ClearCOGS Blog
Your Data Isn’t Clean Enough. Start Anyway.
By Matt Wampler, CEO of ClearCOGS The most common reason a restaurant group delays a forecasting project is a problem that …
Why the Four-Week Average Fails for Kitchen Prep
By Matt Wampler, CEO of ClearCOGS Quick Answer A four-week average takes the same weekday from the last four weeks and averages …
What Is an Operational Decision Platform for Restaurants?
An operational decision platform (ODP) is software that turns a restaurant’s operating data into the decisions that run the day: …
Your Menu Prices Went Up. Your Margins Didn’t.
Matching a cost increase with a price increase doesn’t restore profitability. It restores survival. The manager approves the increase without much …
Sixteen Points Without a Single New Customer
By Matt Wampler, CEO of ClearCOGS When an operator tells you his margins went from negative 6 percent to positive 10 …
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
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
The conversation about food cost in restaurants used to start with purchasing leverage. Build volume, consolidate vendors, negotiate hard, and …
The Two Phases That Almost Everyone Confuses
By Matt Wampler, CEO of ClearCOGS There’s a conversation that happens at nearly every enterprise restaurant brand exploring AI forecasting, and …
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 Can’t Acquire: Why Multi-Concept Restaurant
By Matt Wampler, CEO of ClearCOGS There is a specific moment that shows up in restaurant acquisition conversations, and most operators …
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 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.
