Friends of Branded!
Happy Saturday, and I hope you had a great week.
The race is on and while there is no official finish line (b/c this race will go on forever), the leader board is constantly being watched and is always changing.
First, why does this race have no finish line? As one of Branded’s LPs likes to remind me whenever we discuss our respective investing strategies, unless something will go forever, it will end. And I like to remind him, that the food & beverage industry will go on forever b/c people will eat & drink, every day, for the rest of their lives. How they eat & drink, of course, is always changing, and that’s one thing that makes the hospitality industry such an interesting one to be part of, b/c it will go on forever (cheers to you EF).
Second, words matter, so for the purposes of this week’s Top of the Fold (and also for Branded Hospitality), let’s make sure the word “hospitality” is clearly defined. I’m not the judge or jury when it comes to defining anything in the public domain, but according to the Oxford Dictionary, “hos·pi·tal·i·ty” “is the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.”
For Mr. Brandon Barton, the CEO at our portfolio company Bite and the H^2 subscriber that loves my digressions the most (sarcasm intended) I’ll add that the word comes from the Latin word ”hospes,” meaning host, guest, or stranger (so there you go).
For Branded’s business, we embrace the second definition of the word, or “the business of providing food, drink, and accommodation for customers of restaurants, bars, etc. or guests at hotels.”
To those outside the hospitality industry, please note, the restaurant, hotel and foodservice industries don’t own or have any exclusivity over the word “hospitality” and every business, at least ones that engage with guests, visitors or strangers, have the ability to be offer “hospitality” or be “hospitable” (and if you elect to engage with your guests, visitors or strangers in a hospitable manner, I think you’ll find it will elevate your business).
But I digress (again), so let’s get back into it (into “what?!?” you ask! I know, it took a moment to get here). 😊
If I’m writing about a race, Brad Pitt might get the image above the title, but Cannonball Run gets to be part of this.
The race that’s been on my mind is the one between hotels and restaurants when it comes to the embracement of technology and specifically technology that the guest sees, experiences, and interacts with.
As a person who prides himself on being a straight shooter, despite my LOVE of restaurants, hotels have historically kicked our #sses and have been ahead of restaurants in the adoption of technology (but before you go off and gloat my hotelier-friends, let’s not forget that retailers have been seeing you in their rearview mirror for years).
There are several reasons why hotels have led and restaurants have lagged when it comes to the embracement of technology, and it’s my opinion that the concentration of large brands in the hotel industry (70% of hotels in the US operate under a major hotel chain’s brand) versus the far more fragmented restaurant industry (70% of restaurants are independent) has afforded hotels the opportunity and ability to centralize systems across multiple properties and brands is the single biggest factoid.
This centralization allowed hotels to embrace revenue management, guest data integration and operational tools to address the complexity of their business which includes but isn’t remotely limited to managing its inventory (hotel rooms), maintenance, housekeeping, events, F&B offering and others.
Hoteliers, again, lets lower the size of the pedestal you’re proudly standing on right now. The airline industry was ahead of you in the category of revenue management by over a decade in what they termed “yield management.” 😊
For restaurants, let’s first understand that venues can be run with a pad & pencil. I’m of course NOT recommending that most limited toolkit, but it has been done and, in some cases, (albeit becoming far rarer), still can be done!
When we moved away from pads & pencils, the primary pieces of technology for restaurants were a point-of-sale (POS), a basic inventory management system and a reservation platform. For some context, online reservations didn’t exist before the late 1990s and started with the launch of OpenTable in San Francisco in 1998 (and Branded’s restaurant, City Crab, was a beta-tester of OpenTable when it launched in New York City 😊).
But this is the area I find most interesting, where the leader board is changing and I dare say where the restaurant industry is starting to pull ahead – guest data and personalization.
Guests have always been comfortable, and I dare say wanted hotels to know their preferences, but they were fairly limited in the scope of their preferences. In addition to my contact information, and loyalty status, for my business travel, my preferences include my wanting a king size bed (as opposed to two queens), I don’t care about high floor, but I do want a room near the elevator bank. For trips of 3 nights or less, I don’t want housekeeping (Schatz loves to make fun of me about this as he wants housekeeping as often as he can have it and turndown service with a piece of chocolate on his pillow is available, he’ll have a brave man’s sleep as a result).
