About
Independent Advisors to Restaurants, Bars & Hospitality Groups
We fix restaurants by fixing the systems that decide margin — not by writing reports.
Strategy · Operations · Profitability
Hospitality Growth Advisors is a restaurant consulting firm serving independent restaurants, bars, bistros, cafés and food trucks across Texas, Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina. We focus on strategy, operations and profitability — the three systems that decide margin. Explore our consulting services, the sectors we support, our case studies and pricing.
Our background
We have stood behind the desk on the bad nights
Why we started HGA
Hospitality Growth Advisors was founded on a simple frustration: owners kept paying for reports that described their establishment back to them and stopped short of changing anything. We started HGA to close the gap between recommendations and results — and to give operators a partner who actually shows up.
Our team comes out of general management, award winning executive chef and beverage leadership across independent restaurants, cocktail bars, bistros and specialty coffee groups. That background decides how we work — we spend the first weeks on the line and in the accounts, not in a boardroom.
We take a small number of engagements at a time so that a senior advisor is genuinely present throughout, and we measure ourselves on the same numbers our clients report to their boards.
We publish our thinking before you hire anyone: see how much a restaurant consultant costs and our benchmarks for restaurant labor cost percentage.
Veteran-Owned. Family-Operated.
Three partners. One practice. No junior analysts.
Meet the Partners
Christian, Justin and Gerard
A 45-second look at the family-owned, veteran-operated practice behind HGA.
Christian builds the financial model, Justin rebuilds food and beverage, and Gerard installs the operating rhythm. Every client works directly with a partner.
“Three partners. One practice. No junior analysts.”
Leadership
The Partners
Veteran Owned • Family Operated
Leadership grounded in real operations.
Each partner brings a different discipline — finance, food and beverage, and operations — so every recommendation is grounded in what it actually takes to run the floor, the line, and the ledger.
Christian Robert
Director, Finance & Strategy
Christian leads finance and strategy — the model behind every margin decision.
Full background
Christian brings experience across healthcare consulting in Dallas–Fort Worth, economics consulting in San Francisco with Berkeley Research Group, and wealth management with UBS in Charleston. An honors graduate of TCU and recognized among the top 3% of students in the Neeley School of Business, he combines financial analysis, strategic problem-solving, and client advisory experience to help owners make clearer, data-driven growth decisions. Beyond his professional work, Christian has participated in and led community development and service initiatives across nine international trips spanning Asia, Latin America, and the South Pacific, shaping a global, relationship-driven approach to business and leadership.
Justin Falcone
Director, Food & Beverage
Justin leads food and beverage — menus, cost and programs that pay for themselves.
Full background
Justin is a U.S. Army veteran, award-winning chef and former restaurant owner/operator who has spent more than a decade in the restaurant industry. He brought the discipline of mission planning and team leadership into hospitality, and now helps owners redesign menus, build supplier relationships, and create guest experiences that drive repeat visits. With deep roots in culinary development and beverage programming, he believes a great F&B program should be both creative and profitable — meaning every signature dish and every cocktail pour has to pay for itself on the P&L.
Gerard Falcone
Director, Operations
Gerard leads operations — the floor, line and back-office rhythm that holds under pressure.
Full background
Gerard brings more than 25 years of law enforcement and investigation experience, plus private-sector security and executive protection leadership, into the operating rhythm of each engagement. He directs the floor, line, and back-office systems that keep an establishment profitable on its busiest nights, identifying where friction lives — inconsistent prep, scheduling drift, supplier creep, and service standards that erode under pressure — and installing repeatable fixes that hold after HGA leaves. Clients bring him in when they need an operator's eye backed by a disciplined background in risk assessment and protective operations, not another theoretical playbook.
"We are former operators first, consultants second."
We show up early, treat the team like family, and never recommend something we would not do behind our own pass.
How we differ
Not a binder. A result.
The difference between most consulting and ours is the gap between a recommendation and a number that moves. Here is how that looks, side by side.
A binder and a handover call, then they're gone.
On the line until the change holds on a Friday with two people called out.
Open-ended retainer with no defined finish.
Scoped project with a fee quoted up front, before any work begins.
Analysis handed to junior associates.
A senior operator present throughout, not between visits.
Recommendations you implement on your own.
Recipes, prep sheets, schedules and reporting delivered and trained on live service.
Leaves when the report is signed off.
Comes back to check the numbers held after we're gone.
Who we serve
Operators serious about improvement
We work best with restaurant, bar and coffee operators ready to invest in clarity, discipline and numbers they can trust.
01Independent Restaurants
Independent Restaurants
Full-service and fast-casual rooms doing roughly $1M–$8M a year that need stronger systems, tighter prime cost and a margin that survives a slow week.
02Emerging Multi-Unit Groups
Emerging Multi-Unit Groups
Operators with 2–15 locations who need standardized recipes, scalable processes and consistent unit economics across every address.
03Bars, Bistros & Coffee Shops
Bars, Bistros & Coffee Shops
High-volume, low-ticket establishments where pour cost, waste and labor scheduling decide whether a busy day is actually a profitable one.
04Growth & Exit-Ready Owners
Growth & Exit-Ready Owners
Owners preparing for expansion, franchising or sale who need clean operations, defensible financials and a story a buyer can underwrite.
Our principles
What we hold to on every engagement
- We work for the owner, not a vendor.
- No engagement starts without the real numbers.
- Guest experience is a P&L line.
- If it cannot survive a short-staffed Friday, it is wrong.
Our approach
Four steps, every engagement
A typical engagement runs six to twelve weeks. Here is how we move from first conversation to follow-up.
- 01
Read the establishment
Two to three weeks on the floor, in the accounts, and through every service. P&L, roster, invoices, POS data, and guest reviews.
- 02
Name the number
Every finding gets a dollar figure and an owner. If we cannot size it, we do not list it.
- 03
Sequence the work
Ranked by cash impact and effort, with a clear first ninety days. Fewer priorities means faster execution.
- 04
Stay until it holds
We train the managers who will run it after we leave, then return to verify the numbers held.
Continue reading
Related pages
See how we work, what we analyze, and the results we model for independent restaurants, bars, bistros and cafés.
- ServicesHow we scope engagements and what we actually deliver.
- Case studiesModeled outcomes for restaurants, bars, cafés and bistros.
- InsightsProfitability frameworks and operating analysis written for independent owners.
- SectorsRestaurants, bars, bistros, coffee shops and food trucks we work in.
- PricingFixed-fee engagement pricing and what each scope includes.
- Support plansOngoing monthly support plans for owner-operators.
- Free health checkPrime cost and food cost tools that show where your margin leaks.
Start a conversation
Ready to work with senior operators who fix margin at the source?
Book a 20-minute margin review and see how we would read your establishment.