Running Restaurants cover art

Running Restaurants

Running Restaurants

By: RunningRestaurants.com
Listen for free

Summary

Running a restaurant is one of the most exhilarating yet challenging ventures out there. Every day, passionate restaurateurs pour their hearts into delivering dining experiences that both excite customers & simultaneously drive profits to the bottom line. But how can restaurants do both even better?

Welcome to Running Restaurants, the podcast exploring actionable tips, valuable resources, and interesting insights every restaurant owner can easily implement in their own businesses. Whether you want your food venture to be more profitable, renowned, or enticing to many, we discuss every single strategy that could make your goals a reality.

Tune in to insightful discussions with restaurant industry experts, business gurus, and food professionals about what it takes to bring your venture to the next level. Whether you are running a casual dining, quick service, table service, fine dining, or food bar, this podcast offers everything you need to hone the way you run your restaurant.

Find out how to better market your place, increase your audience reach, and eventually turn your brand into a go-to or household name. Understand how to leverage the immense power of social media for your promotional campaigns in today’s ever-increasing digital world. Learn the best customer service strategies to keep everyone satisfied and longing for more. Discover how to develop your menu, keep it fresh and interesting, and make it suitable for a wide range of diets and food preferences.

This podcast also explores the complex business aspects behind the scenes that require your utmost attention. Learn how to hire and maintain the most talented individuals, decrease food waste, eliminate internal theft, and comply with all legal matters to keep your restaurant up and running. Become more knowledgeable about finances and accounting, going in-depth about keeping restaurants highly profitable. Understand how to strike the perfect balance between good food and good revenue.

This show provides solutions to the biggest and most common problems encountered by many in the restaurant industry. This is your chance to finally address low-profit margins, high food costs, and labor challenges. This is your opportunity to improve your business management tactics, staff training methods, and overall workplace culture. And of course, this is the best place to answer your technology and marketing questions, giving you a better edge in navigating the competition in this digital age.

Hosting the podcast is Jaime Oikle, owner of the restaurant content provider Running Restaurants. Through this online website and its sister platforms, he is able to deliver valuable resources and the latest news to help restaurant owners constantly deliver outstanding local dining experiences for more than 25 years. His website contains more than 1200 articles and 75 hours of seminar or webinar sessions.

Jaime’s reason for being is to help restaurant owners succeed and thrive. He is deeply passionate about providing as many resources as possible to guide them toward business success. Jaime leads every podcast episode with the goal of extracting the most helpful information and tips that prove useful in building and maintaining a well-rounded and efficient food venture.

Whatever kind of restaurant you are running, equip yourself with the right knowledge to keep it up and running, as well as ensure its straight path towards success. Discover the latest, dive deep into the complexities, and win big in this difficult yet rewarding industry. And if some obstacles and hurdles hinder you from achieving the restaurant of your dreams, let Jaime reveal what you must do to get rid of the problems along your path. The biz is fun, yet far from easy, and this is the podcast to support and help you out!

Listen to Running Restaurants at www.runningrestaurants.com.

Copyright 2026 | All rights reserved Economics
Episodes
  • Roger Beaudoin: Seven Leadership & Life Lessons

    Roger Beaudoin: Seven Leadership & Life Lessons
    Apr 22 2026

    Jaime interviews Roger Beaudoin, a veteran hospitality entrepreneur and host of the podcast Restaurant Rockstars. The conversation explores Roger's journey from aspiring pilot to restaurant leader, focusing on seven quotes that shaped his life and leadership. Roger shares personal stories about overcoming setbacks, embracing risk, empowering teams, and balancing work with family and passions. The episode offers practical leadership advice, insights on lifelong learning, and reflections on supporting others' growth - both in business and at home - while emphasizing the importance of living fully and evolving at any age.


    Roger offers actionable insights for anyone seeking to lead, grow, and live with purpose. Whether you're a business owner, aspiring leader, or simply looking to live more intentionally, these insights will help you chart your own path to success and fulfillment.


    Check out Jaime & Roger's new Mastermind Program for Independent Restaurant Operators at https://www.runningrestaurants.com/mastermind/
    Show More Show Less
    53 mins
  • A Key to Winning Repeat Restaurant Customers

    A Key to Winning Repeat Restaurant Customers
    Apr 9 2026

    Jaime gets with secret shopping expert Darren Denington of Service With Style in this short snippet to discuss the growing problem of mediocre dining experiences. With rising meal costs, they emphasize that restaurants must deliver exceptional service to justify prices. Both Jaime & Darren share recent personal dining experience that fell flat due to missing small but impactful gestures like friendly smiles and warm farewells. Their candid discussion reveals actionable strategies for restaurateurs who want to move beyond mediocrity and consistently deliver exceptional value. The key takeaway: invest in people, refine service systems, and prioritize genuine human connection to elevate the overall guest experience.


    https://restaurant.mysamcart.com/products/
    Show More Show Less
    5 mins
  • Quick Peak on How AI is Starting to Revolutionize Restaurants

    Quick Peak on How AI is Starting to Revolutionize Restaurants
    Mar 17 2026

    In this episode of the Running Restaurants podcast, Jamie Oikle and Roger Beaudoin explore how artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the restaurant industry. They discuss AI's role in tackling labor shortages, cutting costs, optimizing inventory, and enhancing menu engineering. Real-world examples illustrate how AI boosts efficiency and profitability, while creative menu descriptions and new revenue ideas are highlighted. Despite these technological advances, the hosts emphasize that genuine hospitality and personal guest service remain crucial, urging operators to use AI as a tool to support—not replace—the human touch that defines memorable dining experiences. Find out more at https://www.runningrestaurants.com


    Highlights Include:

    - Impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the restaurant industry

    - Addressing labor shortages and rising costs through technology

    - Importance of menu engineering and inventory management

    - AI's role in enhancing guest experience while preserving hospitality

    - Demand forecasting using historical data for better decision-making

    - Reducing waste and optimizing inventory with AI solutions

    - Improving menu descriptions and item naming for increased sales

    - Generating new revenue streams and innovative profit center ideas

    - Balancing technology with personal guest service and human connection

    - The evolving role of AI as a competitive tool in restaurant operations



    Timestamps:


    What is AI? (00:00:47)

    Roger explains artificial intelligence basics, how it learns from data, and its growing role in restaurants.


    Current Restaurant Challenges (00:01:09)

    Discussion of labor shortages, rising costs, shrinking margins, inefficiency, and the need for better systems.


    AI's Rapid Evolution & Search Capabilities (00:02:04)

    AI's fast-changing nature, comparison to Google, and how AI provides instant, accurate answers.


    AI for Demand Forecasting & Inventory (00:02:55)

    How AI predicts demand, improves ordering, reduces waste, and uses historical data for better inventory management.


    Menu Engineering with AI (00:03:46)

    Real-world example of a chef using AI for menu engineering, recipe creation, and ingredient cross-utilization.


    Profit Loss & Menu Descriptions (00:04:47)

    Pain points: lost profits, generic menu items, lack of costing, and using AI for creative menu naming.


    Creating Wow Factor & Social Media Appeal (00:05:40)

    Importance of wow factor in food presentation, guest reactions, and leveraging social media marketing.


    New Revenue Center Ideas (00:07:10)

    Using AI to brainstorm new profit centers beyond traditional options like catering or live music.


    Hospitality vs. Technology (00:07:30)

    Emphasis on maintaining hospitality as the foundation, ensuring technology enhances but doesn't replace the human touch.


    https://restaurant.mysamcart.com/products/
    Show More Show Less
    9 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c
No reviews yet