Weekly Wrap May 5: Engaging With Influencers, the Micro-Kitchen Model, and More
The most important hospitality industry news right now
Dave Foss
May 05, 2025
In this Weekly Wrap, we’re digging into the importance of engaging with influencer feedback, Wingstop’s Q1 earnings, micro-kitchens that run on hot plates, and more.
Influencer Nation
The Headline: “How influencers became the new restaurant critics — and what this means for operators”
The Source: Nation’s Restaurant News
What You Need to Know:
This month, a group of influencers has provided insights on the types of restaurant reviews they publish, the most important criteria for review content, and how operators should respond to online reviews — good or bad.
“Influencers report that a single viral post can create a surge in foot traffic and sales, with one mentioning more than 2.3 million views on a Taco Bell post as a clear catalyst for consumer action,” Kate Finley, founder and CEO of Belle Communication, said, noting that independent restaurants could actually stand to benefit even more from a social media review than a national chain would. “While outcomes vary depending on timing, algorithm, and audience interest, even lower-engagement posts often yield brand awareness or social growth. The key is tracking traffic and sales metrics during campaign periods to assess impact.”
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All three influencers unanimously mentioned how important it is for restaurant operators to not only be active on social media, but to readily respond to reviews — both positive and negative.
“Some restaurants ignore or delete negative comments, but I love it when they actively engage with both positive and negative feedback,” Sarai said. “When a restaurant responds to every comment, it shows integrity and a willingness to improve. Taking the conversation offline, through DMs, a phone call, or offering to make things right, can turn a negative experience into a positive one. A lot of customers just want to feel heard.”
Our Take:
Let me be very clear, I can’t stand influencers and the outsized power they wield over the fate of a restaurant. But because they’re likely not going anywhere anytime soon, they’re a necessary evil. That said, I appreciate this article and its candid tone, and especially the way it offers some background into how these folks think and operate.
One of the biggest takeaways for me is the importance of engagement with both positive and negative feedback. Whether someone leaves a fantastic review or a scathing one, responding shows you’re paying attention. I’ve seen far too many operators completely ignore both kinds of comments, and that silence can hurt long-term guest engagement more than people realize.
And this isn’t just about social media. Thoughtful responses should extend to Google, restaurant platform reviews (which are often overlooked), and even Yelp, which I like even less than influencers.
From Pop-Up to Brick-and-Mortar
The Headline: “How Our Pop-Up Expanded to Serve a 10,000-Person Waitlist”
The Source: Eater
What You Need to Know:
After leaving Eleven Madison Park in January 2020, Eric Huang began helping out at his family’s Queens restaurant, Peking House. In September 2020, amid COVID-related dine-in restrictions, Huang started using its kitchen for a delivery-only pop-up, selling a cross between Nashville hot chicken and Sichuan fried chicken. By early 2021, Huang’s Pecking House had a waitlist of 10,000 people. Now, Pecking House has two locations. Here, Huang explains how business has changed since going brick-and-mortar and how he’s kept prices low over the past five years.
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On profitability
The delivery pop-up operation was the most profitable version of Pecking House. With COVID-19, people were very generous with how they tipped and how they ordered. Today it’s difficult to get people to spend at certain price points. Competing with three pieces for $5 from Popeye’s is really challenging. In a good month, we’re barely profitable at all. The margins are under 5 percent now when [the restaurants] are profitable.
On delivery
When it was a pop-up, I did my own routing; I hired my own drivers. Now, to use last month as an example, I would say 6 to 8 percent of gross revenue went straight to delivery apps. We have tried to run our own delivery apps through our website, but frankly, this is not how modern consumer behavior works.
On pricing
It started off as $35 for a chicken meal with three sides. I felt that was a good value, considering we were bringing it to you. When we opened the brick-and-mortar, that was no longer a tenable price point. We slid it down to $27 for the three piece with two sides. When we opened the second location, we dropped it down to where our most accessible meal was $14 and our sandwiches were $14. We literally just raised prices by $1. Given the nature of how Instagram-heavy our business is, for better or worse, a lot of people came in once. Lowering prices increased our return-customer rate by a decent margin, about 20 to 30 percent. But it is lower revenue, so I don’t know if it’s a net benefit.
Our Take:
It's great to see a piece like this. Rarely do articles delve into not just the leap from pop-up to brick-and-mortar, but also the real structural shifts that happen to the business model when that move gets made.
It’s important for operators to read and internalize the challenges that come with opening a permanent space — how margins contract, how labor scales, and how delivery and infrastructure costs start to alter your bottom line.
The bit about delivery app fees is particularly relevant. In this case, 6–8 percent isn’t outrageous — I've spoken with operators who are paying closer to mid-teens percentage wise. But on the flip side, even with those fees, those takeout and delivery orders can be the difference between closing the month in the black or the red. It’s easy to hate on the third-party platforms, but sometimes they’re the only way to hit volume, especially for newer brands without built-in foot traffic.
This is a solid piece for anyone running a pop-up or food truck who is thinking of moving into a brick-and-mortar space. There’s plenty here that can help inform smarter growth for operators moving into this market.
Clover Getting Into Fine-Dining POS Game
The Headline: “Fiserv ventures into high-end restaurants”
The Source: Restaurant Dive
What You Need to Know:
Payments processing giant Fiserv is beginning to sample the high-end restaurant business with its point-of-sale service Clover.
The company has already signed a luxury restaurant in Brooklyn, according to comments from the incoming CEO during its quarterly earnings call Thursday.
