Restaurant, Café & Bar Growth Consultant · USA
12 Restaurants Operated|200+ Businesses Served|$12M+ Revenue Impact|15+ Years Experience
Ex-Google engineer and hands-on restaurant operator, now helping US restaurants, cafés and bars get found, get chosen and get booked.
The problem, and the fix
The way guests decide where to eat has changed. Below are the five gaps that quietly leak covers every week. Every one is backed by real data, and every one maps to a system I run for you.
Guests now ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI where to eat. It names only 3 to 5 places, and 83% of restaurants never appear. Uberall, 2026
62% discover restaurants on Google. Not in the top three of the map pack means invisible at the deciding moment. PYMNTS, 2023
93% read reviews before visiting. Thin, old or unanswered reviews quietly send guests to a competitor. BrightLocal, 2025
74% say social platforms guide their dining choices. A pretty feed that does not book tables is just a hobby. Industry, 2025
A 5% lift in retention can raise profit 25 to 95%, yet most restaurants have no owned guest list to bring people back. Bain, HBR
Not five vendors and five dashboards. One operator, one plan, one number that matters: booked covers.
Meet the PLATE FrameworkAggregator visibility
In India I built organic visibility for restaurants on Zomato and Swiggy. In the US I apply the same playbook to DoorDash, Uber Eats, Yelp and Google, so you win the listing, not just the click.
The signature system
A restaurant-specific digital growth system. Five stages that move a guest from never hearing about you to becoming a regular who brings friends.
Be found where discovery now starts: AI answers, search, and the aggregators guests browse (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Yelp, Zomato, Swiggy).
Own the "near me" moment with a fully optimized Google Business Profile and local SEO that puts you in the map pack top three.
Create the craving and pull guests in with social content and Meta and Google Ads targeted to the people most likely to book tonight.
Convert interest into booked covers with strong reviews, frictionless reservations, and a website built to turn a visit into a booking.
Turn a first visit into a regular with owned email and SMS, loyalty and referral loops, so growth compounds instead of resetting.
How it works
You always know what we are doing, why, and what it is doing to your covers.
A free 30 minute call to understand your restaurant, your goals and your slow shifts.
I audit your AI presence, local search, reviews, social and aggregators, and find the gaps leaking covers.
A prioritized plan across all five stages, sequenced to your revenue, not a generic checklist.
I run the system and report on covers, reservations and repeat rate, not vanity metrics.
Proof, US restaurants
US restaurants and bars, from San Francisco to Atlanta, each given a demand system built around how their guests actually decide.
Client success story
Strong weekend demand but quiet weekday service. Local discovery was underbuilt and there was no system to fill off-peak tables.
Rebuilt local and AI discovery and launched an off-peak demand engine, so weekday covers get their own pipeline instead of relying on the weekend rush.
Client success story
A beautiful concept with a thin online footprint. Discovery rarely turned into booked tables.
Built an owned audience and a reputation engine that converts discovery into reservations, so interest stops leaking away.
Client success story
Great food but under marketed. It was losing the "near me" moment to noisier neighbours.
Local SEO and paid social built to win nearby searches and turn them into reservations.
Client success story
A community favourite with a low repeat rate and no owned guest list to bring people back.
An email and SMS retention funnel that turns first time guests into regulars on the slow nights.
Client success story
High foot traffic but high competition, and hard to stand out on a crowded coastal strip.
Sharper positioning and content that give guests a clear reason to choose this room over the rest.
Client success story
A new market entry with no local awareness and no demand system in place at launch.
A launch demand system running across search, social and aggregators from day one.
In their words
Independent restaurants and bars, growing with a system built around real covers.
“He gets restaurants, not just ad accounts. Our quiet weekdays finally fill up.”
“We show up now when people search nearby, and the bookings followed.”
“Regulars come back on the slow nights now. It paid for itself fast.”
The operator behind the strategy
I started in tech as an engineer at Google, before a love for food pulled me into hospitality. I built buzzy, critic praised concepts in India like Imly and Lights, Camera, Action, and as Director and Co-Founder of Yuvi Hospitality I raised institutional capital to scale the group.
Since then I have consulted only in the restaurant industry, supervising digital ad budgets for restaurants and growing their visibility across search, AI and aggregators.
"This ex-Google employee is turning the restaurant business on its head." Business Insider India
That means I understand your covers, your kitchen and your margins, not just your dashboard. Today I bring that operator's lens to restaurants, cafés and bars across the US.
Questions
Covers are the only scoreboard that matters. Every stage of the PLATE system ties back to booked tables, and I report on covers, reservations and repeat visits, not followers or impressions. If a tactic does not move guests through the door, we do not spend your money on it.
You work directly with me, not an account manager or an outsourced junior team. I have built and run restaurants, raised capital to scale them, and I consult only in this industry. One person who reads a P&L, is accountable for the number, and has skin in whether your tables fill.
I have lived it. I built concepts like Imly and Lights, Camera, Action and have advised hundreds of restaurant brands. I think in covers, table turns, average check, slow shifts and food cost, so the growth I build holds up on your P&L, not just a dashboard.
It is real and it is early. In 2026, 83% of restaurants never appear in AI recommendations, while the share of diners using AI to find local spots jumped from 6% to 45% in a single year. AI names only a few places and there is no page two. Being early here is a rare, time limited advantage.
No. They bring real volume. I help you rank better on them while building your owned discovery and a guest list, so over time you keep more margin and depend less on their commissions instead of being trapped by them.
Honestly, growth is a system that compounds, not a switch you flip. The first 30 to 60 days go into foundations: your listings, your Google and AI presence, reviews and proper tracking. In that window you should see leading signals such as more profile views, calls and direction requests, rather than a sudden flood of new covers. Meaningful lift in reservations and covers usually builds over the first three to six months as local and AI search start to rank, campaigns are optimized and your reviews grow. The biggest gains, repeat guests and durable word of mouth, compound from around six months onward. I will not promise you overnight covers. I will promise clear direction, honest monthly reporting and steady progress you can actually see.
Very little. After a short onboarding I run the system for you. You approve the direction and read a simple report. The goal is to give you time back, not hand you a second job.
After a free discovery call and audit, I scope a plan to your goals and your market, so pricing fits the work. The framework is built for independent restaurants, not just chains, and we start where the fastest covers are, so it pays for itself.
Book your call
Book a free growth strategy call. You will leave with a clear plan for your restaurant, whether we work together or not.