Ep. 20 - A(I) Lot of Content

Everyone’s finally back in the same room for this week’s episode with a lot of content to cover. Records are broken as Justin and Emily go national with the most topics discussed in the Pineapple Express (1:49) segment from California’s overturn of the gas-fueled kitchen equipment ban, Frankfort’s (Michigan, not Germany) approach to affordable housing, industry trends from the Restaurant Leadership Conference, and Justin admits (kind of?) that he was wrong about Pickleball. Emily and Justin also do a deep dive in For Fork’s Sake (18:50) on filing an amicus brief for the adopt and amend case with the Michigan Supreme Court, how Arizona is handling requirements for hotels to house homeless populations, and the new 17-bill package introduced to change employment laws. Like we said, a LOT of content. Dave Dittenber, President & CEO of Downtown Restaurant Investments and Co-Founder of Bring Your Own Data (BYOD) also joins the pod (29:24) to discuss the investment in approachable tech and balancing the people-first core of hospitality with the future needs of our industry. Meet Mabel: the world’s first virtual restaurant assistant.