Restaurant growth, straight from the operators.
QSR Uncut is an operator-focused industry show hosted by Danny Klein, the editorial director at QSR. Recent episodes move from plant-based burgers to chef platforms and Acai franchising, with guests explaining how restaurant concepts actually scale.
PRESS PLAY
QSR Uncut is built around plainspoken interviews with people growing restaurant and foodservice concepts. Danny Klein, the editorial director at QSR, hosts with a relaxed trade-publication cadence: friendly opening banter, a quick origin story, then a steady move into the mechanics of the business. The show is not just about menu trends. It is about what happens after an idea becomes a brand. Recent conversations follow a fully plant-based burger chain, a chef platform, and a Florida-born Acai and juicery franchise. Each episode starts close to the person behind the company. Chris Treloar describes a restaurant career that moved from serving into management, operations leadership, and eventually the CEO role at Plant Burger. Morley Ivers frames CookUnity through chef recruitment, facilities, strategic partnerships, and the appeal of giving chefs another way to build income outside a traditional restaurant. Anthony Bambino explains how Three Natives Acai and Juicery grew from a perceived gap in South Florida's healthy options into a roughly 50-unit brand. The conversations then widen. QSR Uncut asks how concepts scale without losing the thing that made customers care. Hospitality is treated as operational, not decorative. A heart on an Acai bowl lid becomes a real example of brand feeling, while franchisee selection, staff investment, and saying no to the wrong partners become part of the same discussion. The show also spends time on B2B angles that casual restaurant coverage often skips. CookUnity's hotel, Airbnb, chef, and facility questions point toward the infrastructure behind convenience. Plant Burger's positioning sits inside the broader question of what plant-based quick service can become. Three Natives' growth story raises the familiar tension between founder-led culture and repeatable systems. The result is candid, specific, and useful for people who follow the restaurant industry from the inside. It has enough personality to avoid feeling like a quarterly report. It also has enough operational detail to matter to owners, executives, entrepreneurs, and franchise-minded listeners. QSR Uncut is strongest when it lets restaurant leaders explain the unglamorous decisions behind visible growth.
Made for: Designed for restaurant operators, executives, entrepreneurs, franchise candidates, and industry watchers who want practical context on fast-food and fast-casual growth. It also suits curious consumers who follow how emerging brands are built.
What sets it apart: QSR Uncut pairs trade-publication access with relaxed, operator-level questioning. The show spends as much time on onboarding, facilities, franchise discipline, hospitality habits, and partnership structure as it does on the brand story.
QSR Uncut is a podcast from the editors of QSR magazine—the leading publication for foodservice owners and operators—that discusses the current state and future of the fast-food restaurant industry. Made for restaurant executives, entrepreneurs, consumers, and leaders, each episode candidly shares expert advice from some of the industry's most insightful leaders.
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded look at how CookUnity links chef ambition with food-platform scale.
CookUnity comes into focus through the business layer behind chef-made meals: strategic partnerships, hotel and Airbnb delivery settings, and facilities designed to help chefs grow without taking on every burden of a traditional restaurant.
A clear business-side review of how CookUnity presents restaurant pressure as a path toward chef entrepreneurship and partnerships.
CookUnity's case is framed through the hard math of restaurant life, as Morley Ivers, head of Global Strategic Partnerships and CEO of Cookin' Canada, lays out why chefs squeezed by labor, real estate, ingredient costs, overhead, legalities, and narrow margins may look for…
A mostly Florida acai brand considers careful franchise growth through the small gestures that keep hospitality personal.
QSR Uncut's conversation with Anthony Bambino tracks Three Natives from a South Florida founder's answer to limited healthy food options into an about 50-unit brand that remains mostly rooted in Florida.
Industrial LinkedIn signals, stress-tested for reality.
Bourbon talk with industry teeth.
Australian beer, with the paperwork left in.
Anthony Bambino, founder and CEO of Three Natives, discusses the brand's origin from a 2013 market gap in Florida to a 50-unit chain.
Morley Ivers, co-founder and CEO of CookUnity, discusses the company's rapid growth and mission to empower chefs.
PJ Powell, a former technology executive, opened Tiki Bagel in August 2024 in St.
An interview with Plant Burger CEO Chris Treloar discussing his background and the brand's mission in the fast-food industry.
Morley Ivers says CookUnity ended 2025 at about $750 million ARR, up from about $350 million the year before, while the average chef earned $850,000.
QSR Uncut host Danny Klein interviews Queenie Lowe, President of Spatial Design at Future Brands, about translating brand identity into restaurant environments.
QSR Uncut host Danny Klein interviews Fizz Drinks president and CEO Scott Ball about expanding a Salt Lake City dirty-soda brand from roughly 50 units to 72, with almost 200 new units sold in 2025.
On QSR Uncut, host Danny Klein interviews Paris Baguette CDO Nick Scaccio about the chain’s growth from 73 North American locations when he joined to more than 280, with over 500 additional locations in development.
QSR Uncut brings together A&W Restaurants CEO Betsy Schmandt and Kilwins CEO Brian Britton to compare two legacy food brands navigating hospitality, technology, and growth.