Yes, I’m willing to share these preferences to give the hotel the opportunity to personalize and even elevate my visit, and I’d enthusiastically share more if it would prove helpful to the hotel.
For restaurants, our relationships have historically been limited to the personal experience we have with managers, servers, bartenders, or other members of the team. One of the world’s greatest bartenders, Mr. Doug Quinn, now the owner of Hudson Malone, may have known my drink by heart (The McCallan, I’m still waiting to talk about a corporate partnership with you 😊), but if I showed up at his bar when he wasn’t working, such information wasn’t known.
Restaurants have historically lacked centralized systems for capturing guest data, but the times, they are a-changin and new digital channels have and continue to emerge that improves the ability of operators to capture guest data. The digital transformation that’s well underway in the restaurant business has been level-upped by online ordering, loyalty programs and feedback platforms that collectively enable restaurants to collect and capture e-mails, phone numbers, purchase history and preferences.
But this is where things are getting interesting and where restaurants are now taking a leading role and while I expect you’re thinking I’m going to make it all about the tech, that’s not what’s making it happen. It’s actually the guest behavior (combined with the tech) that’s put restaurants out in front of hotels when it comes to personalization. Guests want restaurants to know about them more than ever. They want the restaurants to know their preferences and how to deliver an elevated hospitality experience on the very first visit.
The Branded Team has been in the restaurant industry for decades, and it wasn’t long ago that a venue knowing about your food & beverage preferences wasn’t only not possible (without a personal relationship), but the guest felt it was invasive, and I dare say creepy.
Credit the guest’s willingness to not only share information but enthusiastically welcome these venues to know about them to the continued embracement of social media platforms and to what the CIA refers to as the greatest gift to intelligence gathering since the invention of wiretapping in the 1895!
In all seriousness, there’s been a material shift by guests and the realization that by allowing restaurants to know them and institutionalize their preferences, they’re giving the restaurant every opportunity to help create a better experience for them. Please don’t think this is limited to full-service and high-end restaurants. The guests’ willingness to share and the tools available to restaurants to capture and convert this data into action at all points of the restaurant spectrum (from full-serve to quick-serve, and high-end to value-end) creates the opportunity to elevate a guest’s experience and to even surprise & delight them.
I’ll go out on a limb here and say this represents a most meaningful democratization of the restaurant industry FOR GUESTS. Your willingness to engage with restaurants through these digital platforms removes barriers that were otherwise reserved for those willing to buy this level of connectivity or earn it through a commitment of time and to the development of relationships.
As a relationship-driven person who likes to know the names of the folks I’m interacting with at restaurants and learns the tables numbers of the ones I prefer, whether this democratization of restaurants through technology and guest data is a good thing or otherwise for me is a topic for another time (and probably best done over a libation), but there’s no question that this is a strong “win” for both guests and restaurants.
Given the breadth & depth that comes with guest preferences at restaurants, while the restaurant industry may have been slow out of the gate, I believe we’re now out in front of hotels when it comes to guest profiles personalizing visits and driving repeat business.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!
It takes a village
#1 Hospitality Podcast
The FIRST shoutout this week goes to our feisty partners at Craveworthy Brands that are working hard and aren’t afraid to mix it up with their peers.
Above in the Top of the Fold I wrote about a race, well here in this first shoutout, we’re talking about some friendly fire.
Act One – a few weeks ago our friends shared some color on the battle of the cookies and specifically its brand, Dirty Dough vs Crumbl.
You can read about the action here in the LinkedIn post from Craveworthy’s CEO, Gregg Majewski, here: Dirty Dough vs Crumbl
In connection with spat over dirty sodas, I heard our friends Andrew Smith from Swig and Andrew Moger from Cool Sips asked both Dirty Dough and Crumbl to hold their respective beers, but regardless, the Branded Team loves the friendly-fire, banter and the smiles this is bringing us!
I also want to participate in this banter, so as loyal New Yorker, and from the Cool Sips location near my apartment, let’s get it on!
If you stop by the Cool Sips on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, please say hi to Kaisuon, he’s an awesome host!
Act Two – happened this week where Craveworthy took some fun aim at the Mediterranean market’s current favorite kid, Cava.
