Great Restaurant Operators of America
The 100 operators worth studying.
One hundred US restaurant operators moving the frontline forward.
Follow the series →The premise
Operating knowledge rarely leaves the building.
The best restaurant operators in the country solve the same problems every week and almost never write any of it down. Storefox profiles a hundred of them — the people actually moving the frontline forward in US food & beverage — and asks for the specifics: the numbers, the systems, and the calls they got wrong. Each one becomes a short video byte: a quote and the story behind it, dropped across our channels.
Featured bytes · Now live
Mira Stsiapanau on people over systems.
VP, Operations & Training, Eggs Up Grill
“It's never about the systems. It's about how people deliver and how people work with them.”
Mira leads training and operations — and a nationwide expansion — at Eggs Up Grill. On mentors, culture, and why it's never personal.
Byte 03 of 100
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Bethany Strong on People First.
COO, Naya
“Try not to teach people to complete the checklist — get them to want what you want. And then you don't need the checklist.”
Thirty years in restaurants, from fast casual to fine dining. Bethany on hiring for hospitality, empowering teams, and why people always come first.
Byte 02 of 100
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Josh Halpern, Unfiltered.
CBO, Craveworthy Brands · CEO, Big Chicken
“Everything you're about is love and accountability — and the only way to be properly accountable is if it's rooted in big data.”
One operator. The full story of how they got there. The blur has lifted — watch Byte 01 now.
Byte 01 of 100
Follow the series →The list
100 operators. One byte each.
The list is set. The blur lifts one face at a time — each operator goes public the moment their byte drops.
- Josh HalpernCraveworthy Brands + Big ChickenByte 01 · Live
- Bethany StrongNayaByte 02 · Live
- Mira StsiapanauEggs Up GrillByte 03 · Live
- Revealing soon
04 - Revealing soon
05
Who we feature
Four things every operator on the list has in common.
01
Multi-unit, still hands on.
Three locations or three hundred. You still know what last Tuesday's labor number was.
02
A decade of receipts.
Long enough to have survived a bad opening, a bad partner, or a bad year.
03
Something measured.
You changed a number on purpose and can say how you did it.
04
Willing to be specific.
Concrete answers about margin, turnover, and the calls you got wrong.
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