Mike Gibbons got his start in the industry as a waiter while attending Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Upon graduation, Gibbons transferred to Michigan accepting a position as an assistant manager, and quickly advancing to general manager, regional manager and later director of training before embarking as a restaurateur. In 1979, Gibbons joined forces with Dennis Serras and in 1981, along with Dieter Boehm, founded Mainstreet Ventures Inc. fast forward 36 years and Gibbons is a successful restaurateur operating businesses in five states as the President and CEO of Mainstreet Ventures Inc.

Petra Polakovicova moved to San Francisco from Slovakia, Europe, when she was 18 years old. She had her first taste of American restaurants while working as a food runner at the illustrious Palace Hotel. Working with great Sommeliers and their award winning wine lists has always been a great source of education and inspiration for her. Her desires to be formally accomplished in the wine profession eventually lead her to attend the Professional Culinary Institute and become a Certified Sommelier in 2007. Following her certification, she joined EPIC Steak’s opening team, as an Assistant Sommelier and since June 2009 she been the Wine Director at EPIC Steak.

Today's guest, Aman Narang is a graduate of MIT and the C0-Founder of Toast, Inc. Toast is an all-in-one restaurant technology platform. Built specifically for restaurants, Toast brings together many solutions from integrated online ordering to gift card and loyalty programs to labor and sales reporting all on a mobile, cloud-based POS system. Thousands of restaurants across the US are using Toast - from fine dining to fast casual, local businesses to national chains. Aman and I will be discussing the future of POS systems and how they impacts restaurant operations and human relations in years to come.  

In the heart of Miami, restaurateur John Kunkel, founder of 50 Eggs, Inc., focuses his unwavering passion for food into a diverse group of culinary concepts. In just under two decades, Kunkel has built 50 Eggs into an award winning restaurant group, demonstrating his talents with brand ideation, menu development and operational excellence for a broad range of hospitality concepts. Today, the group is comprised of beloved restaurants Yardbird Southern Table and Bar, Swine Southern Table and Bar and Spring Chicken.

Peter Kirwan (PK), is the Director of Marketing for Wisetail LMS and has been with the company for nearly 5 years.  In that time, he has seen Wisetail LMS grow into a multi-million dollar company with more than one million users and over 50 restaurant clients. Wisetail LMS was founded in 2009 in Bozeman, Montana, and has grown 100% per year for the past 5 years becoming both a rising star and a disruptive force in the fields of eLearning, learning management systems, and employee engagement.

Wisetail LMS serves an elite group of discerning restaurant and hospitality clients – from The Cheesecake Factory, to Chopt, to Shake Shack, and The ThinkFoodGroup. Today we discuss how Wisetail's service can help your restaurant improve it's training while strengthening it's brand, communication, and culture. 

Shore Gregory grew up just south of Boston, MA. While in college, he started working in the oyster business. Today, Shore is the founder and Owner Island Creek Oyster bar, Row 34 Boston, Row 34 Portsmouth, and has a few more projects in the works. In addition to being founder of some of Boston's premiere seafood restaurants,  in 2014 Shore was named one of "Forbes Magazines  30 under 30" in food and wine.