Today we’d like to introduce you to Doug Zeif.
Doug, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I got my start in the food business at a pretty young age, baking bagels in New York City while I was still in high school. When I went off to college in Buffalo, I landed a job as a cook trainee at a local restaurant. I worked every position in the house, eventually becoming the Assistant Manager before heading west to California. Looking back, that’s really where this business got into my blood. The managers there built an incredible culture of teamwork, and for the first time I realized that restaurants weren’t just about serving food—they were about building teams. I hated to leave.
When I moved to Orange County, California, I joined a large restaurant company as a Manager Trainee. Before long they transferred me to Washington, D.C., where I was responsible for operating two restaurants in Washington Harbour—a prime rib restaurant and a Mexican restaurant. It was a tremendous opportunity, but also one of the hardest periods of my career. I had virtually no management support, lived in a motel next door to the restaurants for months, and worked around the clock trying to keep everything together. Every time I asked California to send help, the answer was no. It taught me resilience, but it also taught me the importance of taking care of your people.
Eventually I polished up my résumé, sent it to a handful of executive search firms, and accepted a General Manager position with a 10-restaurant steakhouse company based in Miami. That job changed everything for me. The owners were David Edgerton, co-founder of Burger King, and his longtime Vice President of Operations, David Talty. They taught me two disciplines that have stayed with me throughout my career: how to deliver exceptional hospitality and how to relentlessly manage profitability. Those lessons became the foundation for everything I’ve done since.
A few years later the company was sold, and I continued building my career in South Florida’s high-volume restaurant scene. Eventually I opened my own restaurant and bar, successfully operated it, and sold it two years later.
After that, I took a year to travel throughout Europe, immersing myself in food, wine, and different culinary cultures. It was one of the best educations I could have given myself. When I returned, I began consulting with the founder of Capital Grill before accepting a position in Los Angeles as Senior General Manager for an upscale restaurant company, overseeing four high-volume restaurants. Then something happened that changed the trajectory of my career.
One evening, during a busy dinner service, I unknowingly served David Overton, founder of The Cheesecake Factory, and one of his colleagues. At the time, they had one restaurant open and were preparing to open their second. The next day I received a phone call asking if I would consider joining them. My intention was to consult for 90 days to help them build the systems they needed for growth. Those 90 days turned into eleven years—and an IPO.
During that time I was responsible for virtually every aspect of food and beverage outside of the cheesecakes themselves. I led menu and product development, procurement and strategic sourcing, kitchen and bar design for new restaurants, operating systems, and the opening of restaurants across the country. More importantly, I built a team that continued to scale the company long after I left, without needing to replace me.
People occasionally ask what I’m most proud of professionally. Helping transform The Cheesecake Factory from a small Southern California restaurant with a modest menu into one of America’s most recognizable restaurant brands is certainly near the top of that list. I’m incredibly proud to have played a meaningful role in that journey.
After The Cheesecake Factory, I launched my consulting practice before joining a portfolio company of The Blackstone Group in late 2004, where I led food and beverage strategy across its global hotel and resort portfolio.
Then, in 2013, I went back out on my own. Blackstone became one of my first clients, and from there my consulting practice continued to grow. Over the years I’ve had the privilege of working with many of the world’s leading hospitality brands, including Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, and numerous outstanding independent hotels, resorts, restaurants, and hospitality companies.
And that’s where I find myself today—still doing what I’ve loved since I was a kid baking bagels in New York. Helping restaurants, hotels, and hospitality companies become better than they thought they could be.
Looking back, I realize my career has never really been about restaurants. It’s been about building things—brands, teams, operating systems, cultures, and businesses. Hospitality simply became the canvas. Every project is another opportunity to leave a place stronger than I found it, create opportunities for people, and prove that great hospitality and great business are never mutually exclusive.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, it certainly hasn’t been a smooth road. In fact, I’ve come to believe there really aren’t any smooth roads. Every one of them has forks, twists, turns, and more than a few potholes. The difference isn’t whether you encounter them—it’s how you choose to respond when you do.
I’ve always believed that, no matter what was put in front of me, there had to be a way through it. Sometimes I was right. Sometimes I failed. But every setback taught me something that made me better the next time around.
The biggest challenge—and, at the same time, the greatest reward—in this business has always been people. Learning how to lead people, motivate them, listen to them, recognize them, and sometimes simply understand them has probably been the single biggest lesson of my career. Early on, I was a very tough manager. I became a pretty tough Dad, too. I could blame my upbringing or even my astrological sign, but neither would be true. The reality is that I spent a lot of time working with a few terrific therapists because I genuinely wanted to become a better person, a better husband, a better father, and ultimately a better leader.
Without question, the greatest influence on that journey has been my wife, Jennifer. She’s incredibly intelligent, remarkably grounded, and one of the most solutions-oriented people I’ve ever met. She has an uncanny ability to see the best in people while still expecting the best from them but allowing them their “foils”. Living alongside someone like that changes you—if you’re willing to let it. I was, and I’m a far better person because of her influences on me.
Living alongside someone like that changes you—if you’re willing to let it. I work every day to be the person she needs me to be and I never lose sight of that.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I often joke that I make my living fixing things that are broken. There’s actually a lot of truth in that. For most of my career, I’ve been brought in when an owner, investor, or management team has reached the point where they know something isn’t working—they just don’t know exactly how to fix it. Sometimes it’s a struggling restaurant. Sometimes it’s a hotel food and beverage operation. Sometimes it’s a concept that never quite lived up to its potential. Whatever the challenge, that’s where I do my best work.
Over the years, that has led me to work with hospitality companies throughout North America and around the world. Today, much of our work comes from private equity firms, hotel owners, developers, and investors who need someone to quickly identify what’s broken, develop a practical plan, and deliver measurable results.
I’ve intentionally kept our company very lean. I have one business partner and no full-time employees. Instead, we’ve built an extraordinary network of independent specialists who join us on projects as needed. But there’s one thing our clients always know: when they hire us, they get us. My partner and I are personally involved in every engagement. We don’t sell the work and then hand it off to junior consultants. That’s one of the reasons many of our clients come back to us time and time again.
Of course, we love creating new brands, concepts, and restaurants—that’s one of the most enjoyable parts of what we do. But the reality is that most people can help you create something new. Far fewer know how to step into an existing operation, figure out why it’s underperforming, earn the trust of the people already there, and turn it around.
That’s really become our niche. We don’t just create great hospitality businesses—we help restore them when they’ve lost their way.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
They have to have expertise in a particular discipline that meets our needs and be flexible, adaptable. Things change and we all need to roll with the changes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nexthospitality.com
- Instagram: @next_foodandbeverage
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-zeif-47030011/
