What if I told you that the difference between struggling and thriving in the restaurant industry is just one conversation away? I’m Josh Kopel, a Michelin-awarded restaurateur who’s spent decades building blockbuster brands across every tier of dining. I know the challenges you’re facing—because I’ve been there. That’s why I created FULL COMP. Every week, I go one-on-one with the smartest minds in the game: restaurateurs, chefs, and industry insiders who’ve cracked the code. Together, we unpack…
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What if the reason you survive your own mistakes has nothing to do with how smart you are, and everything to do with your product? Ashley Morris spent years in finance before he bought the sandwich shop he was obsessed with in college. Today he's the CEO of Capriotti's and Wing Zone. He'll tell you the real asset he bought was product-market fit so undeniable it gave him room to make every mistake…
What if the smartest thing you can do for your restaurant is refuse to rush it? Nick Wong spent twenty years in kitchens like Momofuku and UB Preserv while peers opened their own places at 28. He waited until 40, and his partner Lisa Lee left a tech career at companies like DoorDash and Facebook to build it with him. Together they opened Agnes and Sherman, an Asian American diner in Houston, on…
What if the operators most likely to build something unforgettable are the ones who have never run a restaurant? Dave Shah and Camilla Caremoli had never worked a shift in hospitality before opening CasaDamí. Dave built a global tech studio and thinks in brand. Camilla comes from four generations of an Italian food family and thinks in operations. A year in, they've built the kind of room a…
What if the thin margins crushing your restaurant aren't the industry's fault at all? Hamed Mazrouei came into restaurants as a total outsider. He built Vivant, the managed network company that keeps thousands of restaurants online, and he refuses to accept the beliefs operators treat as gospel. In this conversation, we get into why the thin margins operators blame on the industry actually come…
What if the new customers you keep chasing are the reason your restaurant isn't growing? Ryan Volberg has spent more than two decades building the tools restaurants actually needed, from the first cloud POS to earned wage access. Now, as founder of Guestologie, he's attacking the most expensive blind spot in hospitality: the anonymous guest who walks in, gets seated, and leaves without anyone…
What if the smartest way to grow in a market full of closures is to keep every restaurant small? Adam Weisblatt co-founded Last Word Hospitality and turned Found Oyster, a 777-square-foot oyster bar, into a seven-restaurant group that keeps expanding while famous names around it close. In this conversation, we get into why a tiny footprint takes the pressure off your rent and your margins, why he…
What if spending more on your staff is the fastest path to a more profitable restaurant? Jon Murray washed dishes at Applebee's and spent six years in music before rising to Chief Restaurant Officer at Indigo Road, running more than 20 concepts on someone else's terms. Then he walked away to build Noko and Kase in East Nashville on a people-over-profit model most operators would call reckless. In…
What if your biggest profit leak is hiding behind the bar, in the engine your guests never see? Tobin Ellis spent 30 years behind the stick before he started designing bars for a living. As founder of Studio Barmagic, he's redesigned everything from NFL stadiums to five-diamond resorts, once lifting a landmark hotel bar's revenue 131% in a single quarter. In this conversation, we get into why your…
What if owning a restaurant isn’t the win you think it is, but a risk most people misunderstand? Helen Johannesen didn’t just step into ownership, she sacrificed for it. Walking away from financial stability and taking a major pay cut, she bet on herself and a single restaurant that could have gone either way. Today, she’s a partner behind one of LA’s most respected hospitality groups and the…
What if the smartest thing you can do with your single biggest advantage is hand it to the competition? Brendan and Bianca Shah run Chado Tea Room and the wholesale arm, International Tea Importers, the family business their father Devan built into one of the engines of America's specialty tea culture. When he died in 2016, the two of them inherited a company that lived entirely in his head and…
What if the real thing holding your restaurant back is your refusal to trust your own taste? Jeremy Lett spent 26 years at Bloomin' Brands building food for Outback, Carrabba's, Fleming's, and Bonefish before taking over innovation at Cracker Barrel, a 650-unit institution he joined right as the brand was weathering its biggest public firestorm in decades. In this conversation, we get into why a…
What if you can't actually manage your people, and every hour you spend trying is the reason your restaurant won't scale? Seth Gerber co-owns MIDA, a six-restaurant Italian group out of Boston, and was a 2024 James Beard semifinalist for Best Restaurateur. He came up through Hillstone, earned his sommelier pin and an MBA, and treats outlearning everyone in the room as his only real edge. In this…
