Food. Sport. Music. One network of operators.

Real Operators.
Real Results.

Our team has run resorts, opened independents, and managed multi-location groups. We've cornered world champions, promoted fight cards, and packed stadiums. We've toured with legends, produced for Live Nation and AEG, and built rooms where music lives. Every person at this table has done the job — not studied it.

I Need a Diagnostic

Purchasing & Contract Warfare™ →

I Need a Fix

Concept, Launch & Turnaround →

I'm Building Something

Design & Build →

I Need the Right People

Recruitment & Culture →

I Need Visibility

Brand & Creative Build →

I Have a Product

Activations & Distribution →
How We Operate

Six Ways We
Go to Work.

We're not just restaurants. We build and turn around restaurants, hotels, clubs, and resorts. We design kitchens and ride construction to the finish line. We take food and beverage brands to market — onto shelves, into glasses, through distribution. We activate live, across sports, music, and entertainment. From independent operators to large-scale enterprises.

Purchasing & Contract Warfare™

The money's already gone — we go get it back.

Most operators don't lose money on the menu. They lose it on the invoice. Pricing drifts, contracts expire, rebates sit unclaimed — and nobody running the floor has time to audit a 300-page price book. We do. Through our partnership with Clear Hospitality Network — a procurement network managing over $30 billion in annual spend — we show you exactly what you're leaving on the table. No vendor changes. No disruption. Just real dollars back.

We guarantee 4–8% cost recovery — any size operation. Spend $1M+ annually with Sysco, US Foods, or GFS? We'll run a complimentary audit. No vendor changes. No disruption. Ever.

4–8%

Cost Recovery

1,500+

Suppliers

300K+

SKUs Benchmarked

Real money back in the operator's pocket, without changing a single vendor.
Walk-in cooler and cold storage
Lane 01 · Contract Warfare™
The money's already gone.
We get it back.

Concept, Launch & Turnaround

From the napkin sketch, through opening night, into operational rescue.

Concepts don't die in the dream phase. They die in the open — in the gap between the pitch deck and the first dinner service. And operations don't slip overnight. They slip because nobody who's actually run a floor is still looking at the books.

We close both gaps. Going in: concept, operating model, pre-open, opening night. Coming back: we find what's broken and don't leave until it runs right. Same operators, same hands, same eyes on the floor either way.

  • Concept ideation & positioning — what kind of venue, who it's for
  • Menu development, pricing, margin strategy
  • Service model & guest experience design
  • Operating model — FOH/BOH staffing, labor, hours
  • Pre-opening timeline, training, soft open & launch
  • Operational diagnostics & turnaround plans
  • Menu engineering & margin recovery
  • Operator-on-site interventions until the business is back on its feet
New venues that open clean. Struggling ones that come back.
Chefs plating at the pass
Lane 02 · Concept, Launch & Turnaround
From the napkin
to the pass.

Design & Build

The operator your architect and contractor are missing.

Every restaurant build runs into the same problem. Architects don't know service. Contractors don't know equipment. And the owner is left holding the bag when the kitchen can't do dinner on opening night.

We're the operator who should have been in the room before the first line was drawn — programming the space, engineering the kitchen, specing the stainless, and riding the contractors so you don't get value-engineered into a kitchen that can't run service. We know how to build restaurants because we've been the ones running them.

  • Space programming & flow — how guests and staff move
  • Kitchen design, line layout, equipment specs
  • Custom stainless fabrication & refrigeration systems
  • Fully engineered hood drawings, exhaust & HVAC
  • FOH design — bar, dining room, host stand
  • Owner's rep through construction — GC selection, vendor management, change orders
  • POS, inventory, scheduling, accounting systems
  • Back-of-house SOPs and operating documentation
A space built to actually run service, not to look good in a drawing set.
Hood and ventilation install
Lane 03 · Design & Build
Built to run service.
Not to look pretty.

Recruitment & Culture

People problems don't get solved alone.

The hardest problems in hospitality aren't on the line. They're in the people. Bad GMs sink concepts. Burned-out chefs walk out mid-service. Owner-operators carry it all and burn out themselves.

We don't pretend to be the smartest people in the room on every part of this — that's the whole point. Through Gravity Executives, we plug into some of the strongest minds in hospitality talent, executive search, and leadership development in the country. The network handles top-end search and HR architecture. We handle the operator work ourselves — hands-on training, team development, and showing up on the floor until the team runs without you in the building.

  • Executive search & hospitality leadership recruitment (via Gravity Executives and partner network)
  • HR systems, policy, and compliance setup
  • Coaching for owners, GMs, executive chefs, and emerging leaders
  • Team development & leadership programs
  • Hands-on training — front of house, back of house, service standards
  • Culture audits and turnaround
  • Performance management frameworks
  • Compensation and incentive structure design
A team that runs without you in the building.
Antonio with culinary team
Lane 04 · Recruitment & Culture
People problems
don't get solved alone.

