ClearCOGS Blog
Cyclospora Lettuce Outbreak: The Parasite You Can’t Wash Off Your Salad
The bag said triple-washed. For most threats, that would have been enough. You pick up a bag of romaine at the …
Unit Economics Don’t Break at the P&L. They Break at the Prep Sheet.
Every restaurant group eventually asks the same question: are we ready to open another location? Most of the answer gets searched …
Why New Kitchen Managers Fail (and How to Set Yours Up)
Quick Answer: New kitchen managers fail most often because the promotion adds three analytical jobs at once, ordering, prep planning, …
You Can’t Negotiate Your Food Cost Down Anymore
Every operator who is growing says a version of the same sentence on the first call: we are always looking …
The Forecast That Gets Worse as You Grow
By Matt Wampler, CEO of ClearCOGS Here is an uncomfortable property of the most common forecasting method in restaurant back-of-house software: …
The Two Phases That Almost Everyone Confuses
By Matt Wampler, CEO of ClearCOGS Most AI forecasting pilots don’t fail because the forecasts are wrong. They fail because nobody …
The Catering Blind Spot
By Matt Wampler, CEO of ClearCOGS There is a particular kind of confidence that comes from running a tight operation for …
The System You Used to Have
By Matt Wampler, CEO of ClearCOGS Ask a multi-concept restaurant group what changed in their kitchens since 2020, and most won’t …
The System You Can’t Acquire: Why Multi-Concept Restaurant M&A Has a Knowledge Problem
By Matt Wampler, CEO of ClearCOGS There is a specific moment that shows up in restaurant acquisition conversations, and most operators …
The Full Freezer Problem: Every Frozen Brisket Started as a Forecast
By Matt Wampler, CEO of ClearCOGS Walk into almost any barbecue restaurant after closing and you’ll find the same thing: a …
Restaurant Demand at the Midpoint: The First Half of 2026 in Review, and What to Watch in the Second Half
An analyst briefing on U.S. restaurant customer demand. Research cutoff: June 30, 2026. Executive summary Halfway through 2026, the U.S. restaurant industry …
What It Takes to Hit Sub-50% Prime Cost in a Restaurant
The gap between a restaurant rationing food by a monthly dollar cap and one running prime cost in the high 40s is not about talent or effort. It is about whether someone built the decision-making system before the restaurant grew past the point where informal management still worked.
Protein Maxxing Is Not a Menu Problem. It’s a Prep Problem.
Protein maxxing did not rewrite the menu. It quietly rewrote the prep sheet. Most forecasting systems just have not read it yet.
The Inventory Count Is Costing You More Than Food Cost
Inventory is not expensive because food disappears. It is expensive because leadership disappears.
Demand Forecasting, Predictive Analytics, Smart Prep: Every Term Restaurants Use for the Same Big Idea
The restaurant industry has at least 60 different names for one concept. Here is every one of them, what it …
Why the Prep Decision Is the Real Test for Restaurant AI
By Matt Wampler, CEO of ClearCOGS A restaurant operator with over two decades in the industry, a technology background layered on …
Why Operational Consistency Breaks Down in Restaurant Franchise Systems
By Matt Wampler, CEO of ClearCOGS Quick Answer: Restaurant franchise locations lose operational consistency because the systems that make corporate stores …
The Training Problem That Isn’t a Training Problem
By Matt Wampler, CEO of ClearCOGS Here is a question worth asking the next time you evaluate a restaurant technology vendor: …
