Fireline

Author: Landon Taylor Nelson

  • Time to Rethink Menu Pricing: Do You Your Numbers?

    Landon Taylor Nelson

    In most restaurants, the menu is treated like art. It reflects a chef’s vision, a brand’s personality, and a guest’s expectations. Yet the truth is less romantic. A menu is first and foremost a financial document, one that determines whether the operation thrives or quietly bleeds out. Far too many restaurants fail not because their…

  • The Fireline Method: Phase 5 – Scale & Sustain

    Landon Taylor Nelson

    The Moment That Set It Off The second unit opened for business on a cool autumn morning. The first guest walked in right at 11:00AM and by noon the line was out the door and to the street. Ticket times held where we set them, labels printed clean for pickup, and delivery orders slotted exactly…

  • The Fireline Method: Phase 4 – Implementation and Rollout

    Landon Taylor Nelson

    The Moment That Set It Off We launched a new delivery setup: one integration for every channel, labeled pickup shelves, updated item names and modifiers, and throttle times tuned to the line. Staging looked clean. On the floor, the gaps showed. Third party orders arrived with generic items, modifiers collapsed into notes, and routing sent…

  • The Fireline Method: Phase 3 – Systems Optimization

    Landon Taylor Nelson

    The Moment That Set It Off Lunch was building and a small menu tweak had just gone live. Then salads printed to the grill, modifiers dropped from two entrees, and third party orders arrived with names no one recognized. Expo slowed, tickets stacked, and guests felt a change we had not intended. The issue was…

  • The Fireline Method: Phase 2 – Cost Analysis

    Landon Taylor Nelson

    The Moment That Set It Off Invoice day turned the office into a paper ocean. Boxes on the floor, emails pinging, and three spreadsheets open for reconciliation. A line labeled “program fee” appeared on the processing statement with no owner. Chicken breast was two dollars higher than last month with no note from the vendor.…

  • The Fireline Method: Phase 1 – Audit & Assessment

    Landon Taylor Nelson

    The Moment That Set It Off It was a Saturday night, and the dining room was at full capacity with  the bar three deep. Expo called a steady cadence and the kitchen executed cleanly. Then midway through an order the POS stalled and every screen froze. After a few seconds they started working again, so…

  • The Fireline Method Overview

    Landon Taylor Nelson

    What Is the Fireline Method? The Fireline Method is a practical operating framework for restaurants that want fewer surprises, cleaner handoffs, and growth that does not depend on constant heroics from ownership or management. It is not a collection of tools or a one time project. It is a way of seeing how work, data,…