The restaurants who are stuck in the past are DOA.
If you aren’t building your business like Amazon did — leveraging technology, storytelling, and logistics — you’re going to struggle to survive in 2026 and beyond.
I’ve been in this game for 18 years at my family owned restaurant Cali BBQ in San Diego. I’ve survived the Great Recession of 2008 and a global pandemic in 2020 by making every mistake possible. Mistakes are what lead to growth.
The secret to modernizing your restaurant isn’t just better food; it’s becoming a Digital Hospitality company.
Here is your 5-step playbook to becoming the “Amazon of Restaurants” in your market.
1. Become a Media Company First
Amazon isn’t just a retailer. It’s also content ecosystem. To win today, you must be a media company, a technology company, and a restaurant. This is driven by our signature Four P’s content strategy:
PLAN
* Choose one idea that feels natural to share this week.
* Decide your message: “What do I want people to know, feel, or do?”
* Pick a time when you can capture it without interrupting operations.
PRODUCE
* Use your phone — prioritize good lighting and clear audio.
* Keep it short and engaging; aim for 15–60 seconds if it’s video.
* Record extra angles or clips for variety.
PUBLISH
* Post in vertical format for better mobile engagement.
* Add a short, personal caption that tells the story.
* Include hashtags relevant to your restaurant, location, and audience.
PROMOTE
* Share the content on multiple platforms.
* Encourage your team to share it from their own profiles.
* Reply to comments and messages to start conversations.
Stop making commercials. People want stories. Use your smartphone to capture the daily life of your restaurant and publish it on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and everywhere else you can.
2. Own Your Digital Real Estate
In the old days, it was about your physical “location, location, location”. In 2026, it’s digital location. You must own your website, your email list, and your data.
Stop relying on third parties to hold your customer relationships hostage. Build a deep CRM so you can reward your loyalists who want to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays with you. If you don’t own the data, you don’t own the customer.
JOIN THE MOVEMENT: If this insight helps you, share this article with one other restaurant owner. A rising tide lifts all ships.
3. Deploy Strategic AI and Automation
Digital hospitality is our deep thesis. Technology makes us more profitable, more scalable, and more impactful. At Cali BBQ, we use Palona AI and my automated voice clone Shawn AI to answer our phones and take orders.
On our busiest day of the year—Father’s Day—Palona AI handled 156 calls that would have otherwise gone to a busy staff member. The result? An 18% sales lift because we never missed a guest.
We integrate these tools directly through Toast to keep our tech stack seamless.
4. Create Multiple Revenue Streams
Look at Amazon Prime and Thursday Night Football. They’ve created a system where you can watch a game and buy a product with one click.
Your restaurant should be no different. Think beyond the four walls of your brick-and-mortar. We are moving toward a world of TikTok Shop live streams and point-of-sale integrations where customers can buy your BBQ or Consumer Packaged Goods (like bottled sauces or canned drinks) while they watch your content.
5. Master Frictionless Online Ordering
Digital hospitality is making it as easy as possible for someone to buy from you. Whether it’s takeout, in-store, catering, or gift cards, your website—like ours at calibbq.media—must be frictionless.
We partnered with Toast to solve our online ordering problems during the pandemic, and it changed everything. When you make it easy to buy 45 racks of ribs for a tailgate, that is true hospitality.
Think bigger.
We have to leverage technology to connect with more people and run more profitable businesses. Don’t be afraid to look stupid while you’re learning—get it wrong so you can eventually get it right.
Stay Curious, Get Involved, Ask For Help
