Restaurant Tech Trends

On Restaurant Tech Trends, we interview movers and shakers in the restaurant industry to identify how technology is changing the way multi-unit restaurants work.

Restaurant Tech Trends is a technology podcast hosted by Justin Foster, with 75 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Justin Foster hosts Restaurant Tech Trends, a technology show with 75 episodes published.

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  Restaurant Tech Trends

  Kevin Nemeth, EVP & Chief Commercial Officer @ Church's Texas Chicken

  Sep 30, 202649 min

  Today on Restaurant Tech Trends I sit down with Kevin Nemeth, EVP and Chief Commercial Officer at Church's Texas Chicken, the San Antonio original turning 75 next year and now running more than 1,400 restaurants across 25 countries. Kevin came into the restaurant space from L'Oreal, TD Bank, and HSN, walked into Popeyes in early 2020 with a digital team of three, and left with digital at nearly 20% of sales and five million rewards members. WATCH AND LEARN Why Church's splits 50/50 first party vs third party when most of the industry sits at 90/10 The T-Mobile Tuesday blowup that still shapes how he plans every promotion five years later How Church's tested AI internally and where it's adding the most value for the brand today Where he's building instead of buying and how he sees that trend evolving over the coming years His litmus test for whether tech enables hospitality or just hands your work to the guest, and why the kiosk on the counter fails it Shout outs to Qu and Olo for the tech stack love along the way. PLUS the rapid fire round, where Kevin names the most UNDERRATED tech in restaurants and finishes with "five years from now, the drive-thru is ___" Give it a watch and let me know what you think

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  Restaurant Tech Trends

  Eusha Bajwa, Founder/CEO @ Meal Dynamics

  Sep 2, 202640 min

  His uncle started as a Papa John's delivery driver, then bought a single store in East Liverpool with a pile of used equipment. That business is now 275 restaurants across 10 states and they're rapidly closing in on 500. Today on Restaurant Tech Trends I sit down with Eusha Bajwa, who leads technology for the Bajco Group and is Founder & CEO of Meal Dynamics. Eusha got tired of watching the back office run on spreadsheets and email, built the fix in-house, and turned it into a product he now sells to other operators. First-time founder, and his own toughest customer. WATCH AND LEARN The one sentence his uncle uses to describe how they run 275 stores. It reframes everything. Where franchisees actually have room to move on tech — and it's not where the franchisor is looking What happened when he took his "perfect" all-in-one to his own ops teams His answer on whether AI is shrinking his dev team. Most people guess wrong. ➕ PLUS the rapid fire round: the garlic sauce move you'll want to steal, the most OVERRATED restaurant tech, and how he finishes "the back office should feel like ___" Give it a watch and let me know what you think

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  Restaurant Tech Trends

  Aaron LeClair, VP Technology @ Jeff's Bagel Run

  Aug 27, 202645 min

  They built their own POS. For bagels. On purpose. Today on Restaurant Tech Trends I sit down with Aaron LeClair, VP of Technology at Jeff's Bagel Run, the Orlando-born chain famous for bagels baked hot ALL day long, now closing in on 40 locations (and eyeing 50 by year's end). A career technologist who came up in defense, climate tech, and supply-chain startups, Aaron traded enterprise software for fresh-baked bagels and built the brand's tech stack - POS and all - from scratch. WATCH AND LEARN How "we just need one more piece of data" snowballed into building the ENTIRE stack in-house The two-layer forecasting problem that makes bagels harder to predict than pizza or donuts How they scaled the "what's hot?" moment every regular loves - without anyone yelling to the back The thing they could easily build but flat-out REFUSE to (prepare for a controversial take) Where he thinks the next phase of franchise growth is actually won - and it's not where everyone's looking ➕ PLUS the rapid fire round: Aaron's no-diplomacy bagel order, the cream cheese schmear that actually KICKS, the restaurant tech he says is most overrated, and a coffee confession he admits is "basic." Aaron's one of the rare builders who'll tell you exactly which tech to skip - and as someone whose own daughter works a bagel counter, I loved every minute of this one. Give it a watch and let me know what you think

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  Restaurant Tech Trends

  Ted Hardy, Sr. Director Tech Transformation @ Topgolf

  Aug 10, 202644 min

  He doesn't golf... but he rebuilt the tech behind Topgolf! Today on Restaurant Tech Trends I sit down with Ted Hardy, Senior Director of Technology Transformation at Topgolf - the entertainment destination where gameplay, food, beverage, and events all run under one (very loud) roof. Ted spent two decades at the forefront of restaurant tech before this, with senior product and engineering roles at KFC and digital strategy at Papa John's, plus his own consulting firm and early days at Oracle and Lexmark. WATCH AND LEARN Why the "point-of-sale project" he was hired for turned out to be something WAY bigger Why a Topgolf venue has to network more like a PHONE than a PC - and what that ruled out The counterintuitive fix that made thousands of order line items just… disappear The daily admin grind he killed at every venue - one employee literally teared up His contrarian 5-year bet: the tech everyone's hyping that he says is oversold (and the vendors he thinks are in trouble) Shout out to Toast for the tech-stack love along the way (plus Toptracer, Topgolf's own in-venue tech). ➕ PLUS the rapid fire round, where Ted names the most OVERHYPED tech in restaurants, his build-it-or-buy-it gut instinct, and the operator mentor he still texts every few months. Ted and I discovered we're both former music students who wandered into restaurant tech - and it turns out "helping other people be great" is the same job in both worlds. Give it a watch and let me know what you think

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  Restaurant Tech Trends

  Ken Knapton, CIO @ WIN Brands (Costa Vida & FatCats Entertainment)

  Jul 30, 202651 min

  Tech debt isn't a liability to wipe out. It's leverage to manage - like debt on a balance sheet. Too much and you're bankrupt; too little and you can't move. That's the idea Dr. Ken Knapton literally wrote the book on. Today on Restaurant Tech Trends I sit down with Ken, Chief Information Officer at WIN Brands, the parent company of Costa Vida, Fresh Mexican Grill and FatCats Entertainment . Ken took the scenic route into restaurants - two decades in the CIO seat across enterprise software, banking, and security - and it shows in how clearly he thinks about the why before anyone writes a line of code. WATCH AND LEARN How he runs IT for two brands that could not look more different - a made-to-order burrito line and a 70,000-square-foot cinema-bowling-arcade - and where he found economies of scale everyone told him weren't there Tech debt as LEVERAGE, not liability - the ~20% "sweet spot," and why your org will never (and shouldn't) hit zero The "have the WHY conversation first" rule - and how a simple Fat Cats CRM request turned into a single customer-data foundation across both brands Why he's NOT chasing all-in-one nirvana - his four-vendor, best-of-breed, plug-and-play philosophy Where customer-facing AI is genuinely READY vs. still on the cusp - and why "watching your burrito be born" down the line is a brand promise he won't automate away Shout outs to Toast , Olo , Snowflake , Tableau , and Sparkfly for the tech-stack love along the way. ➕ PLUS the rapid fire round, where Ken breaks the one-word rule twice, names the most OVERRATED tech in restaurants and reveals the best money he spent on tech this year. Give it a watch and let me know what you think. Full episode linked in comments

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