Brand & Creative Build

We're not an agency. We're the operators who know who to call.

Hospitality brands rarely fail because the food is bad. They fail because nobody finds them — the website looks nothing like the dining room, and the diner with money in their pocket is asking ChatGPT where to eat tonight. The answer isn't them.

We're not an agency. We're operators with relationships to the people who actually solve this. Two we name openly: Funnelpot — the hospitality digital agency behind work for Lettuce Entertain You, Maple & Ash, Wildfire Steaks, and the Chicago Bulls — and design led by Blake Oliver out of Nashville. Behind them, a deeper bench we plug in based on what your brand actually needs. You get top-tier hospitality agency work at the operator's cost — no agency markup.

One piece worth pulling forward: SEO + GEO. Diners don't search your name anymore — they ask Google or ChatGPT "where should I eat tonight." If you're not optimized for both, you're invisible at the exact moment the decision gets made.

  • Brand identity systems & brand books
  • Visual identity, photography, and art direction (led by Blake Oliver)
  • Full website design, development, and hosting (via Funnelpot)
  • SEO + GEO — visibility on Google search and AI engines (ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews)
  • Paid and organic social media
  • Premium video and photography production
  • Packaging, menu, and collateral design
  • Lifecycle marketing, CRM, and retention strategy
  • Thought leadership, content authority, and strategic storytelling
A brand that looks like a category leader — and gets found like one, on every search and AI surface that matters.
Brand strategy session — drawings and concept work on a reclaimed wood table in a construction-phase restaurant
Lane 05 · Brand & Creative Build
The Soul of Service.
The Science of Search.

Activations & Distribution

Most brokers pitch from a phone. We pitch from the floor.

We rep specialty food and beverage brands because at our own venues, we are the buyer. We know what a country club chef will actually put on a menu, what a cruise line needs to clear procurement, and which broadliners return calls. We move volume into all of them — Cheney Brothers, US Foods, Sysco, FSM Foods, and more — plus the clubs, hotels, fine dining rooms, and cruise lines where premium products live or die.

On top of distribution, we activate live — sports, broadcast, music, and on-premise activations that put product in glasses and on plates in front of the people who matter. One brand we work with: Life Cider. If you have a product worth fighting for, we know how to get it on shelves and into glasses.

  • F&B brokerage across hospitality and on-premise channels
  • Go-to-market strategy & channel sequencing
  • Co-packer sourcing and production introductions
  • Broadliner and distributor relationships (Cheney Brothers, US Foods, Sysco, FSM Foods, and more)
  • Country club, hotel, cruise line, fine dining, and catering placements
  • Live event activations across sports, entertainment, music venues, and festivals
  • Sampling, regional sales blitzes, and on-premise activations
  • Trade marketing and buyer education
Product in market, distributors pulled through, and case-velocity that justifies the build-out.
Live venue activation — crowd, stage, and bar in a converted industrial space
Lane 06 · Activations & Distribution
Most brokers pitch from a phone.
We pitch from the floor.
The Work

Selected Results

9% / 4%
Food & Beverage Cost Reduction

A resort with no contracts, no controls, and no one actually counting inventory.

We walked into a multi-outlet resort where purchasing had no contracts, no controls, and no accountability. Chefs were ordering whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. Inventory reports were being filled out from a desk — nobody was actually counting. The property was paying prime beef prices for select cuts. Fish sold as fresh had been previously frozen. Produce quality was unacceptable.

Within the first 30 days we renegotiated every vendor contract, replaced suppliers that had gone unchecked for years, and brought in the right product at the right price — without sacrificing quality. We identified dead stock, built food waste tracking systems, and created an inventory accountability structure that connected culinary, FOH, and accounting for the first time.

The next 30 days were intensive. Menu education, wine knowledge, tasting programs, steps of service — daily lineups with both FOH and BOH teams to establish a clear standard of execution. The final 30 days focused on timing, guest experience, walking dining rooms, reading feedback, and adjusting to the local market.

90 days. 9% food cost reduction. 4% beverage cost reduction. A complete operational reset — top to bottom.

Rescued
Stalled Construction Turnaround

A buildout that had stopped moving, with drawings that didn't match what ownership actually needed.

We were brought in after a restaurant buildout had stalled. The contractor and subs were misaligned, design flaws were baked into the plans, and ownership's actual needs had never been translated into the space. Dining rooms had no service stations. Bars were missing critical equipment. Kitchens had no operational flow. Money had been spent on work that didn't match what was contracted.

We started by realigning ownership's vision with what was actually being built. We identified design failures, renegotiated contract terms, audited what had been paid against what had actually been delivered, and held the GC and subs accountable to their buyout agreements.

