Expedite | Kristen Hawley | Substack

Was your restaurant affected by Monday's AWS outage?

23 hrs ago •

Starbucks’ low-tech sharpie problem

…and other IRL initiatives that prioritize experience over visible technology. Turns out the biggest variable is humanity.

Sep 25 •

Will you be my table captain?

A restaurant asks for confirmed allies at the time of booking. Is it too much?

Sep 18 •

Consuming 'All Consuming'

6 reasons to love Ruby Tandoh's new book

Sep 10 •

Inside a restaurant AI hackathon

Last month in Boston, a group of restaurant leaders, technologists, and enthusiasts got together to figure out what’s possible.

Sep 4 •

Best of times / Worst of times for voice AI

Hospitable voice startups abound, but big restaurants are scaling back. What gives?

Sep 2 •

Think of the slop bowl robots, won't you?

Sweetgreen, Chipotle, and Cava have each invested in bots to build the bowls the internet loves to hate.

Aug 27 •

Cherry-picked lows and highs from Q2 2025

It’s a rough time to be a fast casual restaurant, but it’s a great time to be a delivery giant!

Aug 22 •

Top posts

Toast + Resy (and Tock… and Amex)

Aug 5 • Kristen Hawley

AI for good (staff training)

Aug 14 • Kristen Hawley

Blackbird's big loyalty play, revealed

Apr 8 • Kristen Hawley

DoorDash reservations are here!

Sep 30 • Kristen Hawley

Hi from the cool kids' table

Feb 20 • Kristen Hawley

#nojs-banner { position: fixed; bottom: 0; left: 0; padding: 16px 16px 16px 32px; width: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; background: red; color: white; font-family: -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 13px; line-height: 13px; } #nojs-banner a { color: inherit; text-decoration: underline; } This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts