Restaurant Industry Trends with Industry Leader Melissa Doolin-Koehne

Tal Clark: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Instant Payments Podcast. I’m your host, Tal Clark. I’m the CEO of Instant Financial, a fintech company that’s modernizing payments and payroll for hourly workers and their employers. I’ve worked in the payments industry for 30 years, and I’m glad you’re tuning in today.

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Today’s guest is someone who brings a unique and powerful perspective to the restaurant industry. Melissa Doolin-Koehne is the founder of Elevate 4, a consulting firm that helps organizations achieve purpose-driven growth while maximizing profitability. Her work spans restaurant brands, technology companies, and events, giving her a [00:01:00] 360-degree view of the industry.

Melissa also chairs the Texas Restaurant Foundation, an organization that supports and advocates for restaurant brands in the State of Texas. She also hosts the Leadership Roundtable Conference, an annual gathering of top CEOs in the restaurant industry focused on collaboration. Melissa is widely recognized as a trusted advisor to executive teams, and she is passionate about helping shape the next generation of leadership in food service.

Melissa, welcome to the show. How are you doing today?

Melissa Doolin-Koehne: I’m doing great, Tal. It’s so great to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Tal Clark: Yeah. Well, it’s good to be here. We haven’t had a chance to catch up since Workforce Management, so I look forward to, our conversation and kinda see what’s going on today. Before we dig in, I gave a, a little bit of your background there, but in your own words, tell us a little bit about Melissa and how you got to the role that you’re in today and some of your background in the restaurant space.

Melissa Doolin-Koehne: Yeah, absolutely. Well, Tal, I don’t wanna bore people [00:02:00] too much, but the, the essence of, of my background was that I was literally born into the restaurant industry. My parents were both restaurant managers, and moved through their career in the restaurant industry. It has been a passion of mine.

It’s literally in my blood. I worked for the National Restaurant Association after graduating from Johnson & Wales University, and then went to go work for our family business that is now known to be called Black Box Intelligence. I was there for 20 years. I took a couple stints in nonprofit, worked for a organization called Conscious Capitalism, and found myself a couple of years ago to start my own consulting firm called Elevate 4.

Elevate is really around helping our industry get better, in all ways, elevating the experiences for our customers, [00:03:00] as well as our employees, in all different ways in connection. The 4 is actually a nod to my four daughters. It’s, so it’s a little bit of a play on words.

Tal Clark: That’s great. That’s great. Well, look, and, and the first time you and I met was associated with Black Box Intelligence. So talk a little bit more for those that may not be familiar with Black Box Intelligence, talk a little bit more about that.

And, I don’t think you’re still active with the organization, but, I would love to hear kinda your perspective on, on the history and what’s going on.

Melissa Doolin-Koehne: Yeah, so Black Box Intelligence was founded by my stepmother, Joni Thomas Doolin. It’s been around the or- the industry for 30-plus years. I’d like to think that they were one of the first, to really take the, the word benchmarking and data intelligence and really utilize it across our industry.

They, take all kinds of data and analytics from the employee side to sales and traffic to consumer [00:04:00] feedback, and they’re able to intersect those on where they matter most. I’m still friends with so many people over there, still advocate for, for utilizing them as, as a great resource for really understanding trends and what’s happening in the industry, especially when it comes to, to workforce trends.

I think that’s where you and I met, is really talking about doing that. But in my 20-plus years there, being able to work with some of the top brands in our industry, we worked with over 350-plus restaurant brands while I was there. It really gave me a great perspective of what’s happening in the industry, what it takes to win, and ways to improve, being able to look at those data and analytics for 20-plus years.

Tal Clark: Yeah. Well, that’s great, and we always enjoyed our involvement there. It’s great. You always had a great group of attendees and enjoyed the, the, the events they used to [00:05:00] have, still enjoy getting the, the data, on a regular basis and, and helps us keep up with what’s going on in the space for sure.

So, well, look, I understand you’re coming off a big event for the Texas Restaurant Foundation. Talk to us about the event and some of the work the organization does to support and, and advocate in the State of Texas and else- elsewhere.

Melissa Doolin-Koehne: It was an incredible event. It was so much fun. So, a brief history. Texas Restaurant Association’s arm of the giving back part is called Texas Restaurant Foundation. And so Texas Restaurant Association is really around policy and the foundation is the arm around education, giving back, et cetera.

