Amanda Kahalehoe, did not come into restaurants through the front door. She came in through the back office. Systems. Reporting. Implementation. The operational machinery most guests never see.
Her background was in technology and business operations, not hospitality. When she first connected with Vicious Biscuit during the chaos of COVID, the brand had two locations and a long list of growing pains. They had just onboarded new systems. The tools were there, but the infrastructure around them was not.
So she stepped in as a fractional controller to help untangle it. What she found was bigger than software. It was opportunity. “I realized there was real opportunity to grow the business side of the restaurants,” she said.
The Emotional Business
That distinction matters. Restaurants are emotional businesses, but they are still businesses. Amanda saw two sets of guests to serve: the people dining in the restaurant, and the franchisees depending on the brand to help them succeed.
Today, as Chief Operating Officer, she has helped guide Vicious Biscuit from two units to eleven open locations, with more on deck. Not by chasing growth for headlines. By building the operating system underneath it.
The concept itself stands out. A Southern brunch brand with serious food quality, oversized portions, and a hospitality mindset that surprises people the moment they walk in. Order at the counter, then experience service that feels far more personal than the format suggests.
But for Amanda, food and hospitality were only part of the equation.
Removing Friction
The real unlock was removing friction. When she arrived, many processes were manual. Repetitive tasks. Administrative burdens. Hours lost to work that technology could handle faster and better. There was resistance at first. New systems often feel like extra work before they feel like progress.
“Nobody wanted to have any technology in the system,” she said. “They fought me all along the way.”
That changed once the tools started solving real problems.
Payroll became cleaner. Onboarding became easier. Support became centralized. Operators no longer had to stop serving guests to troubleshoot every digital issue that popped up during a shift. If something broke, there was a path to fix it. They could get back to the floor.
That is Amanda’s filter for every decision now. Find the pain point. Find the friction. Ask if the tool creates ROI, improves profit, grows sales, or makes life easier for the people doing the work. Not flashy for the sake of flashy. Useful on purpose. Large brands may dominate the room, but emerging brands often feel the friction first. Smaller teams are in the tools every day. They know where workflows break. They know what frontline teams actually need.
“You’ve got to speak to the individuals who are interacting with it daily,” she said.
Keep Showing Up
That willingness to speak up is part of why Amanda keeps showing up to industry events. Yes, the inbox piles up while she is gone. Yes, the work waits back home. But conferences are where ideas move faster, partnerships deepen, and talent appears in unexpected places.
Mostly, though, it is about community.
She leaves energized by being around people solving the same problems in different ways. People willing to share what worked, what failed, and what might help someone else.
That mindset mirrors how she operates every day.
Growth is important. Innovation matters. But neither happens without people willing to listen, adapt, and keep building.
Amanda did not enter restaurants through hospitality. She entered through systems.
And then she used them to make hospitality stronger.
