Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant

Randi Weinstein is located in Charleston, SC and is the founder of FAB, educational, inspirational business workshop women in the food + beverage industry which hosts over 400 attendees every year. Previous to FAB she served as the Director of Events for the Charleston Food + Wine festival for 8 years. We’re delighted to talk to Randi today about her journey and her thoughts on community in the restaurant industry. Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant is co-hosted by Eli Feldman and Deirdre Auld, produced by Mia Groves.MORE FROM FTOB:Follow us on Instagram @ftobpodcast, @heyshybird, @_tableside_Read Elided Opinions andThe Mise on SubstackDo you enjoy Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant? Star us on Spotify and Apple, we’d love to hear from you.

2025 predictions from your hosts! Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant is co-hosted by Eli Feldman and Deirdre Auld, produced by Mia Groves. MORE FROM FTOB: Follow us on Instagram @ftobpodcast, @heyshybird, @_tableside_ Read Elided Opinions on Substack Do you enjoy Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant? Star us on Spotify and Apple, we’d love to hear from you.

Let's get in the weeds about Roux with Lisa Grimm. Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant is co-hosted by Eli Feldman and Deirdre Auld, produced by Mia Groves. MORE FROM FTOB: Follow us on Instagram @ftobpodcast, @heyshybird, @_tableside_ Read Elided Opinions on Substack Do you enjoy Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant? Star us on Spotify and Apple, we’d love to hear from you.

This episode explores the challenges and benefits of chefs experiencing a platform, personal brand development, and the realities of the restaurant industry with recent Top Chef finalist Savanah Miller. We’ll hear about Savannah’s experiences being propelled into the spotlight while balancing her craft as a chef and developing her own voice and platform.  Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant is co-hosted by Eli Feldman and Deirdre Auld, produced by Mia Groves. MORE FROM FTOB: Follow us on Instagram @ftobpodcast, @heyshybird, @_tableside_ Read Elided Opinions on Substack Do you enjoy Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant? Star us on Spotify and Apple, we’d love to hear from you.

This epsiode focuses on guest Andy Husbands, Chef/Owner of Smoke Shop BBQ in Boston, MA a growing restaurant concept with 4 locations and plans for more. In this episode we’ll explore Husbands experiences in the restaurant industry, how he has seen restaurants evolve in his long tenured career, and how he thinks about scaling and growing a restaurant concept, and his vision for the future.  Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant is co-hosted by Eli Feldman and Deirdre Auld, produced by Mia Groves. MORE FROM FTOB: Follow us on Instagram @ftobpodcast, @heyshybird, @_tableside_ Read Elided Opinions on Substack Do you enjoy Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant? Star us on Spotify, we’d love to hear from you.

In this episode, Deirdre discusses the changing landscape of leadership in the restaurant industry, emphasizing the need for leaders to adapt to new expectations from employees and the complexities of the current economic environment.  Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant is co-hosted by Eli Feldman and Deirdre Auld, produced by Mia Groves. MORE FROM FTOB: Follow us on Instagram @ftobpodcast, @heyshybird, @_tableside_ Read Elided Opinions on Substack Do you enjoy Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant? Star us on Spotify, we’d love to hear from you.

This episode explores the upcoming ballot measure 5 on the MA general election. Ballot measure 5, promoted by One Fair Wage, seeks to elimiate the tip credit from MA over the next 5 years raising the minimum wage for tipped employees to the same minimum wage as all other workers (currently $15). This episode explores the challenges of that change with Mass Restaurants United President and hospitality professional, Ryan Lotz.  Articles credited include, but are not limited to, the following: UC Irvine Study Impacts in Washington D.C. Tufts Center for State Policy Local Business Multiplier Effects Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant is co-hosted by Eli Feldman and Deirdre Auld, produced by Mia Groves. MORE FROM FTOB: Follow us on Instagram @ftobpodcast, @heyshybird, @_tableside_ Read Elided Opinions on Substack Do you enjoy Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant? Star us on Spotify, we’d love to hear from you.

