In this episode of the Restaurant AI Podcast, Matt Wampler sits down with Tim Martin, Co-Founder and Owner of BoxBox, a new Denver restaurant concept built around sharing food and connecting people. Tim isn’t just launching a brand, he’s building one of the most technologically advanced single-unit restaurants in the country. He explains how AI became his “first employee,” helping him document hundreds of hours of recipe R&D, organize his menu and brand vision, and even guide him through vibe-coding a completely custom, headless tech stack with no traditional POS. Together, Matt and Tim unpack how he mirrored kiosk orders to his team in real time, created a fully modifier-based menu architecture, built forecasting and prep systems in Google Cloud, and used AI to accelerate every part of operations without sacrificing hospitality. Tim also shares the emotional side of opening BoxBox, the cultural importance of designing a brand around shared meals, and why he believes AI creates an unprecedented competitive advantage for independent operators. This deep, inspiring conversation reveals what’s possible when a single-unit entrepreneur embraces AI as a true collaborator—and what the future of restaurant operations might look like because of it.
Episode Links
Visit ClearCOGS Online: https://clearcogs.com
Connect with ClearCOGS LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/clearcogs
Connect with Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewjwampler
Visit BoxBox Online: https://orderboxbox.com
Connect with Tim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-martin-90567735
00:00 Intro02:49 Tim Martin / BoxBox05:01 20 Years in Restaurants & the ChatGPT Switch06:29 The Emotional Rollercoaster of Opening07:40 What a Headless Tech Stack Means08:14 Modifier-Only Menu Architecture09:38 Ordering Without a Traditional POS11:04 Real-Time Kiosk Mirroring12:20 Homegrown Hardware Solutions14:06 Struggling With APIs (Until AI)15:21 Letting AI Teach You16:25 Building BigQuery and Dashboards17:14 Recording All R&D for AI18:53 Training AI on Brand and Voice19:50 Custom Forecasting Tools21:04 AI as a Collaborator22:22 Onboarding AI as an Employee24:29 Building Their Own Tech Stack25:52 Competitive Advantage for Independents30:01 AI Food Photography30:24 What AI Can’t Replace32:35 Practical Culinary Uses for AI34:01 BoxBox Mission & Concept35:47 Shared Meals vs. Individual Meals39:02 Chipotle’s Shareables Enter the Chat42:25 The Gap in 4–8 Person Meals43:02 Has His Life Gotten Worse?45:27 Building Boundaries as a Founder47:09 100 Days of Iteration49:09 Tech, Culture, and Human Connection52:19 AI, Labor, and the Future of Work53:20 Tim’s AI Playbook for Operators57:05 “Threaten Your AI”58:54 Where to Find BoxBox59:25 Outro
