Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast with Zack Oates
Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast is your backstage pass to the minds of hospitality leaders, innovators, and operators who are redefining what it means to serve. Hosted by Zack Oates, founder of Ovation, each episode dives into real-world tactics and inspiring stories from restaurant pros who know how to create five-star guest experiences—both in-store and off-premise.
From fast casual to fine dining, catering to curbside, learn how to drive loyalty, empower your staff, and deliver hospitality that hits home. Whether you're a restaurant owner, operator, marketer, or tech partner, this podcast will leave you with practical insights and plenty of reasons to celebrate and Give an Ovation.
Episodes
446 episodes
Firing Up Virtual Concepts With Gage Anderle of Dickey's BBQ
Gage Anderle is a director of virtual brands at Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc., a family owned restaurant franchise. His experience in brand management, sales growth, strategic planning, and more has enabled Gage to take brands from brick ...
Catering to the Customer With Solomon Choi
Solomon Choi is the founder and CEO of 16 Handles. 16 Handles is New York City's first self serve frozen yogurt shop. With over 20 year experience in the restaurant industry, Solomon's restaurant concept became the segment leader in...
Optimizing Restaurant Infrastructure With Alex Canter
Alex is a restaurant industry innovator, in-demand speaker, and passionate advocate for restaurant operators and workers. A fourth-generation restaurateur, the restaurant business has been in Alex’s blood for over 85 years. Alex currently leads...
Coaching Within the Four Walls with Monte Silva
Monte has over 40 years in the industry working every position from dishwasher all the way to Director of Operations. As a restaurant coach and hospitality coach Monte shares his wealth of knowledge in food, beverage, hospitality, service...
Delivering Data Into the Right Hands with Will Pacio
Will Pacio is the cofounder and CEO of Expo, a data science platform that has contributed greatly to transforming the hospitality industry. Expo focuses on helping large multi-unit operations better leverage all of their data in one integ...
The Fundamentals of Leadership With Stephen M.R. Covey
Stephen M.R. Covey is a highly-sought after international speaker, who has taught trust and leadership in 56 countries to business, government, military, education, healthcare, and NGO entities. We are fortunate to have him as a guest on our Gi...
The Pioneering of the Ghost Kitchen with Atul Sood
Atul Sood is the chief business officer at Kitchen United. Kitchen United offers restaurants a top-tier food production facility that combines insights with ideas on how to profitably expand into the food delivery business. Given his experience...
Leveling Up Your Workforce With Sam Caucci
Sam Caucci is the CEO and founder of 1Huddle, a training platform that aims to improve staff performance and better prepare employees for the workforce. Sam Caucci's innovation engages employees with quick paced games that are customizable to t...
Connecting with Guests Inside and Out of Restaurants with Mike Mirkil
Mike Mirkil is the head of marketing at Personica. Previously operating under the name Fishbowl, Personica is a digitalized platform that offers a better way to connect with and engage guests. With over 30 years of experience in the marketing i...
The Key to Customer Engagement with Niko Papademetriou
Niko Papademetriou is the Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Qu Beyond POS. Qu's goal is to go beyond the limited legacy systems with modern tech solutions that will improve your profits and confidently lead you into the...
Melding Tech and Storytelling Power with Kristen Barnett
Kristen Barnett is the founder and CEO of Hungry House, a ghost kitchen that is shedding light on the culinary leaders of our tomorrow. Yet Kristen's innovation is one of many skills she is bringing to the table. Having earned her bachelors deg...
The Digital Experience With Andy Rebhun
Andy Rebhun is an accomplished Global Marketing Executive, who delivers first-to-market products and profitable growth for billion-dollar brands across Fortune 50 companies. Andy Rebhun currently works his magic as the senior vice preside...
Upgrading Customer Loyalty With Zach Goldstein
Zach Goldstein, CEO and founder of Thanx, is an expert in retail, customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty. Thanx enables customers to automatically earn rewards at your favorite merchants - no plastic cards necessary. Zach's cutting...
Make Your Chef's Life A Breeze with Josh Sharkey of Meez
Josh Sharkey is the Founder and CEO of Meez, a software that organizes your recipes so you can document, cost, scale, train, collaborate and prep like never before. Josh has touched every part of restaurant business in his career, as he's been ...
The Best Tech for Guests and Employees with Dave Dittenber
Dave Dittenber is the CEO and Founder of BYOD (Bring Your Own Data), a restaurant solution that helps operators in real-time by using AI. He is also the owner of DRI, a restaurant group based in Michigan. With over 24 years in the restaurant in...
Crafting a Five Star Guest Experience with Kelley Jones
Get ready for a knowledge-packed episode! Kelley Jones is the Principal of Kelley Jones Hospitality and a sought after speaker who has spoken at the world's largest conferences. He also works as the President & COO of Hospitality Alliance, ...
Delivering the Digital Restaurant with Carl Orsbourn and Meredith Sandland
Meredith Sandland and Carl Orsbourn are the authors of the Amazon #1 Best-selling book, "Delivering the Digital Restaurant". Meredith comes with experience at Bain & Company, Yum! Brands, and Kitchen United. Carl has previously work...
How Reusables Raise Revenues with Lindsey Hoell
Lindsey Hoell is the CEO of Dispatch Goods, a reusable container marketplace that partners with restaurants, businesses, and consumers to provide reusable container options to enable brick-and-mortar businesses to enable reuse. On ...
Are You Selling Your Chicken to a Vegan? with Justin Bartek
Justin Bartek is the Chief Marketing Officer of JINYA Holdings Inc., a group consisting of JINYA Ramen Bar and 3 other world-class ramen brands. Justin is a master marketer with experience as the Marketing Director at the Halal Guys, Veggie Gri...
The Science of Loyalty with Olga Lopategui
Olga Lopategui is a restaurant marketing expert with experience as a Marketing Manager at Pizza Hut International and as the Director of Marketing for TGI Fridays. She also holds degrees from Harvard Business School and Georgetown University La...
Private Vs Public Restaurants with Andy Pforzheimer
Andy Pforzheimer is the CEO of Tastemaker Acquisition Corp, a hospitality-focused special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Andrew holds board seats at many institutions, including at US Foods and Upward Projects Restaurant Group, and has fil...
Franchising, Good Hiring, and Your Pie-ing with David McDougall
Are you ready for an intro? David McDougall has over 40 years of experience in the restaurant industry. With high-level experience at Denny's, Cinnabon, Focus Brands, NexCen Brands, and Back Yard Burgers, he is now the CEO of Your Pie Franchisi...
Extending Hospitality Off-Premise with Aaron Mortensen
Aaron Mortensen is a 10-year CMO veteran, currently serving as the CMO of hungr. A nationwide online ordering and food delivery service, hungr is a favorite among restaurant owners due to their low commissions and free sharing of data with rest...
The Beautiful Pairing of Tech and Hospitality with Josh Kopel
Josh Kopel is the President of the L.A. chapter of the California Restaurant Association, he's a Michelin-rated restaurateur with over 20 years of experience in the industry, and is the CEO of FLO Hospitality Solutions. On this epi...
Gaining An Edge with Aaron Noveshen
Aaron Noveshen has created or co-created over 25 restaurant concepts, including San Francisco staples such as Starbird and Pacific Catch. He is also the founder and chairman of The Culinary Edge, a food and beverage innovation agency working wi...
