Our capabilities

Advisory for every stage of the business.

Leviathan is a hospitality consulting and advisory firm led by Daniel Levine. We work with owners from the first feasibility study through opening, daily operation and growth. Open any stage to see what the work covers.

A warmly lit Wildflower dining room with set tables and framed artwork

The work, stage by stage.

Planning

Research & Feasibility

Find out whether it works before you commit capital.

Market and competitive research: Who the guests are, what they choose today and where the market opportunity lies.
Feasibility and financial underwriting: Review a model built from seats, turns, check average and labor, tested against a downside case.
Business plan and investor materials: Direction on a plan and a deck that a lender or investor can underwrite.
Capital strategy: How much the project needs, and the trade-offs between debt, partners and outside investors.
Operational due diligence: For buyers and investors: what the business earns and what that depends on.
Operator selection for club and amenity spaces: Assess potential operators against the membership experience, service obligations and operating model.
Unit economics and pricing: Review ingredients, packaging and channel costs to understand contribution at the intended price.
Management team assessment: Assess leadership capability and the operating responsibilities that depend on a founder or key manager.

Concept & Positioning

Decide what it is, who it serves and where it belongs.

Concept development: The occasion, the guest, the price point and the reason to pick you over the place next door.
Guest experience and service model: How service runs from arrival to check, and the staffing it requires.
Food and beverage direction: What the menu and the bar have to do for the concept, the kitchen and the margin.
Real estate strategy: Neighborhoods and sites judged against the concept and the numbers, and lease terms reviewed alongside your attorney.
Hotel food and beverage programming: Which outlets a property needs and the job each one does.
Operator, chef and brand partners: Help choosing a partner and setting up the relationship.
Operator selection and deal structure: Compare self-operation, a lease, a management agreement or a license with operating assumptions and counsel in view.
Menu and beverage direction across the property: Direction for the restaurant, bar and breakfast, with in-room dining, banquets and pool service planned around shared production.
Member dining and cafe programs: Define how dining supports member routines and the reasons people use the club.
Coffee and beverage program selection: Review the menu, equipment and service model against member demand and the space available.
Food and beverage for residential amenity spaces: Plan an offering that fits resident use, building operations and the property budget.
Product concept and positioning: Define the occasion, customer and reason to choose the product before expanding the range.
Recipe and formulation direction: Guide recipe development around flavor, consistency and the production method.
Property food and beverage programming: Define the role of hospitality space in the property and assess the operator and deal structure with counsel.

Design & Development

Choose the development team and review design, schedule and budget.

Development team selection: Help choosing your general contractor, architect, permit expeditor, interior designer and kitchen designer.
Proposal comparison: Bids compared line by line for scope, assumptions, cost and schedule.
Design team oversight: An operator in design meetings, keeping each decision tied to how the space will run.
Kitchen, bar and floor plan review: Plans checked for flow, capacity and labor before anything is built.
Value engineering review: Where cost can come out without hurting service, and where a saving now costs more later.
Permitting and licensing guidance: What is required and when, so approvals sit on the schedule from the start.
Schedule and budget review: Regular checks on timeline and spend, with early warning when either slips.
OS&E and FF&E guidance: What to buy, what to skip and who to buy it from.
Co-packer and supplier sourcing guidance: Assess production partners for capability, quality control and workable supply terms.
Physical plant and capital needs review: Review the equipment and property constraints that could change the investment case.

Opening

Pre-Opening

Build the team, systems and standards before the first guest.

Critical path and pre-opening budget: One plan with an owner and a date for every task.
Organizational design: Roles, reporting lines and pay structure for the opening team.
Recruiting: We run the search for your general manager, chef and leadership team.
Critical documentation: We write the employee handbook, kitchen bible, bar bible, service standards and training manuals.
Menu development guidance: Tastings, recipe standards and costing reviewed with your chef.
Beverage program direction: The shape of the list, the pricing and the supplier plan.
Technology selection: POS, reservations, payroll, scheduling, inventory and accounting chosen to work together.
Training plan: A day-by-day curriculum your managers deliver.
Compliance readiness: A walk-through against the health code before the inspector arrives.
Shop opening guidance for ice cream and soft serve: Review equipment, production flow and service readiness for the shop you intend to run.

Launch

Open the doors with a team that is ready for them.

Readiness review: Staffing, training, inventory and permits checked before the date is announced.
Soft opening plan: Friends-and-family services designed to surface problems while the room is forgiving.
Opening marketing review: Demand paced to what the team can serve well.
Opening week counsel: A senior advisor beside your managers for services and debriefs.

Stabilization

Turn a busy opening into a steady business.

First 90 days plan: The numbers to watch each week and the fixes to make first.
Weekly sales, labor and cost review: Results checked against the plan while there is still time to adjust.
Menu and pricing adjustments: What guests ordered against what you planned, and what to change.
Manager routines: The meetings, checklists and reports that hold standards after opening.
Punch list and guest feedback: Open issues ranked by what guests notice.
First 100 days plan: Set operating priorities, decision owners and review points before the transaction closes.

Operating

Ongoing Advisory & Profit

Run tighter and keep more of what you sell.

Ownership and leadership advisory: A standing conversation with someone who has run a business like yours.
Fractional COO or head of food and beverage: Senior operating direction and oversight for ownership and leadership teams.
Monthly P&L review: What moved, why it moved and what to do next.
Menu optimization and engineering: Mix, pricing and contribution reviewed on a schedule.
Beverage program review: Cost, pricing and list structure checked against sales.
Labor and scheduling review: Schedules matched to demand by daypart.
Purchasing and vendor review: Where rebidding pays and where it does not.
Standards and health code audits: Periodic walk-throughs against your standards and the code.
Leadership coaching: For owners, general managers and chefs.
Outlet-level P&L review: Review each outlet on its own economics, including the hotel services and shared costs it carries.
Banquets and events profitability: Review event pricing, production and labor against the contribution each event leaves.
Operations support: Review unit performance, field support, training and operating standards to identify where consistency is breaking down.
Rebuilding and restructuring: Examine the operating causes of underperformance and advise on priorities for the brand, its support model and individual units.
Audit, tax and financial management: Review unit economics, budgeting and reporting assumptions so brand owners can evaluate the operating impact of financial decisions.
Reporting cadence: Establish comparable operating reports and a review rhythm across the portfolio.
Profit plan: Prioritize improvements from the operating evidence, with ownership and management aligned on the sequence.

Guest Experience & Marketing

Bring guests in, and know what they say after they leave.

Marketing strategy: Where to spend, what to say and how to tell whether it worked.
Digital platform optimization: Review of your online listings, with priorities for making each accurate, consistent and easy to book from.
Private dining and events strategy: Pricing, packages and the sales process.
CRM, loyalty and guest data: Which guest data to keep and how to use it.
Mystery diner program: Unannounced visits scored against your standards, with a report managers can act on.
Reputation and review strategy: How to read, answer and learn from reviews.
Guest feedback and service recovery: A system for catching problems before they become reviews.
Brand standards review: Reconcile the property promise with the food, service and operating resources needed to deliver it.

Growth & Expansion

Grow when the business is ready for it.

Expansion readiness review: Whether unit economics, leadership and systems can carry a second location.
Multi-unit growth plan and site criteria: Where to go next and what a site must have.
Franchise and licensing strategy: Whether to franchise, license or stay company-owned.
Management, lease and license structures: Deal terms weighed from the operating side, alongside your attorney.
Investor and capital preparation: The materials and the numbers a growth investor will ask for.
Sale and exit preparation: The business put in order before a buyer looks at it.
Retail, wholesale and catering channel strategy: Compare channel economics and operating demands before committing to distribution.
Starting a franchise: Assess whether the concept, unit economics and operating standards are ready to support a franchise or license model.
Sales and development: Advise on expansion sequencing, site criteria and the operating support needed for additional franchise units.
Growth capital: Assess the operating plan, growth assumptions and use of capital so leadership can explain what the business needs to expand.

Across every stage

AI & Technology

We help you assess which tools can improve service, save time or strengthen reporting, and what your team needs to use them well.

Four services

Tech stack advisory: POS, reservations, payroll, scheduling, inventory and accounting chosen to work together, and reviewed as the business changes.
AI infrastructure guidance: Direction on the tools, data connections and automations that fit how your operation runs.
Team training on AI: Guidance on what your team should use, where it needs caution and how to check the work.
AI search visibility: How your business appears when people ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Google where to eat, stay or book.

Across every stage

Recruiting and documentation.

Leviathan runs leadership searches and writes the manuals an operation depends on.

Talent & Recruiting

Management and executive searches for restaurants, hotels and clubs.

What is included

Executive and general manager search: Sourcing, screening and interviews through to an accepted offer.
Opening leadership team: The managers and chefs a new venue needs in place before it hires anyone else.
Compensation benchmarking: What the role pays in your market, and how to structure the offer.
Role design and reporting structure: What the job is and who it answers to, settled before the search begins.

Hiring for your business? Let’s chat.

Looking for a role? View Job Opportunities

Critical Documentation

Operating manuals and training guides written for the people who use them.

What is included

Employee handbook: Written policies and expectations for your team, with employment counsel reviewing legal requirements.
Kitchen bible: Recipes, yields, plating specifications and station guides.
Bar bible: Cocktail specifications, batching, pars and opening and closing duties.
Service standards manual: Steps of service, guest recovery and the standards managers hold.
Training manuals by position: What each role learns, in what order, and how it is tested.
Financial procedures: Cash handling, tip distribution, inventory counts and month-end close.
Events playbook: How private events are sold, planned and run.

Work through the questions behind the services.

Common questions

Before you get in touch.

What does a hospitality consultant do?

A hospitality consultant is an experienced operator you bring in for the decisions that are expensive to get wrong. Before opening, that means testing whether the concept and the site can make money, choosing the right development team and setting up the systems a new staff will run on. Once you are open, it means finding where profit is leaking, holding standards as the business grows and deciding when to expand. Leviathan also runs leadership searches and writes operating manuals.

When should I bring in an advisor?

Earlier than most owners do. The cheapest time to fix a concept, a lease or a kitchen layout is before anything is signed or built, because every change after that costs time and money. The other moments that call for outside advice are when sales are steady but profit is not, when the business depends on the owner being there every night, and before you commit to a second location.

How early should we involve you in a new restaurant?

Ideally before you sign a lease. At that point we can test the concept against the site, review a financial model against realistic sales and help you assemble a development team. Joining later still helps, but by then some of the most expensive decisions are already locked in.

Can you help us choose a general contractor, architect or designer?

Yes. We help you shortlist general contractors, architects, interior designers and kitchen designers, compare their proposals line by line and check their references. The goal is a team that can deliver your project on time and on budget, and a clear plan for managing them once work begins.

Can you help an existing restaurant become more profitable?

Yes. We start with the P&L, the menu mix, labor schedules and purchasing to find where the money is going. Then we set priorities with you and your managers and review progress each month until the changes hold.

Do you write operating manuals and kitchen bibles?

Yes. We write employee handbooks, kitchen bibles, bar bibles, service standards manuals and training manuals by position, built around how your operation runs. They are written for the people who will use them, so your managers can train from them on day one.

Can you help us hire a general manager or chef?

Yes. Leviathan runs management and executive searches for restaurants, hotels and clubs, from defining the role and the pay through interviews to an accepted offer. Current searches are listed under Job Opportunities.

What is a mystery diner program?

Trained guests visit unannounced and score the experience against your own standards, from the greeting to the check. Your managers receive a clear report they can act on, and repeat visits show whether the fixes are holding.

Do you work with investors and developers?

Yes. We review the operating side of hospitality investments before and after a deal, and help developers decide what food and beverage a property needs and who should run it.

Start a conversation

Find the right support for your business.

Tell us what you’re planning or working to improve. We’ll discuss the scope that fits your needs.

Let’s chat.