From Eater to Blackbird: Ben Leventhal on Restaurants, Loyalty, and Rebuilding Payments

Restaurants generated more than a trillion dollars in sales last year — but they don’t control the payment rails those dollars flow through.

In this episode, Ben Leventhal (founder of Eater, Resy, and now Blackbird) joins Robert Hackett to explain why that’s a problem, how loyalty and payments have failed independent restaurants, and where crypto fits into fixing it.

Ben breaks down:

• Why most restaurant tech misses the point
• How Blackbird uses crypto without making restaurants think about crypto
• What “restaurant-first” really means in payments and loyalty
• Why decentralization only makes sense at scale
• Lessons from building multiple companies in hospitality
• Why we’re living in the golden age of restaurants
• Plus: favorite NYC spots, founder productivity hacks, and the smallest hill he’ll die on.

This is a grounded conversation about technology, ownership, and the future of restaurants — from someone who’s been building in the space for over a decade.

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