Operator-Led. Built for Execution.

I'm Brandon Hunt, founder of ATX Restaurant Consulting. Over 15 years I've worked through restaurants from the floor and the kitchen into senior leadership, as an Executive Chef, Chef Partner, General Manager and Operating Partner.

My focus is operations: building the systems a restaurant runs on, and developing the leaders and teams who run them. I work alongside ownership and management to find what's slowing the business down, put practical standards in place, and coach managers until those standards hold on their own.

Based in Austin, Texas. Working with restaurants nationwide, on site when it matters.

My background spans both sides of the house, which lets me look at a restaurant as one connected operation instead of separate kitchen, bar and dining room problems.

• Executive Chef & Chef Partner: kitchen systems, menu costing, purchasing and line-team development
• General Manager & Operating Partner: full P&L ownership, labor planning, hiring and manager development
• Multi-unit, high-volume operations: environments from $3M to $16M in annual revenue, including large-scale events
• Culinary training leadership across multiple markets with Punch Bowl Social

Leadership roles with established, high-volume brands shaped how I build systems and develop teams:

• Landry's, including Saltgrass Steak House and the Golden Nugget Casino
• Charley's Steak House
• Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar
• Lupe Tortilla
• Punch Bowl Social

Brands reflect prior employment and leadership roles. No endorsement or affiliation is implied.

Deadwood, South Dakota · Opened September 18, 2026

ATX Restaurant Consulting led the full operations build and six-month opening load-out for this scratch-kitchen western grill and live-music venue, from concept through opening day. Today we continue as the venue's fractional Director of Operations.

• Operating systems: SOPs, position playbooks, order guides and recipe costing
• Toast POS, payroll and scheduling built and tested before day one
• 50+ team members hired and trained for opening
• Management team development and a weekly operating cadence
• Operator Hub for invoices, inventory, training and reporting

Downtown Austin, Texas · Brazos Management Group

Through a consulting contract with ownership, I served as Operating Partner and General Manager for two neighboring downtown concepts: Cedar Door, the long-running patio bar most Texans credit with creating the Mexican Martini, and Foxy's Proper Pub, a multi-level Irish pub on Brazos Street.

• Day-to-day leadership of both management teams
• Service standards, scheduling and labor control across two buildings
• Purchasing, inventory and cost discipline
• High-volume, event and peak-day operations

Systems only last when the people running them own them. A large part of every engagement is developing the management team so the standards hold after I step back.

• Clear roles, responsibilities and decision rights
• Weekly manager meetings and shift-level accountability
• Training pathways and position playbooks for every role
• Coaching managers through real situations, not just handing over a binder

• Practical operating judgment from years of running restaurants
• Front- and back-of-house experience under one leadership view
• A firm grasp of the numbers: P&L, prime cost, labor, purchasing and POS reporting
• Training designed around what teams can realistically execute
• Hands-on leadership alongside your managers
• A steady process: diagnose, build, train, measure, adjust

• Prime cost reduction and visibility
• Labor modeling and deployment strategy
• Vendor and purchasing discipline
• P&L review and operational decision support

• Menu engineering and pricing optimization
• Margin analysis and PMIX clarity
• Events, catering, and revenue expansion support

• SOP development, training cadence and accountability rhythm
• BOH and FOH execution resets
• POS setup, cleanup and reporting clarity (Toast, Square, R365 and more)
• Multi-unit standardization and accountability systems

Prime cost doesn't get fixed in a spreadsheet. It gets fixed by working with your team until better habits become the standard.

• Review prior inventories, invoices and sales mix to find where cost is leaking
• Adjust pars, portioning and prep to match real volume
• Rebuild ordering habits and vendor discipline
• Reduce waste through prep planning and accountability
• Align labor schedules with sales forecasts

Typical outcome: prime cost stabilized and held below target within 8–12 weeks, supported by systems that remain the standard once established. Results vary by concept and starting point.

• Cornell University (eCornell): Master Certificate in Restaurant Revenue Management & Business Management
• POS & back office: Toast, Square, Aloha and Restaurant365 configuration, reporting and cleanup
• Financial operations: P&L analysis and forecasting, menu pricing and costing, labor modeling, vendor negotiations
• Training design: position playbooks, training pathways, SOPs and manager development
• Operator Hub (VenueForge): our own operating software for invoices, live menu costing, inventory, training and profit dashboards

Every engagement is scoped to where your restaurant is today. Many clients start with a 2-Week Operations Sprint to find what's leaking margin and get clarity before committing long-term.

• 2-Week Operations Sprint: from $1,250
• Monthly Operations Retainers: from $3,000/month
• Fractional Director of Operations: custom monthly retainer for ownership groups stepping back or preparing to grow
• New Restaurant Openings (6-month load-out): $20,000–$50,000+ by scope
• Operator Hub software: custom packages, built around your POS

See every option, what's included and pricing on the Packages page.

If you’re looking for real execution, accountability, and measurable improvement—start with clarity.  

Best fit for owners ready to move—either operating and under-margin, or funded and preparing to open/scale. Book a call to learn more today!