Taim Mediterranean Kitchen, a 14-unit fast casual concept owned by Craveworthy Brands, announced this week that it’s launching a franchising program in a bid to capitalize on the explosive growth of the Mediterranean fast casual sector.
From the article that appeared in Restaurant Dive, while franchising is the dominant business strategy in QSR, the fast casual sector is typically led by company-owned models, with Chipotle and Cava being among the biggest success-stories!
Craveworthy cited data from our friends at Technomic’s which showed a 10.2% year-over-year increase in consumer demand as of Q1 2025, that Taim could ultimately see strong franchisee interest.
Craveworthy’s Dirty Dough put Crumbl on notice and are now doing the same to Cava with its Taim Mediterranean Kitchen.
I love this industry!
Our SECOND shoutout this week goes to our partners at Starfish, the layer-zero platform empowering transparency, safety, and trust in food supply chains worldwide.
I shared with the H^2 readers that I expected Starfish to be appearing more often in our weekend’s newsletter as a result of the partnerships they’re signing and the momentum they’re generating.
This week Starfish announced a new partnership with The Bloomington Group Ltd which will expand its collaboration to power smarter, faster, and more connected supply chains.
Through the integration of icosaTech TRACE, The Bloomington Group’s AI-driven track-and-trace solution, with the Starfish international data-sharing network, these companies are unlocking real-time traceability and high-speed recall capabilities across food and agriculture, retail, manufacturing, pharma, and sustainability sectors.
Friends, don’t shoot the messenger, but the global food systems are facing numerous disruptions which are impacting availability, affordability, and nutritional quality of food. These disruptions are driven by a complex interplay of factors, including climate change, geopolitical instability, and economic pressures.
This partnership reinforces the importance of interoperability, precision, and supply chain resilience.
Pulled from the announcement (that I’ve included below), “In these increasingly uncertain times, the ability to track and trace products and orchestrate supply chain activity with precision and speed is vital. We're so pleased to link up the power of our supply chain solutions with trusted data networks like the Starfish network,” said Indira Brown, President, The Bloomington Group Ltd.
“This partnership is a model for what the future of supply chain looks like: intelligent, connected, and adaptable. By connecting platforms like icosaTech TRACE with Starfish’s global infrastructure, we’re making scalable traceability a reality for companies worldwide,” said Wiggs Civitillo, CEO of Starfish.
With a shared focus on sustainability, compliance, and innovation, the partnership is designed to empower supply chain partners with the tools and connectivity they need to thrive in today’s complex global landscape.
You can read more about this partnership here: Starfish and The Bloomington Group Ltd. Deepen Global Partnership to Advance Traceability and Supply Chain Intelligence
In an effort to help promote and share interest content with the H^2 community, if you’d like to learn more about Starfish and see the content this foundation platform for supply chain data exchange and solution provider is producing, I invite you to take look at their article bank here: Welcome to the Starfish Blog.
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Branded invites readers of the H^2 that are interested in learning more about our portfolio companies, and investment strategies to be part of our Access Hospitality Network.
I want to highlight the news this week, that our friends at RSE Ventures led the investment round for our partners at Brooklyn Dumpling Shop.
Branded has been thrilled to be working with what we refer to as our hospitality “triple-threat” and this unique and valued reference comes as a result of Brooklyn Dumpling Shop’s success and momentum in restaurants, consumer products and foodservice.
The investment from RSE Ventures will help drive the company's rapid omni-channel expansion, including supporting growth in its corporate and franchised stores and line of high-quality consumer packaged goods.
The calendar might say its summer, but there’s no dust on our friends at Brooklyn Dumpling Shop. The company opened its 18th unit down in Miami, Florida, is living large out at Yankee Stadium with its partnership with Legends Hospitality, and even hit industry events in both New York City and in New Orleans at the Summer Fancy Food Show and AMAC Annual Conference respectively.
The Brooklyn team even made an appearance out in the Hamptons to be part of the Uncharted Community hosted by Michael Loeb and Noah Sanborn Friedman.
Every party is better with dumplings!
They also completed a most successful roadshow over the past couple of weeks making their presence known and serving up dumplings and smiles at Costco.