The foundation, l- a couple of weeks ago just held, what we call our Texas ProStart Invitational, and the ProStart program is under the umbrella of the National Restaurant Association. It is the largest school-to-career program in the country, where students in [00:06:00] their, their high schools learn about our industry and the opportunities.

We held, two weeks ago in Waco, Texas, the largest ProStart competition. So we had over 1,000 high school students coming out and competing, and they were competing from everything from culinary skills. We actually had a barbecue competition. We are in Texas. We had individual competitions where Raising Cane’s, Chipotle, Avocados From America, Coca-Cola all do individual competitions for these students to earn scholarships..

And we also do a management program where we have teams of high school students creating their own concept of a restaurant brand, and they’re able to pitch it to a level of judges that have that experience. So it was phenomenal. We had over $3.2 [00:07:00] million in scholarships available for these students as well.

So it’s not only a learning and education piece, but it’s also providing an avenue for these students to really partner with restaurant brands and understand where opportunities are as they progress in their career. It’s really… If you get a chance to go to a competition, I highly recommend it. Most states have it, but I, I’d like to say that Texas has the largest one.

We have 34,000 high school students in Texas learning about the opportunities in our industry.

Tal Clark: Wow, that’s great. Well, Texas has the largest of everything, right? And we’d love to stay in touch with that, so keep us posted as you guys move through that, and love to learn more about it as well. Let’s talk about your perspective on the state of the restaurant industry.

Felt like, there’s been some tough times. 2024 was, was a tough year. [00:08:00] 2025 maybe felt like it was trending better, and I think everybody entered 2026 being pretty optimistic. But here we are with challenges going on again that, that could impact the restaurant industry.

Oil prices are going crazy. Inflation probably will be continuing, some of those things. So what, what’s your sort of perspective today on where the restaurant industry is and maybe challenges that are, that they’re focused on managing as we, as we get into 2026 here?

Melissa Doolin-Koehne: Tal, you’re totally right. I think, I think everybody was hoping that we could be a little bit more hopeful and unfortunately, I feel like it is the tale of get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Since COVID, it has just been this rollercoaster of highs and lows for our industry, right? We were able to, to get out of COVID and have a very big [00:09:00] high.

We were on top of the rollercoaster. Everybody was so excited. Restaurants were opening up. We started growing. Private equity came in and invested a ton in growing our industry. And I would say that if I were to call 2026 a theme, in my opinion, it would be tepid. I don’t, I don’t think that we’re going to see this huge growth, but I also don’t think that we’re to a fall or to a area where we feel like we’re, we’re closing down and should be scared.

There’s still consumer spending out there. There’s still people spending. People are trading down. People are looking for value, and value doesn’t just mean from a price perspective, but also an experience. So I think it’s really important for brands to understand their, their own brand equity.

What makes their [00:10:00] brand really stand out, not only to the consumers but to your employees and really lean into what makes you special, and makes you as a brand, so you can survive because I don’t think it’s gonna get much easier. I think it’s gonna still be a challenge. And we’re feeling it.

From tariffs to the oil prices, to all the things, to the credit card debt that we’re seeing in our industry or in our country. There’s a lot of compounding factors that make you a little bit nervous. But I do believe, like, when people want to spend, they want to have experiences, and our industry is ripe for the taking on those.

Tal Clark: Yeah. Look, you have great insight into what’s going on in the markets and what the restaurateurs are going through, and the opportunities, frankly, because there’s always new brands launching that are killing it, right? There’s new brands out there that you… Raising Cane’s being a great [00:11:00] example of that over the last…

I, I, I don’t know that I could call them a new brand any longer, but, certainly killing it, and there’s others that you read about all the time. Talk a little bit about the differences in those operators that have thrived in sort of a difficult environment versus those that may be having challenges.

What are you seeing in that regard as well?

Melissa Doolin-Koehne: Yeah. Tal, I think those that are, again, leaning into their brand promise and really, understanding what makes them unique. Like Raising Cane’s, for example. Their simplified menu and doing it operational really well makes them very, very strong, right? They don’t try to be the other things.

They try to do what they do very, very well. With that in mind, they’re still innovating, but they’re innovating in different ways through brand partnerships, through working with celebrities, right? Todd Graves is great. He’s all over the place in, in his [00:12:00] marketing genius. So there’s still innovation, but at the core, they are very true to the heart of what makes Raising Cane’s, so craveable.

