Episode summary

Tom Harrison walked away from hospitality burnt out, spent nearly three years in a fintech startup, and came back on his own terms to co-found Ace Pizza in Victoria Park with his partner Rachel. In this episode, Tom tells Mason what actually changes when you own the place. How he filters the cold-email tide of hospitality tech vendors. Why his staff are on capped 45-hour contracts as policy rather than aspiration. And how a 72-hour fermented dough became the pillar everything else hangs off. A candid look at building an independent restaurant in 2026 without selling out the values that brought him back.

About the guest

Tom Harrison is co-founder of Ace Pizza, the Victoria Park pizzeria he opened with his partner Rachel last July. His career spans pubs, bars, breweries and ops roles across UK hospitality, followed by nearly three years at a fintech startup building a customer success team before returning to hospitality on his own terms. Ace Pizza as a brand goes back around eight years, originating as the pizza offer at the Pembury Tavern in Hackney Downs before growing through pop-ups and residencies into a standalone restaurant.

Key topics covered

• What three years in tech actually taught Tom about looking after a hospitality team
• Why most hospitality SaaS pitches deserve to be ignored, and how he filters the noise
• Using technology to give staff more time with the guest, not less
• Founding a restaurant with your romantic partner without blowing it up
• The 72-hour fermented dough that underpins every Ace pizza
• Pizza and cocktails as a model, not pizza and pints
• Why 45-hour contracts are policy, not a target
• Letting the team create cocktails inside clear brand guardrails
• The 20-inch pizza as theatre and shared experience
• A measured two to three site growth plan for 2027 onwards

What we discussed

1. Tom's career arc from hospitality into fintech and back, and the burnout that triggered the move
2. What "value" actually meant for him - not pay, but how he was looked after
3. Three years in fintech, the comms skills he carried over, and the disappointment of no office slide
4. Why hospitality tech is finally catching up, and why Tom is hypercritical of the pitches in his inbox
5. The blue sky thinking trap when bringing startup tools into a restaurant
6. Founding Ace together - Rachel as back of house creative force, Tom as front of house
7. The Cornwall mini-sabbatical that confirmed they wanted London, and a restaurant
8. Bringing tech-world standards (contracts, capped hours, holiday) back to a hospitality team
9. The honest exit interview that called out the gap between blue sky promises and reality
10. The dough story - biga, 72 hours of fermentation, and Ace's hybrid Neapolitan-New York style
11. The Honey Pie, hot honey's slow burn from Paulie Gee's in Brooklyn to UK supermarkets
12. Pizza and cocktails as the restaurant model, and the spicy honey margarita as the signature
13. The Palmtini, the Capiche, and letting the team own cocktail R&D inside clear guardrails
14. The 20-inch pizza, the New York R&D trip, and why menu Tetris matters
15. Summer 2026 capacity, in-house marketing with Cat, and protecting the dine-in experience
16. Why people want Ace Pizza specifically - brand, neutrality, attitude, local energy
17. The next 12 months and a measured plan for two to three sites by 2027

Key quotes

"We try and use technology in a way to support. I think it's really easy to get lost and say this piece of QR code, et cetera, will do everything that you want it to do. We're trying to hold on to some of the kinda more traditional ways of looking after people." - Tom Harrison

"Pizza is the core for us. The dough is paramount. If we get that right, then everything kinda follows." - Tom Harrison

"There's a reason more and more people are getting into pizza kitchens. It's a really good business model. And what we've chosen to do is elevate that experience and add more variety to it with the rest of the menu." - Tom Harrison

"A friend of mine said it's business ownership is 80% janitor, and that really rings true some days." - Tom Harrison

Key takeaways

1. Be hypercritical of every hospitality tech pitch you receive - stagger implementations in, never react overnight
2. Tech should buy your team more time with the guest, not replace human interaction with a QR code
3. The most transferable skill from tech to hospitality is hyper-comms - across email, copy, staff and guest relationships
4. Cap working hours by contract and policy, not by hope - 45-hour contracts, overtime rolled into the next week, holiday actively encouraged
5. Innovation inside clear brand guardrails outperforms top-down menu design - trust the team to create, and they will

Keywords

hospitality, hospitality tech, pizza, London restaurants, Victoria Park, Ace Pizza, Tom Harrison, hospitality SaaS, restaurant tech stack, opening a pizzeria, leaving tech for hospitality, fintech to hospitality, restaurant ownership, founding a restaurant with your partner, staff retention, 45-hour contracts, sourdough biga, 72-hour fermentation, Neapolitan New York hybrid pizza, hot honey pizza, Honey Pie, Paulie Gee's Brooklyn, Mike's Hot Honey, spicy margarita, Palmtini, Parmesan vodka martini, cocktails in restaurants, neighbourhood pizzeria, Hackney hospitality, independent restaurants London, Pembury Tavern, Five Points Brewery, restaurant marketing, in-house marketing, Grateful Hospitality Podcast, Grateful net, episode 3.