The Branded Team has known and explored numerous areas of collaboration with our friends at RSE Ventures and Mr. Matt Higgins. We’re thrilled to see this most strategic partnership between RSE Ventures and Brooklyn Dumpling Shop and we love being on this journey with this dynamic duo!
For those interested in exploring the work Branded is doing with Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, please contact me directly.
And please remember, everything's better in a dumpling!
You can read the Press Release here: Brooklyn Dumpling Shop Launches Investment Round Led by RSE Ventures to Further Accelerate Growth Across Restaurants, Consumer Products, and Foodservice
Featured Episodes -Slice, Slice Baby: Hospitality Trends from Grimaldi’s Marketing Maven & Fries, Frosties & Food Service Fame: Inside Freddy’s with Erin Walters
This week on The Hospitality Hangout, we’re serving up not one, but two sizzling episodes that will leave you hungry for more—knowledge, laughs, and maybe a slice of pizza or a custard cone. First, we sit down with Pam Brock-Nedwetzky of the legendary Grimaldi’s Pizzeria to talk all things hospitality marketing. From keeping an iconic brand fresh in a fast-moving industry to hilarious behind-the-scenes stories, Pam gives us a masterclass in ROI with a side of LOL. Powered by our partners at Dinova, this episode is a must-listen for anyone who loves pizza, hospitality, or just a great story told over a hot pie.
Then, we take a sweet spin with Erin Walters, CMO of Freddy’s, to explore the marketing magic and operational strategy behind one of the most beloved names in fast casual. Think loyalty programs, brand voice, and why frozen custard might be the smartest investment in your portfolio. Erin’s insight is sharp, her stories are gold, and with support from our friends at Olo, the tech behind next-level guest experiences, this episode is a delicious dive into how hospitality leaders are redefining the future. Don’t miss out—these episodes are equal parts tasty and tactical.
Also dropping this week: a brand new Hospitality Hustler episode of the Hospitality Hangout! 🎙️ We’re going from backroom to boardroom with the legendary Lucia Penrod, Co-Founder, Owner, and CEO of Nikki Beach.
We need YOUR help! The Hospitality Hangout has been nominated for not one, but TWO People's Choice Podcast Awards — and this is HUGE for the hospitality industry. It's a chance to shine a spotlight on the voices, stories, and strategies that power restaurants, brands, and operators across the country. But we can't win without you. Cast your vote and help us make a splash for hospitality—because this industry deserves to be heard (and awarded)! CLICK HERE TO VOTE!!!
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MARKETING
By: Rev Ciancio, Head of Revenue Marketing at Branded Hospitality Ventures
If you want to grow your business by decreasing one-timers and increasing guest lifetime value, you need to email your guests.
AI
By: Michael Atkinson
Imagine having a trusted partner by your side 24/7, one that never sleeps, forgets, or calls in sick. This partner remembers everything, learns your habits, adapts to your workflow, and helps you solve problems instantly. Welcome to the age of AI as a companion, not just a tool, but a tireless, tuned-in assistant working alongside you in real time.
Beck To The Future
By: Michael Beck
There's a sneaky lie we keep telling ourselves about good conversations: that the most interesting person is the one who talks the most.
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Food For Thought
By: Melissa Hughes
The brain hates to be ignored. Our brains are wired for prediction. They crave certainty, especially in unfamiliar environments. When we’re not acknowledged or we are uncertain, the brain flags it as a threat.
Maple-Glazed Takes
By: Jay Ashton
There’s this classic moment in The Breakfast Club that 80s movie where five high school students get stuck in Saturday detention together. They walk in as strangers from completely different worlds, the jock, the princess, the criminal, the brain, and the basket case. They don’t trust each other, they don’t understand each other, and frankly, they don’t want to.
That’s it for today!
See you next week, same bat-time, same bat-channel.
It takes a village!
Jimmy Frischling
Branded Hospitality Ventures
235 Park Ave South, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10003
Branded Hospitality Ventures ("Branded") is an investment and solutions platform at the intersection of foodservice, technology, innovation and capital. As experienced hospitality owners and operators, Branded brings value to its partners through investment, strategic counsel, and its deep industry expertise and connections.
Learn more about Branded here: Branded At-A-Glance
