About Us

I know the struggles of restaurant management, it’s been my career. I have opened and managed stores for various corporations: Marriott, Bennigan’s, Planet Hollywood,  Legal Seafood, Bowlmor, and Austin Grill. I’ve managed operations all over the country.  I loved it every minute of it, and do not regret a thing. But hospitality is the most grueling career in operations management you can choose. You can never truly relax. Restaurant managers and owners experience constant stress. You can be a hero one week, and a villain the next. I spent most of my career as a hero, but I still remember the villain weeks quite well. The business is demanding. Family often becomes secondary. And you can end up with no life.  I wanted a change. But not just for me, for the whole  industry. My thinking is simple. It doesn’t need to be this way.

One day I moved on from operations. I began teaching and consulting. Having an MBA, I was able to open my own consulting business, and become an Adjunct Professor. I teach culinary students all the things they don’t want to learn. Cost Control, P&L Management, Supervision, Entrepreneurship, and Marketing are not what culinary students are interested in learning. They want to make foie gras and cupcakes, not calculate food cost. I tell them, chefs teach you how to make food, Prof. Long teaches you how to make money. They like that idea. 

I take a different approach than most consultants in this industry. They tend to focus on every aspect of operation, and so did I at first. If you look at any hospitality consultant site, it’s always the same. They try to be everything to everyone. These firms offer everything from menu development, to P&L management, to supervision, to fixing plumbing. OK, maybe not plumbing, but you get my point. This approach is ineffective, both for the consultants and for their clients. 

The key is not to evaluate total operations. The key is to help owners and operators to have both better lives and better operations. That needs to be the goal.  You do that by asking the hard questions. You do that by talking to everyone: owners, management, and staff. You do that by questioning processes that restaurants take for granted every day. It’s easy to become jaded. It’s natural to be taught to do something a certain way, and to continue to do something a certain way forever. It happens in every industry. And can be the source of despair, hardship, and misery. Why? Because we accept something and never question it. We fall back on “Well, that’s just how we do it”.

Effective recruiting and training is the key. Fix these two process, and all the other parts fall into place. I not saying you wont have to manage, but you’ll manage less. I’m not saying you will no longer worry, but you’ll worry less. You’ll have more time and energy to concentrate on the more important aspects of your business, and of your life. Improved customer relations, improved vendor relations, improved employee relations, and improved business success all come from successful recruiting and training. 

With the right crew on your ship, you’ll have you’ll have a stronger competitive edge and greater return on investment. With the right crew on the ship, the problems of motivation, attitude, and turnover greatly melt away.  A properly selected and trained staff is the best internal marketing a company can have. This is my wish for you, and for this industry. Success and Wellness.