The Simmer
Episodes
Ben Leventhal, Founder & CEO, Blackbird
10 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Leventhal’s impact on the restaurant business can not be overstated. The serial founder successfully launched (and exited) restaurant editoria...
Pablo Rivero, CEO, Resy (round 2)
25 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Big reservations news from American Express this week: this summer, restaurants on Tock will transition to Resy, marking the end of the Tock brand. On...
Maxx Freedman, Founder of Spice
10 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been a minute (actually, years) since ghost kitchens and virtual brands dominated conversations about restaurant delivery. While those business...
Welcome, 2026!
08 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this special edition of The Simmer, Kristen and Brandon talk through that viral Reddit delivery post (and its aftermath), look back on what they go...
Jill Adams, Chief Marketing Officer, El Pollo Loco
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a good time to be a chicken chain. New concepts are taking off and legacy brands, like the 50-year-old El Pollo Loco, are poised for serious gr...
Avi Goren, Co-founder and CEO, Marqii
09 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been almost a decade since Avi Goren launched Marqii to help restaurants get found on the internet. That challenge remains, but search and disc...
Chris DeSaye, VP of Information Technology, Gibson’s Restaurant Group
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 c...
Rachael Nemeth Co-founder & CEO, Opus Training
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Rachael Nemeth runs a technology company, but she thinks like a hospitalitarian. Opus Training is a training operating system designed for multi-unit ...
Elizabeth Tilton, Founder & CEO, Oyster Sunday and OS Benefits
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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’...
Justin Falciola President, Americas, Deliverect
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Former restaurant executives make great restaurant technology executives. Why? They’ve seen the full picture. Before Justin Falciola joined Delivere...
Eli Feldman, Co-Founder & Partner, Shy Bird
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 r...
The Simmer’s Summer Wrap-Up
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 compa...
Cindy Klein Roche, Chief Growth Officer, ezCater
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Rob Edell, GM & Head of DashPass, DoorDash
18 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 DoorDa...
Ilir Sela, Founder & CEO, Slice
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 independe...
Fred LeFranc, CEO, Results Thru Strategy
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this pre-recorded summer special, Kristen and Brandon ask Fred to predict the future. Lucky for us, he’s good at it. In this episode, we talk abo...
Kelly Esten, CMO, Toast
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’re deep in an (unintentional) point of sale system theme at The Simmer. This week, Toast’s chief marketer Kelly Esten joins us to talk enterpri...
Lindsey Irvine, CMO, Square
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Brandon got stuck on a plane, so Kristen flies solo in this interview with Square’s top marketer, Lindsey Irivine. In this episode, we talk about bi...
Krystle Mobayeni, Head of Restaurants, Fiserv
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Fiserv recently unveiled a new point of sale system designed to serve “upper market restaurants,” or restaurants that do more than $1 million in p...
DoorDash buys SevenRooms for $1.2 billion
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s our first emergency podcast! On Tuesday, the biggest day for the restaurant technology business in years, a string of major announcements had o...
Niko Papademetriou SVP, Qu POS
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Is the POS dying? What even is a modern point of sale? Can it shed its old image and become what it always wanted to be: the true hub of modern rest...
Tammy Billings, Business Development, SignalFlare.ai
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tammy Billings has worked in marketing and biz dev for decades and has plenty of experience with restaurant technology. In this far-ranging conversati...
Suzie Tsai, CEO, Bonchon
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Suzie Tsai spent over a decade at restaurant powerhouse Brinker International, leading programs that included Chili’s white-hot beverage business, b...
Tom Cortese, Chief Operating Officer, Kernel Foods
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kernel made a splash when it opened its first New York City restaurant in early 2024. The then-vegan restaurant’s star employee was a robotic arm ta...
Michael Osanloo President & CEO, Portillo’s
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode starts with a lawsuit and an upset: Uber sues DoorDash in San Francisco, and New York Magazine declares all the cool restaurants are on O...
Abhinav Kapur Co-founder and CEO, Bikky
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back on the restaurant loyalty beat this week with Abhinav Kapur, who’s led Bikky for nearly a decade. In this episode, we talk about develo...
Pablo Rivero, CEO, Resy
28 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Finally, Resy CEO Pablo Rivero joins The Simmer, completing our trifecta of interviews with leaders of the country’s largest reservations providers....