In this week's episode we get in the weeds about NA beverages and major changes in the alcohol consumption space. Is the dip in alcohol permanent or temporary? Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant is co-hosted by Eli Feldman and Deirdre Auld, produced by Mia Groves. MORE FROM FTOB: Follow us on Instagram @ftobpodcast, @heyshybird, @_tableside_ Read Elided Opinions on Substack Do you enjoy Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant? Star us on Spotify, we’d love to hear from you.

Dear Pete Wells, you're not 20 years old and the industry is not your toxic ex-girlfriend. In this episode we discuss Pete Well's last article for the New York Times. I Reviewed Restaurants for 12 Years. They’ve Changed, and Not for the Better. Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant is co-hosted by Eli Feldman and Deirdre Auld, produced by Mia Groves. MORE FROM FTOB: Follow us on Instagram @ftobpodcast, @heyshybird, @_tableside_ Read Elided Opinions on Substack Do you enjoy Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant? Star us on Spotify, we’d love to hear from you.

Fast food isn’t the focus of this pod but we think what’s happening at McDonald's tells a story about what the short to medium term for the broader restaurant industry could look like. Articles credited include, but are not limited to, the following, Marketing + Marketing, Sales Drops & Inflation, Value Meal Impacts Market Rewarding Value Refocus Also Coke, Pepsi, Chipotle… McDonalds is a Warning Shot for the Larger Economy Cracking of Low Income Consumers McDonald’s said the Word Value 90 Times on it's Q2 Earnings Call Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant is co-hosted by Eli Feldman and Deirdre Auld, produced by Mia Groves. MORE FROM FTOB: Follow us on Instagram @ftobpodcast, @heyshybird, @tableside Read Elided Opinions on Substack Do you enjoy Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant? Star us on Spotify, we’d love to hear from you.

We’re delighted to welcome our first guest to FTOB, Ara Kharazian. Ara is the economic research Lead at Square where he spearheads research on consumer, labor, and business trains and developed Square Payroll Index, a public tool to track and measure wage growth for service workers in the restauarnt and retail sectors. Ara has been cited in the NY Times, Bloomberg, and the Australian Financial Review and we are delighted to talk to him about his thoughts on restaurant economics and labor.  Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant is co-hosted by Eli Feldman and Deirdre Auld, produced by Mia Groves. MORE FROM FTOB: Follow us on Instagram @ftobpodcast, @heyshybird, @_tableside_ Read Elided Opinions on Substack Do you enjoy Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant? Star us on Spotify, we’d love to hear from you.

The second most important thing about the Olympics is food. An insightful conversation around the complexity of large scale catering, lesson in change management, digital versus analog, and more. Sports and restaurants are the same; you must have a player, you must have physical production of food. Articles credited include the following, Olympics Budget and Cost Food and the Olympics Tik Tok Reviews on Food in the Olympic Village How to Feed the Olympics Tourism Down During Olympics Paris Restaurants Struggle with Security Zones Second Half of July was Tough for Cafes and Bars in Paris Paris is Empty New York Post on Olympics Food Numbers Insane Diet of Ryan Crouser Gen X Rise on Tik Tok The War on Gen Z and Eminem's New Album Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant is co-hosted by Eli Feldman and Deirdre Auld, produced by Mia Groves. MORE FROM FTOB: Follow us on Instagram @ftobpodcast, @heyshybird, @_tableside_ Read Elided Opinions on Substack Do you enjoy Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant? Star us on Spotify, we’d love to hear from you.

A Brief History of Reservations; an insightful conversation around payment, reservations, OpenTable, Resy, Tock and more. Articles credited include the following, JP Morgan acquires Infatuation Where Reservations Come From History of Credit Cards CNN on Amex Buying Resy and Tock Restaurant Reservation Timeline Amex Earnings Call on Dining Digital Rservation Sellers Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant is co-hosted by Eli Feldman and Deirdre Auld, produced by Mia Groves. MORE FROM FTOB: Follow us on Instagram @ftobpodcast, @heyshybird, @_tableside_ Read Elided Opinions on Substack Do you enjoy Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant? Star us on Spotify, we’d love to hear from you. 

Welcome to Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally Brilliant.