Within 45 days, revised drawings were resubmitted to the city, change orders were signed, and trades were back on site — with daily management walking the job to ensure the work was being done right.

23%
Revenue Lift

A mountain property taking every piece of business that walked in the door — and losing money doing it.

A boutique hotel in Colorado was taking every piece of business that walked through the door. Not all money is good money. They were booking events they shouldn't have been — low-margin business that created massive overtime and burned out the team. Management didn't understand market positioning. Sales and operations weren't talking.

We repositioned the property from "we'll do anything" to "we do this exceptionally well." We created a Director of Sales role that understood operational capacity and workflow — someone who could say yes and no based on what the property could actually deliver. We rebuilt pricing around the experience, rewrote marketing materials, and started positioning the property at the right events and to the right audience.

Within six months: 23% revenue lift. Overtime down. Margins up. A team that wasn't burning out. A property that finally understood what it was worth.

The Network

Relationships That
Create Opportunity.

Connecting brands, operators, distributors, venues, and organizations across hospitality, food service, entertainment, and beyond.

Thirty years on the floor — in kitchens, venues, distribution warehouses, and boardrooms — builds a network you can't buy. Ours runs through hospitality, food service, distribution, entertainment, live events, consumer products, insurance, and business development. And we put it to work for every client and brand we represent.

These aren't names on a list. They're active working relationships built on trust and delivery — the kind that open doors, cut costs, move product, and create opportunities that would otherwise take years to develop on your own.

Legends Global
Clear Hospitality Network
OnMarket Insurance
Life Cider
Hawaiian Soda Co.
Funk Harbor Rum
Riverbend Ranch
Smoken Daddys
El Nacimiento
Funnelpot
EFN
EAFL
AMMA
+ Many More
— and operators, distributors, venues, brands, and industry professionals across the United States.

Become Part of the Network.

R.A.A.D. builds relationships with organizations that share our commitment to innovation, excellence, and long-term growth. If that's you, let's talk about what our network can do for your business.

Contact R.A.A.D.
Founders
Antonio Campolio — Founder of R.A.A.D.

Antonio Campolio

Founder · Food & Beverage

An operator built for high-stakes execution.

Three decades building, scaling, and transforming complex food and beverage operations. James Beard–recognized restaurateur and executive chef. I operate at the intersection of culinary leadership, construction execution, and operational systems design.

Led more than $250M in hospitality development, including a $100M flagship clubhouse with nine distinct restaurant concepts. Teams of 300+. Operations exceeding 40,000 meals per month. Concept development, MEP coordination, kitchen design, procurement strategy, full operational launch — trusted in high-stakes environments where execution matters.

If you want someone who times the kitchen by seconds and choreographs the dining room like opening night — let's get to work. Because you're only ever as good as the next experience you create.

My path was different.

My path into the industry was very different from that of my partners. Through owning combat sports facilities, I had the opportunity to train and travel the world with some of the top athletes in the sport — cornering fighters across the UFC, Bellator, Strikeforce, and M1 Global, and helping athletes reach the pinnacle of combat sports as national and world champions. During that time, I also began promoting and hosting combat sports events.

These experiences gave me firsthand exposure to every aspect of event promotion — logistics, production, operations, sponsor procurement, and overall business management. Experience that would have been difficult to develop elsewhere.

Combined with the relationships and professional network I've built over the years, that background has proven invaluable — to me and to this team.
Michael Merriman — Founder of R.A.A.D., cornerside with championship fighters

Michael Merriman

Founder · Sports & Entertainment

JL

Justin Lenoch

Founder · Music & Hospitality

Music and hospitality are in my blood.

Third generation. My family built hotels and restaurants across Chicagoland; I came up in the business at fourteen — but the obsession was always the stage. I trained as a drummer, shared stages with Chicago legends like Jim Peterik of the Ides of March and Shirley King, daughter of B.B. King, and moved to Nashville in 2015. From there I toured with country, pop, and blues acts and ran VIP and production for Live Nation and AEG — working tours for Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, Chris Stapleton, and Kanye West. The two worlds collided at Virgin Hotels Nashville, where I launched The Late Great — a private entertainment club designed by Hannah Crowell, granddaughter of Johnny Cash — and built its programming from scratch with late-night jams featuring Cory Henry, Umphrey's McGee, and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, alongside partnerships with Sony, BMG, Gibson, and Rolling Stone.

At R.A.A.D. I run music and hospitality — turning rooms into nights people don't forget. Food and music bring people together. Everyone gathers at the same table.

Your Next Move

Whether you're building, fixing, or starting over — we're ready when you are.

We take on a limited number of engagements at a time. If you're serious, let's talk now.

Book a Call

or call directly: 252.557.7391

Not ready to talk yet? Email us at antonio@raadconsulting.us — we read everything.