And one, it’s their food for sure, but they also work really hard on recruiting incredible talent. And so I think that is what you’re seeing. The differences, is really owning your brand promise. But also, I think innovation comes in a lot of ways, but innovation that really makes it easier for your employees.

A lot of people think of the customer piece, but I always start with: your employees are your first line of sight into to all of this, and what are you doing to support them?

Tal Clark: Yeah. I think that’s why we’ve had such a high level of success in the restaurant space because what we do is try to make life better for employees, right? Through access to wages and access of their tips without having to wait on it two weeks later. [00:13:00] They get it the same day and all of that.

So, are you– how close have you been to employee innovation within some of these restaurant brands? What are some things that you’re seeing that are really interesting to you and have been interesting to the restaurateurs that you work with?

Melissa Doolin-Koehne: Yeah. I think you’re right about why you guys have been successful in the restaurant industry. We are a very transient industry. A lot of people don’t realize that the restaurant industry is the largest industry outside of the US government. We hire more people than any other industry.

And so when you start to think about the sheer size of our industry, we’re talking millions and millions of people, we are a catch-all for all the things, right? And so how do we attract and retain the best talent? And I think we are competing against other industries that are really focused on that [00:14:00] employee engagement and understanding what that means to them.

So, the, the big outlier that a lot of people talk about is the kind of the gig economy, right? And so being able to work when you want to as a Uber driver or a DoorDash driver, or Amazon, for example. Easy to get in and out of shifts and understand. I always think, the way that restaurants operators need to think about this is, start with, one thing, and that is start with the shift in mind.

And what does a great shift look like for you and your restaurant? What, what really matters in real time that can make it, the employee experience cascade to the customer experience?

Tal Clark: Okay. [00:15:00] Well, that’s great. That’s great. And, clearly Texas has a great restaurant market and foundation. You’ve been part of that. What, what is it about Texas? If I look at our business, and I’ve, I’ve had the opportunity to have insight into others’ business that are doing B2B work within the restaurant space as well, and Texas is always prominent in anyone’s portfolio.

Texas and and Florida, right? Population has a lot to do with that. But even beyond population, restaurants, Texas seems, restaurants seem to come to the top in regards to innovation and the business opportunity for business like ours. Why is that? What is it that makes Texas a fertile ground for restaurants historically?

Melissa Doolin-Koehne: Well, I think we’ve been that location for many years. You think about how many restaurant brands are based out of Texas, like a lot of the major chains are based here. I, I think Atlanta does a good run for our money.

Tal Clark: Yeah, that’s right.

Melissa Doolin-Koehne: Dallas and Atlanta. [00:16:00] But we have a lot of great brands. So there’s a lot of great restaurant talent in Texas, which is a good start, right?

A lot of people started their careers here in Texas. I do think, and another plug for the Texas Restaurant Association, is that our state association is really solid and strong in advocating for our industry in Texas. So they have built great relationships with government officials, that we educate them on the importance and of our industry, from a growth population to, how much money we are bringing into our state alone in building that.

So we’re a high-growth state. We have plenty of room to grow. Everybody talks about how many Californians are coming to Texas. We have been building a whole lot [00:17:00] more of corporate America coming to Texas, for, or a lot of really the economic reasons alone, but that a-anybody that grows their businesses here means more restaurants, right?

I think we have more restaurants per capita, which is great, but also like, talk about a competitive environment for restaurants. I think about the 20 years that I’ve been in Texas and the amount of restaurants choices I had 20 years ago versus now is just astronomical. There’s so many more restaurants.

Tal Clark: Yeah. Well, that’s great. And Melissa, we’re gonna wrap, wrap up right here, and we’ll come back in a little bit and, we’ll start on session two. But this has been a great conversation. There’s been so much happening in the restaurant industry right now, and your perspective on leadership and purpose really stands out.

We’re going to pause here and pick this up in part two, where we’ll dive deeper into leadership trends and what’s next for the industry. For our audience, you can find Melissa on LinkedIn. We’ll link to [00:18:00] her profile in the show notes, and we’ll also link to the Texas Restaurant Association. You can follow along with the new episodes at instant.co/podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

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