphone storytelling, they discuss blending old-school marketing with modern tech. This episode explores leadership on camera, leveraging Toast and integrated tools, and why embracing the cringe might be the most powerful growth strategy in 2026. Embrace the Cringe to Unlock Growth – Mal...

Julia Tinajero, co-owner of Basilico Italiano in Concord, North Carolina, joins Digital Hospitality to share how a one-pound mozzarella stick and a chicken Caesar wrap went viral and transformed her 85-seat restaurant. She explains how building menu items in public, embracing transparency, and responding to critics fueled real growth. This episode explores the power of short-form video, the realities of sudden demand, and why pressing record can change a restaurant’s trajectory. Build in Public...

Shawn Walchef sits down with Chef Christophe Cevasco, owner of Beeside Balcony, to talk about building a restaurant with focus, presence, and ownership. Cevasco shares what he learned leaving corporate dining, buying his first restaurant just before COVID, and resisting the urge to scale too fast. The conversation explores storytelling through YouTube, using technology to support hospitality, and why showing up for guests still matters most. Interview Takeaways: Ownership Creates Clarity – Cev...

In this Pitch The Tide session, Will Stewart, founder of rightwork, pitches a labor scheduling platform built to help restaurant managers make better decisions before the week begins. Rightwork forecasts demand, turns it into clear labor targets, and guides managers toward schedules that balance service, staffing, and profitability. Instead of static spreadsheets or guesswork, the platform gives teams real-time feedback on overstaffing, understaffing, and budget alignment. The focus of the pitch...

Public speaking does not generate revenue by selling from the stage. It generates revenue by building belief. Shawn Walchef breaks down why pitching kills trust, why stories outperform sales decks, and how serving an audience creates leverage long after the room clears. From stage theory to the courage required to start small and stay consistent, this piece reframes public speaking as a long game built on connection, repetition, and earning trust over time. Interview Takeaways: Service Creates...

Patrick Cattoor , Vice President of Operations at My Burger, joins Shawn Walchef on Digital Hospitality to discuss how the Twin Cities burger brand has scaled to 11 locations without losing its focus on people and service. Cattoor shares how his background in public accounting shaped his approach to operations, labor, and leadership, and why hospitality in a quick service environment requires intentional systems. He explains how partnering with rightwork brought clarity to scheduling, reduced ma...

In this Pitch The Tide session, Kim Modeste, founder and CEO of S’more AI, shares what she learned from years of watching how restaurants actually try to drive sales. She explains the simple truth about contests: they work, but only for as long as people stay excited about them. Kim walks through why most contests fizzle out once the spreadsheets come out, and how S’more AI keeps the energy going by making incentives easy, automatic, and part of the flow of service. The result is a system that h...

Shawn Walchef f did not build a media company by buying better cameras. He built it by learning how to use the tools already in his hands. For him, the smartphone became a studio, the camera became a business engine, and publishing became a daily habit instead of a marketing tactic. Over time, documenting replaced waiting, and consistency replaced perfection. Now, artificial intelligence has become the next force multiplier, removing bottlenecks and accelerating everything from analysis to conte...

Belief took center stage on Rising Tides Live as Shawn Walchef and the community explored what it really takes to build credibility before you have results to point to. From running small experiments and finding champions to showing up consistently and being willing to look foolish in public, founders, operators, creators, and leaders shared real stories about earning trust before earning proof. A clear theme emerged: credibility is built through action, relationships, and keeping promises long ...

Paul Krug, founder of Glaze Teriyaki, joins Shawn Walchef on Digital Hospitality to share how a Seattle staple became a New York fast-casual mainstay. Krug reflects on scaling thoughtfully, learning hard lessons about expansion, and building systems that support people instead of adding pressure. He explains how partnering with KitchenSync gave Glaze financial clarity, empowered managers, and helped the brand grow calmly and sustainably without losing its soul. Interview Takeaways: Growth Foll...

In this Pitch The Tide session, Matt Haselhoff, founder of One Goal Consulting, breaks down why the restaurant technology ecosystem has become noisy, fragmented, and increasingly hard for operators to navigate. Drawing on decades of experience across restaurant tech and integrations, Matt explains how sales pressure, vendor sprawl, and broken trust have created a confusing buying environment for brands. He introduces One Goal Consulting’s modern “manufacturer’s rep” model, which curates best-in-...

Andre and Suheir Williams share how S2 Grills grew from a nightclub food concept into a multi-state brand with nine locations and over a million lamb chops sold. They break down what it really takes to scale without drowning in back-office chaos, why sales tax nearly became a monthly nightmare, and how automating it with Davo changed everything. The conversation explores building a “championship village,” keeping a core team intact through rapid growth, and why staying curious, showing up to ind...

