From the Frontlines to the Backend: Why Restaurant Tech Isn’t Just a Role, It’s a Mindset
In a recent episode of Restrocast, Ashish Tulsian, Co-founder & CEO of Restroworks and Chris Incorvati , CTO of Jack’s Family Restaurants, discuss the ethos of a new wave of restaurant tech leadership that’s breaking stereotypes and building smarter brands from the ground up.
Chris talks about how he didn’t begin his career coding in a Silicon Valley garage. He started as a journalism major who spent years running restaurants. And that, perhaps, is exactly why he’s so good at what he does today. His journey from the floor to the cloud is a powerful reminder that the future of restaurant innovation doesn’t lie only in tech stacks and dashboards, but in people who deeply understand the everyday pressures of hospitality.
This week’s edition of Tech À La Carte explores a bigger idea resonating across the industry: Tech isn’t just for tech teams anymore. It’s a leadership lens.
Chris Incorvati’s Remarkable Rise
Chris started on the ground—literally. From being a GM to managing operations across Panera, Au Bon Pain, and Legal Seafoods, he was the guy fixing printer jams before fixing code. But his curiosity never stayed confined to daily checklists.
Slowly but surely, he moved into roles that brought him closer to innovation: from launching Panera’s in-house delivery program to creating one of the industry’s first “friction teams”—tasked solely with removing pain points from the guest and staff experience.
Today, as CTO of Jack’s, he’s leading large-scale pilots in kiosks, drive-thru speed tech, and AI evaluation, without losing sight of the ground realities. He’s not chasing shiny objects. He’s solving real problems.
“If I can do it, anyone can,” Chris says. But what he really means is: if you listen, learn, and lead with empathy, you should do it.
Tech is a Tool. Leadership is the System.
Chris’s journey forces us to ask why so many restaurants still separate tech strategy from operations strategy.
This gap is where friction- and eventually, failure- thrives.
The truth is, technology can’t save a broken operation. But it can supercharge a good one. That’s why creating a clear, comprehensive restaurant operations manual in 2025 is no longer optional; it’s foundational.
In our blog Why You Need a Manual to Streamline Your Restaurant Operations in 2025, we explore how leading brands are reinventing the humble SOP.
Gone are the days of dusty folders in the back office. Today’s best operators are digitizing their manuals, embedding them into training platforms, and updating them dynamically based on data feedback loops.
Examples of what a great operations manual can now do:
Chris touched on this when describing Jack’s “friction team.” Their mission? Identify recurring process problems—no matter how small—and create playbooks to resolve them.
That’s not just documentation. That’s a mindset shift: from reactive firefighting to proactive system design.
Delivery Is the Battlefield. Are You Prepared?
The operational muscle isn’t just for in-store efficiency anymore. It’s now a precondition for growing new business models, like food delivery.
In our blog How to Start a Food Delivery Business, we lay out an end-to-end playbook for operators who want to launch (or relaunch) delivery services that don’t just survive but thrive.
And the timing couldn’t be more critical.
With third-party commission rates still high and customer expectations even higher, delivery is no longer a “set it and forget it” channel. It’s a competitive, operationally complex, and deeply tech-driven business of its own.
A few insights worth noting:
Chris emphasizes how his experience launching in-house delivery at Panera laid the foundation for everything he does today.
He knew the pain of missing orders, delayed drivers, and confused kitchen teams. That’s why he didn’t just build a tech stack. He built a culture of ownership.
Digital Transformation Isn’t a Buzzword. It’s a Behavior.
Digital transformation is not about apps, APIs, or AI. It’s about building behaviors across the organization.
The most forward-thinking restaurants aren’t just hiring a CTO. They’re building tech fluency into every layer of the business.
That means:
Chris spoke about this shift candidly.
As a “servant leader,” he sees his job not as issuing tech mandates but as clearing the road so his teams can experiment, iterate, and grow. It’s why he resists micromanagement. Why he values curiosity over credentials. And why Jack’s is now becoming a case study in how mid-sized QSRs can innovate without the budgets of a Starbucks or McDonald’s.
Conclusion
If you’re reading this and thinking, we need this, you’re not alone.
Hundreds of restaurant leaders are reaching the same conclusion: we can’t afford to “wait and watch” on transformation anymore.
Let’s build the kind of restaurant you’d be proud to run, and your guests would be excited to return to.
Contact us to discover how our tailored restaurant tech solutions can turn your vision into execution.