Paulo de Tarso opens the Grateful podcast with the clearest working definition of hospitality you'll hear all year. Service is the mechanics of getting a plate from the kitchen to the guest. Hospitality is how that guest feels walking out of the door. One is a process. The other is a memory. Paulo traces his unlikely 35-year arc from a Brooklyn coffee shop and a dishwashing job in Soho, through Beverly Hills, to London's most iconic rooms - The Wolseley, Scott's Mayfair, and six years with Daniel Boulud at Bar Boulud - and into opening his own restaurant, Margot, in Covent Garden. Honest, opinionated, and full of practical lessons for anyone who serves a customer for a living.

About the Guest

Paulo de Tarso is a Brazilian-born hospitality leader who started as a busboy in New York in the early 90s and moved to London in 2005. He worked as maitre d' at The Wolseley under Jeremy King and Chris Corbin, served Richard Caring at Scott's Mayfair, and spent six years with Michelin-starred chef Daniel Boulud at Bar Boulud inside the Mandarin Oriental. In 2016 he opened his own restaurant, Margot, in Covent Garden. Post-COVID he stepped away from day-to-day operating to launch his own hospitality consulting practice, which he runs today.

Key Topics Covered

• The one-sentence distinction that separates great operators from average ones
• How to hire for personality when everyone else is hiring for CV
• Why a real smile still out-performs a slick script
• The US vs UK service gap - and what each can steal from the other
• How to build confidence in junior team members by investing in product knowledge
• The tronc transparency problem, and why service charge has to belong to the whole team
• Reading the table - upselling by holding the customer back, not pushing more on them
• Turning one good meal into a lifetime regular
• Why hospitality is a discipline every industry now has to learn (retail, banking, hair salons)
• How to protect margin in a squeezed London market without cutting the training that makes the margin

What We Discussed

1. Welcoming Paulo to the Grateful premiere
2. The accidental start - a Brooklyn coffee shop with a Brazilian architect friend
3. Getting fired as a dishwasher in Soho and walking up Columbus Avenue looking for a busboy job
4. Discovering the craft on the floor - the uniform, the interaction, the tips
5. The Guatemalan head waiter in Beverly Hills who said "every smile is a dollar"
6. Reading Danny Meyer and finding a philosophy without a mentor in the room
7. The London years - The Wolseley with Jeremy King and Chris Corbin, Scott's Mayfair with Richard Caring, six years at Bar Boulud with Daniel Boulud
8. Opening Margot in Covent Garden in 2016
9. Stepping away during COVID and launching the consulting practice
10. The working definition - service is the plate, hospitality is the feeling
11. Regulars three times a week, and why consistency beats novelty
12. Reading a table - stopping a guest from over-ordering and offering a tasting portion instead
13. Why the customer walking out is your best PR agency, and the worst if it goes wrong
14. The most underrated skill on the floor - a genuine smile
15. Confidence comes from product knowledge - a company responsibility, not a staff flaw
16. The Four Seasons hiring standard and the interview question that instantly disqualifies a candidate
17. Values as the operating system - integrity, honesty, raising your arm when you mess up
18. The white wine spill in Beverly Hills and the 25 dollars out of the pocket
19. Hiring for personality in the US, technical skill in Europe - and why the best rooms do both
20. Tipping cultures - chasing a tourist down the street in LA, receiving 2 pounds at The Wolseley from a table of four
21. The tronc problem - why the UK system lacks transparency and what should change
22. Service charge belongs to the whole team, back of house included
23. Why customers should be kind to staff, tip well, and stop removing service charge by default
24. How Paulo handles a guest who wants the service charge removed
25. Hospitality is empathy - not judging a late guest because you don't know their day
26. Hospitality beyond the restaurant - retail, banking, hair salons, motorcycle dealerships
27. Customer loyalty in a cost-of-living squeeze - why you can't afford bad service in 2026
28. The London market - Brexit, rents, tax, and the value-for-money challenge
29. What excites Paulo about London hospitality right now, and why UK dining may now be the best in Europe
30. The closing answer - the single thing anyone can do to improve hospitality

Key Quotes

Key Takeaways

1. Hire for personality, train for technique. You can teach a system. You can't teach warmth.
2. A smile, a recognition, a welcome back - the cheapest tools on the floor and the most underrated.
3. Transparency in tronc and service charge is no longer optional. Every penny needs to be counted and every team member needs to see where it goes.
4. Invest in training harder during a squeeze, not despite one. Well-trained staff are your margin.
5. Stop treating every interaction as a transaction. Memories, not receipts, are what bring people back.

In this debut episode, Mason welcomes Steve from TipHaus to explore the nuts and bolts of modern hospitality - specifically how technology, tipping culture, and genuine human connection intersect. Steve brings a transatlantic perspective, having gone from investment banking and venture capital to building an eight-location restaurant chain, selling it, serving as president of Ethan Stowell Restaurants through the pandemic, and eventually joining TipHaus as Co-CEO. Their conversation spans the wide gap between American and British attitudes toward tipping, the critical importance of payment friction in the guest experience, and how forward-thinking hospitality tech isn’t about replacing people - it’s about giving them more time and headspace to do what they love. You’ll hear real talk about industry challenges, a breathtaking memory from Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Francescana in Italy, and why grace matters more than perfection.

