The Art and Science of Hospitality

In every society on earth, for probably millions of years, humans
have come up with communal methods of eating that reflect their
particular human condition. In our world we’ve married eating
with capitalism. We’ve devised a method of paying  other
people to prepare meals for us in spaces we call restaurants.


As our communities have gotten bigger and restaurants have
proliferated, the competition among them has gotten more serious
and – as it is when any market gets saturated with competitive
choice -  prices come down to attract customers.


Keeping a restaurant open requires more than just the ability to
cook good food. For example, the biggest restaurant chains in the
world, if you ask a food critic, have the worst food. In this
kind of topsy-turvy business, what do you do to keep a restaurant
profitable? Do you stick with quality and hope you find an
appreciative market? Or do you turn to big data, AI and IT
systems designed for the restaurant business?


Stephanie Riegel puts this question to Gabe Piccoli, the Edward
G. Schlieder Chair of Information Sciences and a member of the
Cultural Computing group at the Center for Computation and
Technology at LSU.


Gabe has held tenured academic positions at Cornell, as well as
universities in France and Italy. During his tenure at Cornell in
the early 2000s, Gabe was on the faculty of the Hotel School,
where he became interested in the hospitality industry.


During his 25 year career, which started at LSU with a PhD in
information systems, Gabe’s work has focused on the value
creation potential of new technology. His academic, teaching and
consulting interest is in digital strategy and digital customer
service systems. He watched and the studied the digital
intermediation of the hotel industry in the 1990s and sees
interesting parallels going on today in the Quick Service
Restaurant industry – of which Baton Rouge not only has many but
is actually home to popular chains like Raising Cane’s. 
 


Stephen Hightower is on the front line of Baton Rouge's
hospitality industry. Stephen is Managing Partner of the City
Group Hospitality Restaurant Group, which does not own QSRs but
does own and operate 11 operations with 7 unique concepts,
including City Pork, Beausoleil, City Slice Pints and Pizza,
Proverbial Wine and Bistro, Rouj Creole and Hub and Spoke, as
well as Turning Point Food Services, which runs the cafeteria at
Catholic High School.


Stephen is steeped in Baton Rouge hospitality know-how. He began
his restaurant career at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Baton Rouge
and worked his way up the ladder. After launching a couple of his
own ventures, he hit on just the right concept for Baton Rouge in
2012 with the launch of City Pork. In the decade since, he has
become one of the most successful restauranteurs in the city.


Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the
Boulevard. You can find photo from this show by Erik Otts at our
website itsbatonrouge.la.  And check out this recent
lunchtime conversation with Baton Rouge restaurateurs Misti and
Brumby Broussard from BLDG 5.


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