Science On Call: Tech Support for Restaurants

First stop on the 2024 Flavor Fest Tour is, of course, my hometown of Boston. As many know, Boston boasts a rich culinary landscape, blending historic New England charm with modern gastronomic innovation. The city's history as a bustling port (1 if by Land, 2 if by Sea, #amiright), has shaped its diverse food culture, making it a haven for seafood lovers, especially with its world-famous clam 'chowdah'. The city continues to evolve and shift to changing tastes, needs, embracing a wider range of diverse culinary influences, and emphasis on market-hall style eating experiences. Like many cities on the East Coast, it blends old with new that honors history without preventing cultural change. Today, I'll be checking out PLNT Burger's new Boston location (348 Harrison Ave), and getting a little peek behind the curtain of what goes into opening a new location for a growing brand. Surprising to no one, I LOVE PLNT Burger's ethos, emphasis on planet and community, in harmony with truly mouth-watering flavor combinations. More to come from Co-Founders Christopher Treloar and Jonah Goldman, as we hang out this afternoon! Also, if you'd like to follow along on the road trip, Andy Freivogel has given me the keys to the Science On Call: Tech Support for Restaurants Instagram account (😮): https://lnkd.in/gmraQ34U #flavorfest2024 #scienceclub #restauranttech #dinersdriveinsanddives #wickedlocal #chickensummer

In pre-gaming a minor personal milestone, my wife single-handedly curated a food crawl over the weekend that nearly rivaled those of my friends 🍔🍟🍕🎙 David "Rev" Ciancio and 🍽️Zack Oates🍕. We hit every station of the cross in terms of Chicago street food. Vito N Nick's Tavern Style Pizza! Birreria Zaragoza (incredible goat tacos & consumme!). Ramen-dogs from Stick-It! Johnnie's Italian Beef! Pardon me while I nap for 12 days. Oh, and loving the new bags from Go Get Em Tiger... congrats Elena Ceridono and team! #chicago #chicagofood #restaurants #restauranttech #pizza #coffee

National Donut Day! Am I the only one not partaking? I'm allowed a total of about 12 donuts a year, because I married up and need to stay on top of my game. When I _do_ indulge, however, here are some of my favorites: 1) OAK PARK FARMERS' MARKET: Every Saturday from Memorial Day through October, you can line up for fresh made cake donuts that benefit a different charity each weekend. No frills, just deep fried goodness: Plain, Cinnamon, and Powdered Sugar, which frankly will have you looking like a Scarface outtake. We walk a mile plus each way to get them on Memorial Day Weekend: that cancels the calories, right? 2) https://enjoybrite.com/ the bakery sibling of Chicago's superior Metric Coffee Co. They absolutely crush it with such flavors as yuzu and blackberry integrated into these outstanding yeast donuts. I take them to band practice on Sunday afternoons occasionally. 3) 7/11 GLAZED DONUTS: One of my fondest memories of child-rearin' is how the younger, quieter one would always be magically ready for a ride to school a few minutes early: she'd factored in the time it would take to stop at 7/11 and take advantage of the BOGO on glazed donuts. They are fresh and still warm at 7:48am. Light as a feather, ridiculously sweet, and synonymous with watching kids approaching growing up with the kind of bad decisions that won't exactly haunt us for the rest of our lives, but instead are gentle reminders of how we must navigate the freedoms of adulthood carefully : ) #nationaldonutday

Restaurant Operators heading to National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago -- Join us Science On Call: Tech Support for Restaurants and Redstick Ventures for a Happy Hour Monday night at HUE Chicago. Andy Freivogel and team are great hosts! Hope to see you there!! https://lnkd.in/gzFMqCS7

Restaurant Operators! Headed to Chicago for the National Restaurant Show? Please join us at HUE Chicago on Monday, 5/20, from 5pm to 8pm. We'd love to show YOU some hospitality! https://lnkd.in/gXxaEGu6

UPDATE: thanks to all of you for the recs… looks like Green Street Smoke Meats FTW!! Chicago & Restaurant Friends! What are some places in Fulton Market that you feel deliver a great casual dining experience, somethign akin to a sports bar or even family restaurant? My go-to is probably Kuma's Corner but I'd love to get your opinions on other places with that kind of energy. Heavy metal is not a requirement but it is important to me.

Who is someone who you interacted with for a brief time but had an outsized and lasting impact on your organization? I hope there are many! For me, one of those people has been Mark Roddy. While we were gearing up to raise our seed round, we were excited about how we'd leverage machine intelligence and automation in our product. But we had no idea how we'd execute. One of our investors heard me talk through this struggle, and sent me an email. "Saw this guy on twitter: he seems like someone who could help." The investor didn't even know Mark, but something Mark had said about MI/AI had resonated, so I reached out. Mark first opened our eyes to the possibilities of what we could do, and how we'd transform a tech-enabled services company into a pure SaaS product. But more importantly, he coached the founders toward reaching a unified vision of not only what we could do, but how we would do it. Mark has done this for lots of companies. If you are looking for that spark to propel your vision and execution-- and not just be another company wrapping ChatGPT around your services product-- I highly recommend reaching out to Mark and spending some time with him.