Engagements

The work, structured.

Three depths of engagement, each run over a defined term.

A dining room at evening service, the pass lit behind the room.
A stirred drink poured from a mixing glass into a rocks glass over one large cube, the bartender in shadow behind it.

Hospitality is the art of making moments that survive the night.

The structure underneath is what lets them happen.

Trust is built in sequence.

The owner sets the vision. The firm directs the build that holds it.

  1. First

    An introductory call

    Thirty minutes with Tony on what the room is doing now and what it was built to do. If the fit is there, a written scope follows.

  2. The Work

    A seat at the table

    Carried as a retainer or taken as a defined build, at one of the three depths below. The written scope names the depth, the term and the fee.

The work runs at three depths.

Terms run for months. Most are carried as a retainer, and a bounded build can be taken at a fixed fee.

Read the method →

Relative depth of engagement

  1. I

    Repair

    Where is the business losing structural integrity?

    For restaurants and bars bleeding margin, softening in brand, or carrying labor that no longer fits the model. Tightens the operation back to the concept. Anchored in the Origin Audit.

  2. II

    Rebuild

    What does the concept need to become, and how does it run?

    For existing operations ready to re-architect. Multi-location groups installing discipline, single rooms returning to relevance, brands that have outgrown the operation underneath them. Adds the Foundation Stack and the Performance Matrix.

  3. III

    Fractional Executive

    Who carries the room when the work is the long arc?

    For founders building from the ground up, and for groups, hotel partners, and capital commissioning work at scale. A defined build, or an ongoing principal-level seat. The Operating Cycle™ in full.

The record.

An engagement is published only when the client’s letter allows it. The record below is Tony’s own, from the operating role he held before founding the firm. His earlier work is on the Principal page.

A shared table seen from above, four hands passing a braise across the centre.

Multi-Unit Coastal Hospitality Group

Tony, as President and Chief Brand Officer, 2025–2026

New brand and identity, operations, economics, and the systems beneath them, rebuilt as one object.

+11.7%

Combined same-store net sales, Q1 2026 against Q1 2025. Flagship 12.7%, second unit 8.6%.

≈18.3%

Beverage cost of goods, as a percent of net beverage sales.

−19.8%

Flagship net margin at intake. Turned positive within five reporting periods, and sustained.

≈$2.2M

Annualized overhead removed across the group.

Three openings kept on schedule through a leadership crisis.

The group is not named.

The first thirty minutes.

Which depth the work runs at is the second conversation.

Schedule an introductory call