Clover Hospitality, as the service will be called, will debut at the National Restaurant Association Conference on May 17 in Chicago, and Fiserv’s president and incoming CEO Michael Lyons gave a brief description of that effort during the call.
The service is “a new point of sale system designed to meet the needs of upper-market restaurants,” Lyons said.
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Milwaukee-based Fiserv’s move into the high-end restaurant space mirrors that of the luxury credit card network American Express, which bought the reservation and point of sale service Tock for $400 million in June from website builder Squarespace.
Our Take:
This may seem fairly mundane, but it could represent a significant move. Fiserv, the parent company of Clover, is one of the largest credit card processors in the world. As a result, the credit card processing fees associated with its POS system tend to be slightly lower than those of most other POS and payment processing platforms. And as any operator knows, every bit of savings matters — especially at scale, where high volume can translate into real money on the bottom line.
Historically, we’ve advised full-service restaurants to steer clear of Clover. Not because the system is flawed or overpriced, but because it’s long been better suited for quick-service and counter-service models. That may be about to change. Fiserv is clearly serious about entering the fine-dining space and addressing the nuances of that service model; Toast and Square should be on notice.
Wingstop Quarterly Earnings Jump
The Headline: “Earnings call transcript: Wingstop Q1 2025 earnings beat expectations”
The Source: Investing.com
What You Need to Know:
Key Takeaways
- Wingstop achieved record quarterly sales, with system-wide sales increasing by 15.7% to $1.3 billion.
- The company reported a significant year-over-year EPS increase of over 200%.
- Wingstop opened a record 126 net new restaurants in Q1 2025.
- Digital sales grew to 72%, highlighting the strength of the delivery channel.
- The company plans to launch a loyalty program in Q4 2025, expanding system-wide in 2026.
Company Performance
Wingstop experienced robust growth in Q1 2025, with system-wide sales reaching a record $1.3 billion. The company’s strategic initiatives, including the deployment of the Wingstop Smart Kitchen technology in over 200 restaurants, contributed to increased efficiency and reduced kitchen quote times. Despite a temporary pullback in certain consumer segments, Wingstop’s digital sales and delivery channels continued to show growth potential.
Our Take:
Yes, Wingstop operates in the fast-casual QSR realm. But what they’ve managed to pull off in this economy is truly impressive.
While much of the industry is chasing value, Wingstop is betting on tech and operational efficiency. That’s not to say there isn’t a value proposition at play — it’s there. But what stands out is their continued investment in digital, particularly their online ordering platform. This isn’t just a surface-level update; they’ve fully leaned into the digital and delivery space, with a remarkable 72 percent of their sales now coming through digital channels.
For full-service, sit-down operators, the question is: how do you grow off-premise and takeout business while still staying profitable amid excessive third-party delivery fees? That’s the lesson here, and it’s one worth paying close attention to.
Hot Plate Kitchens
The Headline: “Hot-Plate Heroes: How 5 Restaurants Work Wonders With No Kitchen”
The Source: NY Times
What You Need to Know:
As rents and other expenses rise, many restaurants across the country are saving on space and operating without a full-service kitchen. Their chefs are grilling on panini presses, smoking eggplant with no smoker, crisping chicken wings with no fryer. They are constantly forced to focus and adapt — and their menus are all the more exciting for it.
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It’s hard to believe that inventive dishes like yaki onigiri with tuna miso and sardine bánh mì toast come out of the kitchen setup at the Bay Area cocktail bar Friends and Family: two induction burners, a slow cooker, a rice cooker and a panini press.
After starting as a bar in 2020 and closing during the Covid lockdowns, Friends and Family reopened in 2021 with a menu of grilled cheese sandwiches and occasionally, pulled pork cooked in a slow cooker, to satisfy a city rule that required bars to serve food.
The current chef, Gaby Maeda, saw the basic layout as a fun challenge. She realized, for example, how many applications there are for a panini press: griddling onigiri, charring cabbage, searing onions. Because there’s a lid to press down, she said, nothing requires flipping — unlike a plancha or a flattop.
Our Take:
For small owner-operators, what’s explored here could be game-changing. That’s not to say it’s simple — pulling it off takes real thought, creativity, ingenuity, skill, and communication. But if you can make it work, you can save yourself a significant amount of cash, especially when it comes to kitchen equipment.
For example, we just wrapped a kitchen design for a medium-sized restaurant doing New American fare. After slimming down the original quote, the final kitchen equipment cost still came in at $300,000 — and that’s not including all the smallwares and smaller kitchen tools and equipment.
Now compare that with some of these micro-kitchen models. You’re looking at a couple of induction burners, a rice cooker, a slow cooker, maybe a panini press, possibly a smaller oven. Add in some low-boy coolers and, if you’re lucky with space, a small walk-in. That’s a kitchen build at a fraction of the traditional cost.
Smaller kitchens mean less labor — there are only so many people you can get in a 200-300 square foot space. Less space means less inventory, and the inventory you do bring in gets used with far more intention.
There are caveats, of course. You can put out great food from a set-up like this, but there are limitations — smaller spaces and limited firepower naturally cap how much you can produce. These kitchens shine in intimate concepts, but they won’t scale to a 150–200 seat restaurant doing multiple turns a night — it just doesn’t work.
And some production methods still benefit from serious equipment. Ask any chef about what a combi oven can do for your kitchen, and they’ll give you an earful. (Not once have I heard a chef complain about having a Rational Combi Oven.)
But what this article reminds us of is: if there’s a will, there’s a way. With thoughtful design (both menu and kitchen) and creative execution — and that's key, if the design and execution are not spot-on, you’re setting yourself up for a hot mess — these tiny kitchens can go a long way.