Every foodservice and hospitality acquisition arrives wrapped in a story — a growth trajectory, an established brand, an opportunistic price. Not all of it is true, and for most buyers, the exclusivity period doesn't always surface which parts: labor models that don't scale, kitchens already running past capacity, a technology stack held together by exceptions, unit economics that work only in the units chosen for the tour. A generalist advisory firm can read the data room. We have run the kitchen, negotiated the lease, and stood in the walk-in at 5 a.m. counting inventory — 2,000+ times, in more than 100 countries, across $300 billion in client revenue.
That distinction is the entire case. A pattern that reads as noise to a generalist — a menu mix shift, a third-party delivery fee structure, a labor schedule that only balances on paper — reads as a signal to someone who has run the P&L it belongs to. We built our practice inside restaurants and hospitality operations before we built it inside data rooms, which is why private equity firms and family offices bring us in when the cost of a blind spot is highest: at the LOI, before the wire, before the story becomes permanent.
Know what you're buying. Before you own it.
Commercial, operational, and technology diligence, run together or independently, scoped to the transaction timeline your counterparty actually gave you.
We conduct independent market sizing and segment forecasting, competitive landscape analysis and forward-looking threat assessment, consumer demand validation and trend durability testing, unit economics benchmarking against true comparables, white space analysis and addressable growth quantification, and a full stress test of the investment thesis against market realities.
We examine unit-level execution against system standards, labor model integrity including scheduling assumptions, productivity, and retention, kitchen flow, throughput, and capacity utilization, technology coherence and implementation quality, supply chain resilience and vendor concentration risk, management bench depth and succession risk, and scalability readiness against the growth plan.
We evaluate the go-to-market strategy, the strength of the value proposition, the durability of the investment thesis, and the white space a platform claims to own. We're translators between what a pitch promises and what operators will actually adopt.
$180M in value-creation opportunities identified before close.
A 3x–5x return thesis mapped across a four-city Saudi expansion.
A 3X+ ROI path found after a third of the system proved unprofitable.
Private equity deals led by partners with prior operational experience, particularly in the restaurant industry, show greater improvement in inspection results than those led by partners with financial or banking resumes.
Shai Bernstein, Professor of Finance, Stanford University
We work on a small number of transactions at a time, on the timeline the deal actually requires.
Request a Confidential ConversationWe are focused exclusively on the global foodservice and hospitality industry. You can think of us as a research company, think tank, innovation lab, management consultancy, or strategy firm. Our clients count on us to deliver on our promises of meaningful value, actionable insights, and tangible results.
Founded and led by third-generation restaurateur, Aaron Allen, our team is comprised of experts with backgrounds in operations, marketing, finance, and business functions essential in a multi-unit operating environment.
We bring practical, relevant experience ranging from the dish room to the boardroom and apply a holistic, integrated approach to strategic issues related to growth and expansion, performance optimization, and enterprise value enhancement.
Working primarily with multi-brand, multinational organizations, our firm has helped clients on 6 continents, in 100 countries, collectively posting more than $300b in revenue, across 2,000+ engagements.
We help executive teams bridge the gap between what’s happening inside and outside the business so they can find, size, and seize the greatest opportunities for their organizations.