Office Hours: Serving This Guest Will Scale Your Restaurant

I’m Josh Kopel, a Michelin-awarded restaurateur and the creator of the Restaurant Scaling System. I’ve spent decades in the industry, building, scaling, and coaching restaurants to become more profitable and sustainable. On this show, I cut through the noise to give you real, actionable strategies that help independent restaurant owners run smarter, more successful businesses.

In this episode, I dig into something I wish I’d learned a lot sooner — how to build a profitable restaurant that doesn’t eat you alive. Hustle alone won’t cut it. I talk about what it really takes to break free from burnout: shifting your mindset and reconnecting with what genuinely fires you up. When we chase what excites us, we craft experiences our guests can’t resist. I share how showing up authentically — in how we engage with folks and how we market our businesses — draws in the right people and keeps them coming back. Because at the end of the day, if you build a restaurant that feeds your soul, it’ll feed your bank account too.

Takeaways:

• Most restaurant owners think they need more guests.
• Profit isn't random, it's engineered.
• You need to change you and the way you see your restaurant.
• Design a restaurant that you love.
• Your best customers don't need a great reason to come back.
• Stop pushing lazy offers.
• Write marketing campaigns that would make you come in.
• Audit your menu and guest experience.
• Build a brand that you would fall in love with.
• Engage with customers authentically.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Full Comp and Profitability Masterclass
01:37 Transforming Your Restaurant's Approach to Marketing
05:04 Creating Irresistible Experiences for Guests
07:41 Engaging with Customers Authentically

If you’ve got a marketing or profitability related question for me, email me directly at josh@joshkopel.com and include Office Hours in the subject line. If you'd like to scale the profitability of your restaurant in only 5 days, sign up for our FREE 5 Day Restaurant Profitability Challenge by visiting https://joshkopel.com.