Woody Wu · Forward-Deployed AI · AI for Restaurants
AI for Restaurants
The phone rings during service. The same question, the fortieth time. That is where the hours go.
Remote first · Canada and the United States
THE PROBLEM THIS SOLVES
Restaurants lose hours in small pieces: the phone during service, the private dining email answered two days late, the invoice typed in by hand after close, the pre-shift briefing written from memory.
None of it is why anyone works in a restaurant, and all of it is the kind of work a well-built system does reliably, if someone who has worked the floor decides where the lines are.
WHERE THE HOURS GO
Guest questions and reservations.
Hours, parking, dietary questions, the wine list, whether there is a table on Friday. Answered from your own information, on your website and in messages, with bookings handed to your reservation system. The House Somm is this, working.
Private dining and group enquiries.
A priced first proposal drafted from your packages the same day, for you to check and send, instead of an email that waits until Monday.
Review replies.
Drafted in your voice, with anything about food safety, a staff member or a refund routed to you before it is posted.
The pre-shift briefing.
Tonight's covers, VIPs, allergies, large parties and what is 86'd, on one page before the team meeting.
Invoices and inventory.
Supplier invoices read and matched to orders, price changes flagged, and the count reconciled to what the POS says you sold.
Staff knowledge.
The menu, the list, allergens and your SOPs, answerable by a new server on their second shift.
WHAT I WOULD LEAVE TO PEOPLE
Hospitality itself. The read of the table, the recovery when something goes wrong, the decision to comp. Anything that commits the restaurant to money. A new server's first week, which is how culture is taught. The system drafts and routes; a person decides.
HOW IT WORKS
1. The Service Audit.
One to two weeks inside the operation. A ranked decision document: which of these workflows is worth automating for you, what each costs you today in hours, and what to leave alone.
2. The deployment.
The winning workflow built on the systems you already run, with a person approving anything that reaches a guest and a full record of what the system did.
3. The Standard.
Every month, proof that it is still earning, in your numbers: hours reclaimed, errors avoided, revenue protected, and what my own measurement got wrong that month.
HOW IT IS MEASURED
In your numbers, not a vendor's. Before anything is built I measure the workflow as it runs today: how many hours, how many errors, how many enquiries that went unanswered. After it is live I measure it again the same way.
Every figure comes with the error rate of the tool that produced it. I do not quote a saving I have not measured in your building.
THE FEE
From $3,500 CAD: the Service Audit, fixed price, for a single property or venue. You own the document whether or not we go further.
The deployment is quoted after the audit, because the honest number depends on what the audit finds. If you proceed, the audit fee is credited toward it.
WHY ME
I was an opening sommelier, founded and managed a wine-led restaurant, and run dining rooms now. I know what a Tuesday feels like when the phone will not stop, and which of those calls a machine should answer.
You can see the work: The House Somm, a live AI sommelier that holds a real wine list without misquoting a price, and The Triage, a free tool that reads a task you describe and tells you whether it is worth automating.
WHAT I DO NOT DO
I do not sell software licences, take a cut from any vendor I recommend, or automate anything that needs a person. If you are in my own city, I will tell you so and point you toward someone good.
TO START
Tell me what is quietly costing you time. One sentence is enough, and I will tell you plainly if it is not worth automating.
DIRECT ANSWERS
What can AI actually do in a restaurant?
Reliably: answer guest questions before and after service from your own information, draft private dining proposals and review replies for approval, write the pre-shift briefing, read supplier invoices, and answer staff questions about the menu and list. The Service Audit finds which of these costs your restaurant the most time. From $3,500 CAD.
How much does AI consulting for a restaurant cost?
The Service Audit starts at $3,500 CAD, fixed price, for a single venue. Deployment is quoted after the audit, and the audit fee is credited toward it.