Fast Casual Nation went live for the first time this week, recording in front of a studio audience of restaurant operators and suppliers. Hosts Paul Barron and Cherryh Cansler opened the show with Brittney from HigherMe, who talked through how hiring has changed in the restaurant industry. Her message was that the problem used to be getting enough applicants and is now getting the right ones. Operators who flex on scheduling, say plainly what their brand stands for, and think beyond job boards are keeping people past the critical 90-day mark. She also made a case for going back to old-school referrals, noting that a brand’s own guests are often its best recruiters.
The main event was Justin Mennen, Chief Information and Technology Officer at Shake Shack, who laid out where the brand stands as it chases an ambitious growth target. Shake Shack runs roughly 700 locations worldwide, about 400 of them company-owned in the U.S., and wants to reach 1,500 stateside. To get there, the company launched Project Catalyst, which rests on four pillars: a new point of sale and kitchen display system, the brand’s first loyalty program, an AI initiative called Shack AI, and a data foundation underneath all of it. Mennen was candid that the technology is the easier part. Change management, meaning getting operators trained and involved early, is where the real work sits. The company pilots in a small number of Shacks, learns, adjusts, and only then rolls out to the fleet.
Integrating AI in Hospitality
On AI, Mennen drew a firm line. Shake Shack looks at it through a hospitality lens, and he said he does not want technology standing between team members and guests. The example he gave is a tool called Spark, still in development, which is meant to hand a general manager a short list of actions for the day instead of making them dig through seven different reports. The idea is that a great GM is often the difference between a great restaurant and a mediocre one, and Spark would help newer managers see what matters sooner. He also described a goal he calls self-healing restaurants, where the company spots a down kiosk or a balky POS before the shift lead does and fixes it remotely or sends someone out. The only thing he said can’t be fixed from afar is an iPad dropped in the fryer.
Smarter Hiring. Simpler Payroll.
For Hourly Teams.
Barron pressed on the divide he sees forming in the industry, with McDonald’s experimenting with more agentic dynamic pricing and Chick-fil-A taking a different path. Mennen acknowledged that some brands will chase bottom-line gains with automation, but argued that approach is shorter-term thinking. Shake Shack is not testing AI voice ordering at the drive-thru, has no plans to, and Mennen said robots are not in the picture either. Kiosks are a different story. Every restaurant has roughly four to six of them, guests across age groups use them, and Shake Shack sees the same pattern many operators do, with check sizes running higher at the kiosk than at the counter. Because every kiosk order is custom-built, the team also gets a clear view of what guests add, when, and where they drop off. The app is the other fast-growing channel, and loyalty will run across the app, web, kiosk, and POS so guests are recognized everywhere.
Redefining the Loyalty Program
Loyalty drew the most questions. Mennen said Shake Shack is running a test-and-learn phase this year ahead of a full rollout next year, and that a points structure is only the entry ticket. The goal is recognition, personalization, and what he called surprise and delight, with secret menu items offered as one possible direction, rather than a program built on discounts. He declined to share the sign-up offer, saying only to stay tuned. Asked how a brand drives frequency without leaning on promotions, he pointed to experience and personalization, and said frequency is a major focus heading into 2027, given a consumer under pressure and softer traffic across the industry.
The lightning round with the audience added some useful perspective. When Barron polled the room on top technology priorities, only a handful of hands went up for AI, just one for throughput tech, and noticeably more for guest management and customization. Mennen’s takeaway was that no brand can change everything at once, and operators can only absorb so much, so priorities have to be sequenced. On the cross-department friction that plagues many companies, he credited Shake Shack’s executive team for sharing the same KPIs and goals, so his team only works on priorities the whole group has agreed on. For restaurant professionals, the conversation was a reminder that the strongest technology plans start with a specific guest or operator problem, and that the best tools tend to work quietly in the background. Fast Casual Nation is available now on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