Zach Goldstein Founder and CEO, Thanx
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Zach Goldstein is optimistic about the year ahead for restaurants. As founder and CEO of Thanx, a leading guest engagement platform for restaurants, Z...
2024 Year in Review
30 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Here’s something different: for the first time, Kristen and Brandon aren’t hosting a guest on The Simmer. Instead, we’re talking trends — good...
Geoff Alexander, President & CEO, Wow Bao
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Wow Bao started two decades ago as a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Chicago. Since then, it’s grown through modern channels like vending machines, d...
Christine Schindler, Co-Founder and CEO, Pathspot
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last few weeks, foodborne illnesses have killed several people in the U.S., sickening many others. Outbreaks affected major restaurants and r...
Lisa Grimm Co-founder and CEO, Roux
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Recipes on the internet have always been bad. They’re hard to find and even harder to mange. Many have tried to find a fix, but few have completely ...
Sam Bernstein Founder & CEO, Table22
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Founder and CEO of Table22, Sam Bernstein, has some incredible news. He just closed a Series A funding round of 11 million dollars. In the latest epis...
Alice Cheng Founder & CEO, Culinary Agents
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Alice Cheng launched Culinary Agents, a hiring platform for hospitality companies, 12 years ago. Since then, it’s served 2 million users, including ...
Aaron Noveshen Founder & CEO, Starbird
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chef, founder, and industry leader Aaron Noveshen helms San Francisco Bay Area’s Starbird, a chicken concept. Starbird debuted eight years ago hopin...
Robert Sietsema Senior Restaurant Critic, Eater New York
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Sietsema has been reviewing restaurants for over 30 years, and he has some thoughts. Specifically, in this episode, he has thoughts about QR co...
Tracy Kim, CEO, Dig
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dig, formerly Dig Inn, is an East Coast-based chain selling its plates, sandwiches, sides, and salads at 33 locations. CEO Tracy Kim joined Dig nearly...
Debby Soo, CEO, OpenTable
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Reservations are having a moment. So when the biggest player in the game makes big changes to its platform, the industry pays attention. Debby Soo ass...
Gregg Majewski CEO, Craveworthy Brands
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when you apply a startup-esque growth mindset, scale, and principles to restaurants? For Gregg Majewski, CEO of Craveworthy Brands, it me...
Matt Tucker, CEO, Tock
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's been a busy few weeks in the reservations business. Over the summer, American Express, which already owns Resy, announced a $400 million acqu...
Nancy Luna, Restaurant Industry Journalist
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nancy Luna is a veteran restaurant industry reporter and writer. She's covered restaurants in some capacity for over two decades for outlets inclu...
Chip Wade, CEO, Union Square Hospitality Group
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What's the future of full service restaurants? It's easy to get caught up in growth and scale, but in this industry segment, customer experien...
Kyle Norton, Chief Revenue Officer, Owner.com
04 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In January, Owner.com announced a $33 million Series B round of funding, mainly from existing investors. According to Owner.com CRO Kyle Norton, it’...
Noah Glass, founder and CEO, Olo
21 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's been almost 19 years since Olo's first customer, its founder's grandmother, placed a restaurant order via text message. In that time,...
Will Guidara, restaurateur and author of Unreasonable Hospitality
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Since leaving Eleven Madison Park, the New York City fine dining restaurant he led to worldwide renown, nearly five years ago, Will Guidara has evange...
Katie Fogertey, CFO, Shake Shack
30 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As Shake Shack's chief financial officer, Katie Fogertey manages the business's financial actions — that's obvious. But she's as muc...
Alex Sambvani, CEO, Slang.ai
23 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Q: Who calls restaurants on the phone? A: Far more people than we expected. Alex Sambvani is co-founder and CEO of Slang, a voice AI company that answ...
Joseph Unger, COO, Gosh Enterprise
09 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are restaurant people, there are technology people, and there are people who do both. Joe Unger was once a Subway franchisee, then held leadersh...
Camilla Opperman Morse, CEO, Nimbus
02 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Don’t call it a ghost kitchen! NYC-based Nimbus empowers the next generation of breakout food brands, providing dedicated kitchen space in hourly, d...
Savneet Singh, CEO, PAR Technology
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We can't help talking about it, surge pricing is everywhere! Join us for an insightful discussion with Savneet Singh about dynamic pricing and cu...