About Monte
My Journey
I started working in the restaurant industry when I was 15 years old and now have over 20 years experience as a restaurant manager. I had a very successful restaurant career early on. Rising from bar manager, service manager, kitchen manager to GM for Wolfgang Puck in the first four years in management. During my time with Wolfgang Puck I was featured in David Steadman’s book Beverage Biz is Show Biz. However, this fast rise cost me dearly. After experiencing burnout and a divorce, I decided that I would figure out how to run successful restaurants while maintaining work/life balance. And I did! I moved to Nashville and dug in. My restaurants were consistently named in best of categories of several Nashville magazines in reader and writer polls.
My successful stewardship of these restaurants got me featured in Nashville Wine Press, The Tasting Panel, Restaurant Business Magazine, Nashville Scene, and many other publications. One of those restaurants was Acme Feed & Seed (the 31st highest grossing restaurant in the country at $18,500,000.) I later became Director of Operations overseeing four restaurants including Acme. And I did it while maintaining work/life balance.
Today, I am an expert restaurateur, restaurant coach, thought leader, author, and speaker. I work with restaurant owners, executives and their teams all over the country to maximize the success of their restaurant empire while still maintaining work/life balance.
I work with my clients focusing on PEOPLE, PROCESSES, PURCHASES, PRODUCT and PROFITs. Rather than the typical project-for-hire restaurant consultant (give a man a fish), I work with my clients as they implement my proven system (teach a man/woman to fish). My coaching concept is far more successful than the old consulting model.