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
The Wow Factor with Mehdi Zarhloul
Mehdi Zarhloul is the CEO of Crazy Pita Restaurant Group LLC, and the founder of Crazy Pita, a fresh Mediterranean restaurant with three locations based in Nevada. Mehdi has turned Crazy Pita into a hit through his focus on quality food, and ex...
The Simple Way To Never Be Featured on Kitchen Nightmares with Lindsey Blackburn
Lindsey Blackburn is a Solution Specialist at DriveMind Group, which provides businesses with organizational safety solutions including health safety products and services to battle the continued spread of germs, virus, and pathogens. DriveMind...
Creating The $6,000 Burger with Robbert Jan de Veen
Robbert Jan De Veen is the owner of the De Daltons restaurant in the Netherlands. He is also the owner of the world record for the most expensive burger ever made and sold! From gold leaf to white truffles, we learn all about the history of the...
Starting A Successful Restaurant in March 2020 with Spencer Saylor
Spencer Saylor is the Founder of The Wizard of Za, a fabulously successful pizza joint in Columbus, Ohio, that has largely grown through word of mouth and exclusivity (customers are making reservations months in advance!). Perhaps more impressi...
What Restaurant Owners Are Missing with Eric Bam
Eric Bam is the Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Perfect Crust Pizza Liners & IncredibleBags.com. Eric has decades of experience in the industry, including over 20 years as a food distributor, and loves restaurant people! Eric bro...
Delivering Hospitality At Scale with CEO of Olo, Noah Glass
Noah Glass is a former cashier, delivery driver, and bartender. Oh, and we should probably also mention that he is the Founder & CEO of Olo, a publicly-traded online ordering and delivery platform worth over 3 billion dollars! We w...
Making Customers Stick with Jamie Greer
Jamie Greer is the Vice President of Operations at the fabulously successful Sticky's Finger Joint based in New York City. With previous experience at Legends Hospitality and Magnolia Bakery, Jamie Greer brings over a decade of experience and i...
How To Communicate Like The President (of the TRA) with Emily Williams Knight
You've heard of her, now hear from her! Emily Williams Knight, Ed.D., is the President & CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association. With more than 50,000 restaurants employing 1.3M Texans and posting sales of 70B in 2019, in her first year, K...
Building A Bullish Restaurant Brand with Joseph Szala
Joseph Szala is a Principal, Creative, and Strategist at Vigor Restaurant Branding, a restaurant and beverage branding and marketing studio based in Atlanta, Georgia, but servicing the world. Joseph has worked with hundreds of restaurants over ...
Lessons From The Legendary Robert Earl
We were in the presence of royalty on this episode as we were joined by one of the Earl's of Sandwich himself, Robert Earl! Robert has set the bar for restaurateurs, as the man behind Planet Hollywood, MrBeast Burger and other Virtual Dining Co...
The Dark Kitchen Rises with Geoff Alexander of Wow Bao
Geoff Alexander is the President and CEO of Wow Bao, a fast casual Asian concept that has grown from 3 brick-and-mortar locations to over 300 locations including airports, grocery stores, and food trucks, using what Geoff calls "dark kitchens" ...
The Future Of Digital Ordering with Brandon Barton
Brandon Barton is the CEO of Bite, a digital ordering platform for restaurants. He has worked in multiple start-ups, as a consultant, and has spent time at Patina Restaurant Group and Union Square Hospitality Group. On this episode...
Simple Steps For Finding Staff with Ryan Gromfin
We all know there's a labor shortage right now, but is finding employees really as hard as it seems? Ryan Gromfin, Owner of The Restaurant Boss, breaks down hiring and other issues on this edition of Give an Ovation: A Podcas...
Smart Hiring, Podcasting, and Marketing with Bruce Irving
Welcome back Bruce Irving, Owner of Smart Pizza Marketing, to his third episode of Give an Ovation: A Podcast For Restaurants! Bruce is a luminary in the industry with over 350 episodes of his podcast, Smart Pizza Marketing, and was instrumenta...
Make It Craveable, Memorable, and Instagram-able with James Walker of Nathan's Famous
The Famous James Walker, CFE, is the Senior Vice President of Restaurants at Nathan's Famous Inc. - yes, that Nathan's. James has propelled the brand to new heights with off premise technologies, ghost kitchens, and menu innovations that the 10...
How To Actually Table Touch with Ken McGarrie
Ken McGarrie is the principal at Korgen Hospitality, a nationwide restaurant consulting firm. He has over two decades of experience at the helm of many successful restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues like Topgolf, and also has an amazing...
Saving Time and Money Through Automation with Matthew Hardoon
MarketMan is here to save the day! Matt Hardoon is the VP of Sales at MarketMan, a SaaS platform for restaurant operators that provides inventory management, purchase ordering, recipe control, and advanced analytics as part of their back of hou...
Building A Brand With Personality with Phyllis Williams-Strawder
Get ready for a spicy episode! Phyllis Williams-Strawder is a business coach, brand strategist, author, successful restaurant owner, the creator of CKO Creator, and one of the most energetic guests we've had!On this episode, she and Zac...
Evaluating Restaurant Tech with Phil Crawford
Big wig alert! Phil Crawford is the Chief Technology Officer at CKE Restaurants, Inc., which owns Carl's Jr. and Hardee's. He's currently in the midst of revitalizing their brand through innovation on the user-side and the back-end. Phil has al...
Becoming The Leader Your Restaurant Needs with David Scott Peters
David Scott Peters is an author, restaurant coach and speaker who teaches restaurant operators how to take control of their businesses and finally realize their full potential. His first book, Restaurant Prosperity Formula: What Successful Rest...
How To Turn Guests Into Regulars with Matt Plapp
Matt Plapp is the CEO of America's Best Restaurants, which helps customers find restaurants that make them smile, and CEO of Restaurant Marketing That Works, which helps restaurants acquire customers. As a thought leader in restaurant marketing...
Generating Revenue Through Innovation with Ben Pryor
Ben Pryor is the Director of Innovation at Dewey's Pizza, a fantastic 24-location business where he drives transformational and creative solutions with people, food, and technology. Ben has over 30 years in the hospitality industry with experie...
Digitally Connecting Your Team with Jacobe Hollins
Jacobe Hollins is the Digital Program Supervisor at McDonald's where he has worked since 2013. He has an MBA in New Age Digital Marketing, is an advocate for frontline employees, and just implemented a system connecting 1.9 million employees at...
Building Partnerships with Distributors with Edward Zimmerman
Edward Zimmerman simply had too much good stuff to say to on his first episode, so we invited him back for a second round of Give an Ovation! If you missed it, Edward has over 40 years in the food and hospitality industry and currently uses all...
How Disrupting His Own Business Led To "It's Just Wings" with Wade Allen
Wade Allen is the Senior Vice President and Head of Innovation at Brinker International, the parent company of Chili's Bar and Grill, Maggiano's Little Italy, and their new virtual brand and Wade's passion project, It's Just Wings. Wade spends ...