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A fractional COO for restaurant groups that grew faster than their systems
You opened the second location, then the third. Now you're the bottleneck. Every decision routes through you, managers run each unit their own way, and the numbers arrive too late to act on.
A full-time COO costs $150,000 or more before benefits. A fractional COO gives you the same senior operating leadership, a few days a month, for a fraction of that.
What a fractional COO does
- Builds the operating rhythm: weekly manager meetings, daily huddles, and a scorecard every location reports against
- Fixes labor: schedules built by role and daypart against sales forecasts, not habit
- Controls food cost: recipe standards, ordering pars, inventory counts, and purchasing authority
- Creates accountability: clear roles, decision rights, and follow-through for every manager
- Supports growth: opening plans, build-out and layout input, and training for new units
- Develops your leaders: coaching managers so the business runs without you in the room
How it works
- 1Assessment: We start with an on-site review to find where margin and time are leaking.
- 290-day plan: You get a prioritized roadmap with owners and dates.
- 3Monthly partnership: On-site and remote time each month, typically 20–30 hours, focused on installing systems and holding the team to them.
Is this right for you?
A fractional COO is a fit if you run a restaurant with 1-100 units, you're doing $1M or more in revenue, and you're the person every problem lands on. It's not a fit if you want a report and no follow-through.
Frequently asked questions
- What does a restaurant operations consultant do?
- A restaurant operations consultant finds where a business is losing money or time, then builds the systems to fix it: labor scheduling, food cost controls, reporting, SOPs, and manager accountability. Culinary Thinking Lab also stays on to put those systems in place, not just recommend them.
- What is a fractional COO for a restaurant?
- A fractional COO is a senior operations leader who works with your business part-time, usually a set number of days or hours each month. You get COO-level experience and accountability without a full-time executive salary.
- How much does a restaurant consultant cost?
- It depends on scope. A one-time operations assessment is a fixed project fee. Fractional COO partnerships are a monthly retainer based on time on-site and number of locations. Book a call for a quote.
- Do you work with single-location restaurants?
- Yes, especially high-volume units or owners preparing to open a second location. Most clients run 2–15 locations.
- What areas do you serve?
- On-site work across the United States. Assessments and fractional work are available nationwide.
- How quickly will I see results?
- Most clients see measurable changes in labor or food cost within the first 60–90 days. The assessment shows you where the fastest wins are.
- Will you work with my existing software?
- Yes. We work with the POS, scheduling, inventory, and accounting tools you already use.