About the Guest

Steve is Co-CEO of TipHaus, a US-based technology platform that automates tip calculations, ensures compliance, and enables digital tip payouts. His path to hospitality is anything but conventional: computer science and economics undergraduate at the University of London, investment banking, venture capital in tech and telecom, business school, and then - in 2011 - a leap into restaurants. He built a fast-casual restaurant group to eight locations, sold to Ethan Stowell Restaurants in Seattle, and served as president during the pandemic years. That operator experience taught him the hidden costs of poor tip management and inspired him to solve the problem from the vendor side. His unique journey - combining deep technical chops with genuine hospitality experience - has become TipHaus’s competitive edge.

Key Topics Covered

•       The Cultural Divide Between US and UK Tipping - Why Americans see tipping as a right, why Brits prefer service charge baked into the bill, and what each system gets right and wrong

•       The Chaos of Cash in a Cashless World - How restaurants used to hand out tips in envelopes, why that’s impossible now, and the absurd costs of trying to maintain it

•       Tip Pooling and Equity - How rule changes 15 years ago in the US allowed tip sharing between front and back of house, finally making kitchens and dining rooms feel like one team

•       Automation Saves Time and Money - Real numbers: from four person-days of payroll spreadsheet work per week down to three to four hours, plus eliminated thousands in annual tip miscalculations

•       Transparency Breeds Trust - Employee-facing dashboards showing exactly what they earned, why, and where tips came from - drops questions about tipping accuracy by 95%

•       Why Hospitality Is Uniquely Collaborative - How competing restaurants actually help each other, why operators share solutions, and what the tech industry can learn from that mentality

•       The Future of Independent Restaurants - Why consolidation might be the only path forward for small operators facing unprecedented cost pressures

•       Where AI Fits in Hospitality - The case for invisible tech that delivers value without scaring people who chose hospitality precisely because they wanted to avoid tech

What We Discussed

•       [1] Introduction - Mason welcomes Steve, fresh off a nine-hour flight from the US

•       [2] The Podcast’s Mission - guilt-free takeaways from hospitality professionals

•       [3] Steve’s Unconventional Path - from Seattle banker to restaurant group president to TipHaus Co-CEO

•       [4] Why He Left Tech for Restaurants - passion for fast-casual brands and treating workers better

•       [5] UK vs US Hospitality Culture - similarities at the core, differences in the details

•       [6] A Brief History of American Tipping - why tip pooling changed the game

•       [7] The Service Charge Debate - US controversy vs UK acceptance

•       [8] The Handheld Device Problem - the awkward moment of choosing what to tip

•       [9] Cash is Dead; Long Live Digital Payouts - the infrastructure nightmare

•       [10] The Story of TipHaus - founder Leif Magnuson’s original problem and COVID timing

•       [11] Real Impact: Before and After TipHaus - four person-days down to four hours

•       [12] Earned Tip Access - digital tip distribution growing faster than the core SaaS

•       [13] Transparency and Compliance - employee apps and a 95% drop in tip questions

•       [14] Why Hospitality Wins at Collaboration - word-of-mouth and critical mass

•       [15] Best Hospitality Memory - Steve’s transformative dinner at Osteria Francescana

•       [16] Worst Experience (A PSA) - the 20-minute gap between bill and payment

•       [17] The Future of Hospitality - concerns for independents, shift to best-of-breed tech

•       [18] AI in Hospitality - why the best AI is invisible

•       [19] Final Message - have more grace on both sides

Key Quotes

“None of my career makes any sense until now.”  - Steve, reflecting on how banking, venture capital, and restaurants all led to TipHaus

“Hospitality is - what can I do to make this great for you today? How can I make your day just that little bit better?”  - Steve, on the difference between service and hospitality

“I kinda like the structure of service charge personally. You’re baking into the final bill the entirety of the experience.”  - Steve, on why service charge solves the tipping dilemma

“We’re all human, we are all fighting through something. That little bit of grace will just continue to create a little bit more space for everyone to feel like they’re taken care of.”  - Steve, on his one piece of advice for the industry

Key Takeaways

1.     Payment friction kills goodwill - Even a world-class dining experience can be soured by slow payment processing. The final 90 seconds matter as much as the first 90 minutes. Operators should audit and optimize their payment flow ruthlessly.

2.     Tipping philosophy shapes behavior - The way a country approaches tips influences staff mindset, guest expectations, and business operations. Understanding this helps teams navigate cross-cultural hospitality expectations.

3.     Technology should give time back, not demand it - The best hospitality tech removes administrative burden so managers and staff can redirect reclaimed time toward guest experience and team...