2026 goals took center stage on Rising Tides Live as the community gathered to reflect on the lessons of 2025 and set intentions for the year ahead. With Mike Bisceglia and Elizabeth Doss filling in for Shawn Walchef, operators, creators, technologists, and founders shared stories about growth, resilience, and the power of simply showing up during busy and uncertain seasons. From building new ventures and giving back to local communities to embracing content, connection, and consistency, a clear...

Shawn Walchef’s relationship with Sam The Cooking Guy reveals how mentorship, authenticity, and proximity shape modern influence. Built through real conversations and shared experiences, their connection highlights why being yourself scales further than performing, why relationships matter more than platforms, and why today’s most durable restaurant brands and media companies grow from trust, consistency, and showing up long before the spotlight arrives. Interview Takeaways: Authenticity Scale...

In this Pitch The Tide session, Runbin Dong, CEO and founder of Scale Social, shares how his family’s restaurant roots led him to rethink modern restaurant marketing. Drawing from firsthand operator experience, Runbin explains why authentic customer content consistently outperforms polished ads and influencer campaigns. He introduces Scale Social’s QR-driven platform, which turns everyday guests into brand advocates by capturing real moments in-store, rewarding participation instantly, and ampli...

Shawn Walchef’s journey building restaurants and media reveals a deeper lesson about how modern leaders grow influence. After years of showing up, asking bigger questions, and learning in public, he began to see the patterns that separate short-term wins from long-term impact. This piece explores why consistency beats breakthroughs, why visibility creates leverage, and why today’s most effective founders are not just building companies, but building their own media. Interview Takeaways: Consis...

2026 goals took center stage on Rising Tides Live as the community gathered to reflect on the lessons of 2025 and set intentions for the year ahead. With Mike Bisceglia and Elizabeth Doss filling in for Shawn Walchef, operators, creators, technologists, and founders shared stories about growth, resilience, and the power of simply showing up during busy and uncertain seasons. From building new ventures and giving back to local communities to embracing content, connection, and consistency, a clear...

Labor scheduling has quietly become one of the most fragile pressure points in restaurant operations. Will Stewart, founder and CEO of rightwork, draws on his experience inside Starbucks to show how labor targets, human behavior, and unpredictable demand collide at the store level. He breaks down why traditional scheduling fails in real-world conditions and how forecasting, labor modeling, and AI-supported tools can help managers build schedules that reflect actual demand while keeping decision-...

Shawn Walchef shares the hard lessons learned while scaling a modern media company from passion project to profitable business. After years of creating content without revenue, growth came through hiring sooner, reevaluating technology constantly, and expanding beyond a single show. The story reframes media as an operating business, not a hobby, showing how people, systems, and multiple products create leverage. The result is a practical blueprint for creators ready to turn consistency into mome...

Shawn Walchef sits down with Roger Beaudoin, founder of Restaurant Rockstars, to explore where real profit is hiding inside restaurant operations. Drawing on decades as an operator, Roger shares why menu engineering is often the biggest financial lever owners ignore, and how tightening profit spreads can unlock meaningful gains without raising prices. The conversation moves through leadership versus management, empowering teams to think like owners, and building loyalty through recurring revenue...

Shawn Walchef shares why investing in an on-ground media team was the turning point in transforming his content into a profitable media business. After years of producing with no revenue, Walchef explains how in-person production elevated credibility, strengthened guest relationships, and unlocked sponsorship opportunities that virtual content could not. From early financial risk to scaling seven figures in brand deals, this episode breaks down why presence matters, how to reverse engineer produ...

Shawn Walchef sits down with Christine de Wendel, Co-Founder & CEO US of sunday, to explore why payment is one of the most overlooked moments in hospitality. Christine shares how the frustration of settling a check inspired sunday’s creation during COVID and how a simple QR-based payment experience evolved into a powerful tool for guest engagement and insight. The conversation touches on table turns, tipping, Google reviews, point of sale integrations, and the differences between European and US...

In this episode of Pitch The Tide, Nick Bryant, VP of Sales at Powerhouse Dynamics, shares how more than two decades in hospitality shaped his belief that the back of house is the next frontier of restaurant innovation. Drawing from experience on both the operator and enterprise sides, Nick explains why visibility, uptime, and consistency matter more than ever for multi-unit brands. He introduces Open Kitchen, Powerhouse’s connected operations platform, and breaks down how real-time equipment da...

Shawn Walchef explains why leaving your business to attend trade shows and conferences is one of the most overlooked growth strategies in hospitality. Drawing from seventeen years of experience, he shares how showing up in person leads to stronger relationships, better content, faster learning, and real business opportunities. From B2B networking and proximity to industry leaders to securing six-figure brand deals simply by being in the room, Walchef reframes conferences as leverage rather than ...