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The Pre-Shift

The Pre-Shift

By: 7shifts
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Great teams make great restaurants. On The Pre-Shift, restaurant operators and industry experts dive into what it takes to build great restaurant teams. We explore their stories, the strategies they use, and valuable lessons on running restaurant teams. Hosted by D. J. Costantino. Presented by 7shifts.

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Episodes
  • Put down the ramekins: How Joe Fontana built Fry the Coop to 10 locations | 077

    Put down the ramekins: How Joe Fontana built Fry the Coop to 10 locations | 077
    Oct 7 2026

    Two hours into portioning sauce into cups, Joe Fontana decided he was done doing the work and needed to start building the system. In this episode of The Pre-Shift Podcast, we sit down with Joe, founder and owner of Fry the Coop, a Nashville hot chicken concept with 10 Chicago locations and an 11th on the way, to talk about how he built a business that could grow past one restaurant. Joe shares how a meatball concept he couldn't fund led him to a simpler menu, why he trains with one page instead of 40, and why he won't swap beef tallow or real butter to save money. If you're weighing a second or third location, or you're past five and feeling stretched, Joe's playbook for hiring, training, and marketing is worth your time.

    Key takeaways

    • Two hours of sauce cups: With two restaurants open, Joe spent two hours portioning sauce and decided to pay someone else to do it. He used that time to build training packages, write tests for his team, and hire managers to lead their own teams.
    • From 40 pages to one: Joe's training manual used to be 40 pages. Now it's one page, and his service standard is six bullets, from saying hi at the door to saying goodbye on the way out.
    • The beer test: Joe spends the first 90% of an interview asking questions, then considers whether he'd want to grab a drink with the candidate. If they pass, he can train them on almost anything, but the "hospitality bug" (enjoying helping people) isn't something he can teach.
    • Thank-you cards don't write themselves: Joe found managers won't recognize their team unless he pushes, so he hands them thank-you cards with $10 Starbucks gift cards and asks for a list of their five best people. With a couple hundred employees, he says recognition has to come from store leaders.
    • Stay under the cap, share the profit: Managers see team availability and a weekly hours cap while they build the schedule, and the more they stay under the cap, the more profit sharing they earn. Joe also relies on attendance records. When he lets someone go, he can back his decision with data.
    • Announcements that the team watch: Joe records training and announcement videos edited like TikToks and sends them through 7shifts, where he reports a watch rate near 100%. For a National Wing Day special, his videos trained 200 employees on a ranch-powder wing.
    • One hour, 30 questions: Joe recorded about 30 short YouTube answers to questions people search about Fry the Coop, like "Do you have a patio?", in a single hour. He aimed for search rather than views, since YouTube transcribes spoken words, and he pairs it with a weekly email that tells stories instead of selling, now at 111,000 subscribers.
    • Growth came with pay cuts: Joe took a pay cut after restaurants five through eight to hire the people they needed. He needs about 20 restaurants before he can get a raise. His goal of 75 stores in 10 years needs an estimated $30 million to $40 million, and the 11th location will combine a storefront, a commissary, and the office.

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    About Us
    7shifts is the restaurant HR platform helping operators hire, train, schedule, pay, and retain their team in one place. With an easy-to-use platform and built-for-restaurant workflows, 7shifts replaces disconnected systems for 55,000 restaurants.
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    49 mins
  • The pitfalls of restaurant scaling with Andrew Scott of OwnerShift | 076

