How to work *on* your restaurant—not *in* it | Monte Silva, Restaurant Coach | 018

This episode was originally published as part of the Restaurant Growth Podcast. It has been rebranded as part of The Pre-Shift Podcast as of January 2023. The information presented may no longer be up-to-date and may differ from the viewpoints and insights currently shared on The Pre-Shift Podcast.

The hospitality industry doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to work-life balance. Monte Silva wants to change that. After a successful run as GM from Wolfgang Puck led to burnout, Silva is determined to figure out how to run profitable restaurants without sacrificing himself. Now, he teaches what he learned to restaurant owners through his coaching business, #Restauranteur. Monte joined us on the podcast to tell us his story and offer listeners tips on how to work “on” their business, not “in” their business.

About Monte Silva
Monte Silva started in the restaurant industry as a dishwasher when he was 15 years old. He spent the next 15 years working as a prep cook, line cook, Busser, server, and bartender. After that, Monte spent over 20 years as a restaurant operator. He had a very successful restaurant career early on. He rose from bar manager, service manager, kitchen manager to GM for Wolfgang Puck in the first four years in management. During his time with Wolfgang Puck he was featured in David Steadman’s book BeverageBiz is Show Biz. However, this fast rise cost him dearly.

After experiencing burnout and a divorce, Monte determined that he would figure out how to run successful restaurants while maintaining work/life balance. And he did! He moved to Nashville and dug in. His restaurants were consistently named in best of categories of several Nashville magazines in reader and writer polls. His successful stewardship of these restaurants got him featured in Nashville Wine Press, The Tasting Panel, Restaurant Business Magazine, Nashville Scene, and many other publications. One of those restaurants was Acme Feed & Seed (the 31st highest grossing restaurant in the country at $18,500,000.) He later became Director of Operations overseeing four restaurants including Acme. And he did it while maintaining work/life balance.

Today, Monte lives with his wife and son in Florida. He is the managing partner of Steelbach in Tampa, a restaurant coach, thought leader, author, and speaker. He works with restaurant owners and executives all over t

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