Welcome to the World Cup of the Restaurant Industry: Live in Chicago 2026

Tips for Surviving The Restaurant ShowI caught up with our good friend Michael Ungaro from San Pedro Fish Market (Kings of Fish Media) right as the Show opened to get his top tips for navigating the weekend:* Get your badge early: Do not wait in the brutal lines at the convention center. Try to print your badge at your hotel lobby or get to McCormick Place incredibly early before the crowds hit.* Wear comfortable shoes: You are walking 12 football fields across three different halls—Lakeside, South Hall, and North Hall. Treat this like an athletic event.* The Uber Trick: When the show floor closes, don’t even try to call a rideshare to the main entrance. You’ll be stuck waiting for hours. Walk a few blocks away from the main hub first, then call your ride.* Document the journey: Take photos of the people you meet and grab their digital business cards. The relationships you build in these hallways can become lifelong friendships.The energy right now at McCormick Place for the 2026 National Restaurant Show is completely off the charts. If you are in the restaurant business, hospitality, or digital media, like me, this isn’t just another industry trade show. This is our World Cup.To give you an idea of the sheer scale of what’s happening in Chicago this week, we are talking about 53,000+ hospitality leaders, 2,200 vendors, and 12 football fields of pure innovation spanning three massive halls. It is impossible to overstate how massive this event is.A huge shoutout to the National Restaurant Association Show team for partnering with Cali BBQ Media to help us bring this raw, unfiltered look to our community.We have two full media teams on the ground, and we are tracking down stories across every aisle.While we are exploring the entire floor and capturing everything from new industry trends to deep tech, we have a few key anchor partnerships we are shouting out today.The Toast Booth #7012: We hit the ground running this morning and made a big stop to visit our close partners at Toast. They are the technology backbone of our actual restaurants at Cali BBQ, and they are the title sponsors of our Restaurant Influencers podcast series. We checked out their latest tech innovations and talked with their team about how operators can use technology to build more profitable, efficient businesses.The F3 Tech Booth #5870: Our friends at F3 Technologies have generously opened up their booth space to serve as one of our live content and podcast studios for the weekend. We are recording episodes right from the floor. If you are walking the halls, keep your eyes open—we might just pull you into the booth to share your story with the world. As we always say: Be the show, not the commercial.Magic Happens in the HallwaysOne of the greatest lessons I’ve ever learned as a restaurant owner is that you have to get out of your four walls. Growth happens when you put yourself in rooms like this, because you never know who you are going to meet.Right as the doors opened, we ran into Damien and Dan, two operators who traveled all the way from British Columbia, Canada. They told us they watch our content and came to the show for the very first time to find a next-gen POS system and check out new equipment. They bought a bar and nightclub a year and a half ago and are gearing up to launch their full restaurant concept.Naturally, we told them to head straight to the Toast booth and tell them Shawn sent them! That is the exact ROI of this show: connecting people, sharing resources, and lifting up the community.Meet Up With Us: 4:30 PM @ The SignWe don’t want to just connect with you through a screen, we want to meet you in real life. Every single day of the Restaurant Show, we are hosting a casual gathering for our community of restaurateurs, tech founders, creators, and storytellers.* When: 4:30 PM Daily* Where: Right by the big National Restaurant Association sign in the North HallCome hang out, talk shop, network, and be part of the Rising Tides community. Because a rising tide lifts all ships.Make sure to subscribe to our Restaurant Technology Substack and follow along on social media @shawnpwalchef and @calibbqmedia so you don’t miss a single update, video drop, or interview from the floor. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit restauranttechnology.substack.com