Most restaurants are not failing because of food or service.

They are losing money in places they never look.

In this episode, we sit down with Mickey Pendergast, a cost-reduction expert with 30+ years in the industry, to break down where profit is quietly disappearing inside your business.

You will hear:

• Why great operators still struggle to make money
• The real reason margins stay stuck in single digits
• How “small” expenses like waste, linen, and processing fees drain profit
• Why more sales does not fix a broken cost structure
• How one or two points in savings can change your entire business

This is a straight conversation about what most operators ignore.

If you want to keep more of what you earn, this episode matters.

What does it take to build something that big, and survive everything that tries to break it?

In this episode, you get the full story behind one of the most unique restaurant concepts in North America. From a 200-square-foot fish market to a multi-million dollar operation, this is about resilience, reinvention, and thinking bigger than the industry tells you to.

You’ll hear:

• How a family business scaled into a destination brand
• The real impact of storytelling on sales and growth
• What happens when you lose everything and start again
• How to turn a restaurant into a media engine
• Lessons on leadership, pressure, and building for the next generation

This is not a theory episode. This is lived experience.

If you’re building something in this industry, this one will stick with you.

This episode gets real.

No tech talk. No theory. Just operators in the trenches.

We sit down with the team from Leo’s Kitchen & Bar in Edson, Alberta, a town of 10,000 where every decision hits harder and every dollar matters.

They break down what it actually takes to run a restaurant right now:

• Menu changes that take months
• Rising costs that never stop
• Equipment repairs that wipe out profits
• New competitors entering a small market

You’ll hear how they cost every item down to the ounce, why most restaurants are still guessing, and what happens when traffic slows but expenses don’t.

This is the side of the industry most people never see.

If you run a restaurant, you’ll feel this one.

If you don’t, you’ll understand why it’s one of the toughest businesses in the country. 👊

In this episode, we sit down with Josh from Spec Tank to break down one of the simplest ways to improve kitchen efficiency and reduce labor costs.

Josh shares his journey from chef to sales, and why he believes this system belongs in every kitchen. We get into how Spec Tank works, what it replaces, and where operators are wasting time and money today.

This is a real look at the hidden cost of cleaning in restaurants. Scrubbing, overtime, missed standards, and equipment wear all add up.

Key takeaways:

• How kitchens lose hours every week to manual cleaning
• Why labor is being misused in most operations
• How a soak system replaces scrubbing and saves time
• The impact on food safety, especially with cutting boards
• How to redeploy staff into roles that drive revenue
• What this looks like in real kitchens across Canada

If you’re running a kitchen, this episode gives you a clear look at where you’re losing time and how to fix it.

On this episode of The Late Night Restaurant Podcast, Jay Ashton Canada's Restaurant Guy and Domenic Pedulla sits down with Elias Hage, Founder and CEO of App8 and the force behind Rally Catering.

This is a deep, practical conversation about how restaurants, caterers, and foodservice operators use technology to move orders faster, cut admin time, and grow revenue without burning out.

Elias breaks down:

• How digital ordering replaces handwritten catering forms
• Why catering adds real margin when done right
• How schools now manage lunch programs with online ordering and government subsidies
• What operators miss when they ignore catering
• How systems create leverage across kitchens, staff, and sales
• Why speed, accuracy, and repeat orders matter more than ever

You’ll also hear how App8 evolved from solving table payments to powering catering, events, and K–12 food programs across North America, plus how operators unlock hidden sales sitting in their inbox right now.

If you run a restaurant, catering business, bakery, commissary kitchen, or foodservice brand, this episode gives you clear insight into:

• Building repeat catering customers
• Reducing order errors
• Saving hours each week
• Turning operations into growth engines

Real talk. Real tools. Real ways to scale.

👉Learn more about Rally Catering... https://www.rallycatering.com/

On this episode of The Late Night Restaurant Podcast, Canada's Restaurant Guy and Domenic Pedulla sits down with Michael Westhafer from Restaurant Rebellion to break down one hard truth...

Most restaurants are losing guests because they cannot be found online.

This conversation cuts straight to what matters right now for independent restaurants across Canada and North America.

You’ll learn:

• Why Google decides your traffic, not social media
• How PDF menus kill your visibility
• How AI now answers phones, texts guests, and replies to reviews
• Why Google Business Profiles drive real foot traffic
• What GEO and SEO mean for your menu, website, and reviews
• The first three fixes every operator needs to make

If you run a restaurant, cafe, bar, or food business, this episode gives you a clear playbook to get discovered, earn more 5-star reviews, and bring guests back through your doors.

learn more about Michael Westhafer: https://restaurantrebellion.com/

Jay Ashton, Canada's Restaurant Guy sits down with Sylvain Charlebois, host of The Food Professor Podcast, to unpack the hard numbers behind Canada’s restaurant correction.

They break down:

• Why more than 7,000 restaurants likely disappeared last year
• How labour changes, alcohol decline, tipping fatigue, and rising costs hit margins
• What GLP-1 drugs mean for appetizers, desserts, and dining habits
• Why independents face the biggest risk
• What operators need to change right now to survive and grow

No fluff. Real data. Real talk.

A must-listen for anyone in foodservice trying to stay ahead of what’s coming next on The Late Night Restaurant Podcast.

This episode features John Rebagliati, a 26-year food service brokerage veteran at IPS, in conversation with Jay. John started his career in restaurant operations before making the leap to the brokerage side in the spring of 2000, the same week he learned he was expecting his first child. He shares the culture shock of going from managing restaurants (where he assumed distributors stocked everything) to learning that roughly only 10–20% of SKUs are actually stocked at broad-line distributors.

The conversation covers how John built his career from cold-calling out of the Yellow Pages with a bag phone in his Mazda, to becoming a seasoned broker navigating complex manufacturer-distributor-operator dynamics. Key themes include the irreplaceable value of having worked in restaurant operations, how broker-operator trust is built over years, the misconceptions operators have about distribution, and how technology and AI are reshaping the industry.

John also shares personal insights on mentorship, morning routines, reducing screen time, and the importance of stepping away to recharge. The episode wraps with mutual appreciation between two long-time industry friends who've known each other since 2004.