Send us Fan Mail

Restaurants have crossed a line.

AI adoption is accelerating. Digital sales are growing. Tech spend is rising.

But here’s the problem… very little of it is actually working.

In this episode, Carl sits down with Jen Kern (CMO at Qu) to break down the 2026 State of Digital Report and what it really tells us about the industry.

This is not a conversation about trends. It’s a conversation about execution.

Key themes include:

• Why 73% of brands are investing in AI, but only 9% see real impact
• How fragmented tech stacks are holding back guest experience
• Why digital growth is exposing operational weaknesses
• The shift from experimentation to operational discipline
• What “serving smarter” actually means in practice

If you care about where restaurants go next, this is one to watch.

Download and read the full report on Qu's website here

Support the show

🔔 Subscribe to The Digital Restaurant Podcast and follow us on YouTube for more episodes that combine the love of food with the latest in technology. Your next restaurant tech adventure starts here!

📖 Get your copy of the Delivering the Digital Restaurant books at www.theDigital.Restaurant

🎤 Have Carl come and speak at your company conference! Learn more at www.theDigital.Restaurant

🎙️📰Please subscribe to our newsletter and connect with Carl's Delivering the Digital Restaurant page on LinkedIn for their twice-a-month newsletter.

Send us Fan Mail

Carl is joined by Rishi Nigam, CEO of Franklin Junction, to break down the most important stories shaping restaurants and consumer technology as we close out 2025. From GoPuff’s latest funding round to Cloudflare’s massive outage and the rising role of synthetic data, this episode looks at how operators should prepare for a rapidly changing year ahead.

Topics covered:

• GoPuff’s new funding and whether it signals discipline or deeper trouble

• Q4 softness and why consumer spending may diverge sharply by income level in 2026

• Kroger’s closure of e-commerce fulfillment centers and what it means for delivery economics

• How synthetic data is reshaping forecasting, pricing, and marketing

• Why Cloudflare’s outage shows every restaurant needs a real contingency plan

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:00 GoPuff funding analysis
06:00 Consumer spending outlook for 2026
12:00 Kroger closes fulfillment centers
15:00 Synthetic data and the 80 percent prediction
22:00 Cloudflare outage and industry risk

Listen, subscribe, and share your thoughts with us.

Happy Thanksgiving from The Digital Restaurant.

Support the show

🔔 Subscribe to The Digital Restaurant Podcast and follow us on YouTube for more episodes that combine the love of food with the latest in technology. Your next restaurant tech adventure starts here!

📖 Get your copy of the Delivering the Digital Restaurant books at www.theDigital.Restaurant

🎤 Have Carl come and speak at your company conference! Learn more at www.theDigital.Restaurant

🎙️📰Please subscribe to our newsletter and connect with Carl's Delivering the Digital Restaurant page on LinkedIn for their twice-a-month newsletter.

Send us Fan Mail

Special guest host Kim DeCarolis joins Carl for a lively dive into the week’s biggest restaurant and tech stories for the last episode in Season 2.

They start with American Express’s growing influence in restaurant loyalty and ask whether Amex has become the new partner of choice. Then they turn to Chipotle, where CEO Scott Boatwright is refocusing the brand around digital order accuracy — a move that says a lot about how consumer expectations have shifted.

Next up: Yelp’s new AI Receptionist - will it actually help operators, or just add more noise to the AI conversation? And in one of the week’s biggest business moves, Wonder’s acquisition of Spyce from Sweetgreen sparks a discussion on focus, automation, and where robotics fits into the future kitchen.

Finally, Carl and Kim unpack the Uber + Toast partnership, a big move that could reshape the first-party and third-party delivery landscape.

As always, The Digital Restaurant looks at how these headlines reveal where restaurant technology and the broader off-premise experience are headed next.

01:30 – Q1: Is Amex becoming the restaurant partner of choice?
05:00 – Q2: Chipotle turns its focus to order accuracy
10:45 – Q3: Yelp Receptionist – Hype or Help for Operators?
14:50 – Q4: Wonder buys Spyce from Sweetgreen – smart sale or bold gamble?
19:40 – Q5: Uber + Toast partnership – what it means for delivery’s future

Support the show

🔔 Subscribe to The Digital Restaurant Podcast and follow us on YouTube for more episodes that combine the love of food with the latest in technology. Your next restaurant tech adventure starts here!

📖 Get your copy of the Delivering the Digital Restaurant books at www.theDigital.Restaurant

🎤 Have Carl come and speak at your company conference! Learn more at www.theDigital.Restaurant

🎙️📰Please subscribe to our newsletter and connect with Carl's Delivering the Digital Restaurant page on LinkedIn for their twice-a-month newsletter.