    The pitfalls of restaurant scaling with Andrew Scott of OwnerShift | 076
    Sep 2 2026
    Andrew Scott, founder of Owner Shift Training and former multi-unit restaurant owner, walks us through the expensive mistakes that nearly took him under at his fifth location—and the systems he rebuilt to stop being the operating system his restaurants depended on.You're driving across the city for the third time today because someone forgot to order lettuce. Your phone buzzes at 6 a.m. with a no-call-no-show text. You can't even make it out of the city limits for a family visit before you're being called back. This is restaurant ownership for many operators: running between locations, fighting fires every shift, and making six figures on the P&L while your life disappears.Andrew Scott lived this for years. He went from that exhausting reality—working 100-hour weeks across multiple units—to building a coaching business that's now helped more than 1,000 restaurant owners add an average of $100,000 back to their bottom line and reclaim their time. But that transformation only happened after a near-disastrous expansion and a hard lesson about what systems really mean.Today, Andrew shares the mistake that humbled him, why most people problems are actually system problems, and the one-at-a-time priority framework that stops the constant firefighting.Key TakeawaysExpansion without baseline data is just betting faster: Andrew's fifth location cannibalized 30% of his top store's customers. He hadn't checked his numbers before scaling—he assumed it would perform the same way.Most people problems are actually system problems: If multiple staff don't know how to do something, it's not a hiring issue. The procedure isn't documented, trained, or clear. Fix the system and the person problem disappears.Track food cost and labor weekly, not monthly: Andrew missed a 47% food-cost spike because he saw his P&L three weeks late. Weekly spot-checks catch problems in week one, not after 12 weeks of damage.You're the bottleneck when only you can do something: Undocumented processes pull owners into everything. Write it down, train it, delegate to someone doing it 80% as well as you. That's good enough to start.Higher wages can lower labor percentage: Better pay attracted stronger staff and reduced turnover. Higher productivity per person lowered labor %, not raised it.Dual-purpose every task to create time: When a manager covers a shift, they train someone. When you do operational work, you document it as a system. No extra time. Same effort, twice the output.Start small, then iterate weekly: You don't need perfect systems day one. Voice memo a checklist, turn it into a process. Every week, adjust based on what broke. Systems improve through use.ResourcesFollow @AndrewRScott on Instagram and LinkedInLearn more about OwnerShift: https://www.ownershifttraining.com/Restaurant Growth Accelerator Podcast: https://www.restaurantgrowthacceleratorpodcast.com/Chapters00:00 Meet Andrew Scott00:42 Early Ownership Lessons01:40 Trapped by the Business03:41 Fear of the Phone05:32 Fifth Location Mistakes10:17 Perfect Before You Scale11:03 People and Systems Thesis12:46 Streak Free Checklist15:51 Why Owners Stay Stuck18:04 Let It Burn Briefly19:17 Whiteboard Root Causes22:09 The One Thing Focus23:11 Finding Time and Profit23:53 Audit Your Time24:30 Schedule For Leverage26:23 Weekly Financial Tracking28:20 Fix Food Cost Fast31:04 Labor Strategy And Pay33:11 Staffing By The Hour34:29 Overstaffing Kills Morale37:46 This Week Action Steps41:28 Delegate And Document43:45 Where To Find Andrew44:43 Episode TakeawaysSend us Fan Mail📲 Connect with usEmail usFollow on LinkedInMore 7shiftsSpotify | Apple Podcasts | Google PodcastsSubscribe to Food Runner, our Monthly Restaurant Newsletter7shifts on YouTubeFollow us on TikTokRead the 7shifts BlogAbout Us7shifts is the restaurant HR platform helping operators hire, train, schedule, pay, and retain their team in one place. With an easy-to-use platform and built-for-restaurant workflows, 7shifts replaces disconnected systems for 55,000 restaurants.
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    46 mins
  • The compliance rules that multi-units get wrong with Felice Ekelman, JD | 075

    The compliance rules that multi-units get wrong with Felice Ekelman, JD | 075
    Aug 12 2026
    Getting workplace law advice after you get a complaint is like fixing a schedule after the shift's over. In this episode of The Pre-Shift Podcast, we sit down with Felice Ekelman, a principal at Jackson Lewis who leads the firm's restaurant industry group, to talk about the compliance mistakes that catch multi-unit operators off guard. Felice walks through why state and local rules don't travel with you from one location to the next, what "audit-proof" really looks like on paper and on the floor, and what the no-tax-on-tips provision means. Whether you're running two locations or twenty, her approach to hiring, classification, and training offers practical steps for operators looking to reduce risk as they grow.Key TakeawaysCall Early, Not After: Hear why the operators who end up needing a workplace lawyer are usually the ones who consult one before opening.Not All State Rules Are Alike: Discover why assuming your California playbook works in New York (or vice versa) is one of the most common mistakes multi-unit operators make, and why highly regulated states like California, New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts require their own separate approach to wage transparency, scheduling notice, and break penalties.What "Audit-Proof" Actually Means: Learn the checklist Felice runs with clients: an updated handbook, the right posters, compliant I-9s, matching time and pay records, and clocked meal breaks instead of automatic deductions.The Title Never Decides the Case: Understand why calling someone a manager, a sous chef, or a shift lead doesn't determine whether they belong in the tip pool or qualify for overtime exemption. What matters is what the person actually does on shift, not their title.Transparency Builds Trust in the Tip Pool: Hear why the biggest tip pool problems come from staff not understanding who's in the pool and how much they're getting, and why showing the math every shift cuts down on disputes.Training Is Where the Real Risk Sits: Discover why Felice sees management training on EEO, wage and hour rules, accommodations, and consistent discipline as one of the highest-value investments an operator can make, since most legal exposure comes from a manager's split-second call.What New Rules Require From Your Payroll Provider: Learn why tax only applies to a portion of overtime pay, and why your payroll provider needs to be told, specifically, to separate that line item since it won't happen automatically.ResourcesMore about Felice https://www.jacksonlewis.com/people/felice-b-ekelmanContact Felice at Felice.Ekelman@jacksonlewis.comChapters00:00 Meet Felice Ekelman00:55 Call Your Lawyer Early02:55 Multi-Unit State Law Traps04:27 Staying Ahead of Changes07:34 California Compliance Minefield09:22 Audit Proof Your Operation13:49 Misclassification and Accommodations16:07 Hourly vs Salary Exemptions19:16 Tip Pool Rules and 80/2023:41 Training Managers for Compliance28:20 Insurance and Prevention Mindset29:16 No Tax on Tips: What to Do33:17 Contractors and Noncompetes36:44 Top Priorities: Pay and I-9s38:31 Key TakeawaysSend us Fan Mail📲 Connect with usEmail usFollow on LinkedInMore 7shiftsSpotify | Apple Podcasts | Google PodcastsSubscribe to Food Runner, our Monthly Restaurant Newsletter7shifts on YouTubeFollow us on TikTokRead the 7shifts BlogAbout Us7shifts is the restaurant HR platform helping operators hire, train, schedule, pay, and retain their team in one place. With an easy-to-use platform and built-for-restaurant workflows, 7shifts replaces disconnected systems for 55,000 restaurants.
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    40 mins
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