Prime & Proof
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Restaurant & Hospitality Consulting

Prime & Proof

Operators. Not advisors.

A restaurant & hospitality consulting firm that fixes the whole business — from prime cost and EBITDA to the growth levers that fill seats: openings, loyalty, third-party, and local marketing. Operator-built, numbers-obsessed.

Get the numbers right · Prove the model · Then grow

Book a diagnostic call Why Prime & Proof
The Bridge to EBITDA% of sales · before → after
Sales100.0%→+11% comp
Food Cost30.5%→25.8%
Labor31.0%→26.4%
Prime Cost61.5%→52.2%
Operating Expense17.8%→16.8%
Occupancy10.3%→9.2%
EBITDA10.4%→21.8%
Illustrative — the story every engagement is built to tell
Why Prime & Proof
Prime
The foundation · the numbers
Prime cost — food plus labor — is the number that decides whether a restaurant lives or dies. Everything starts with getting it right.
Proof
The validation · the growth
A concept isn't a business until the model is proven — that it makes money, and keeps making it when you add the next location.

Most restaurants don't fail on the food. They fail on the math.

A concept can be packed every night and still bleed cash. We get the model sound, prove it makes money, then grow it — the name says exactly how.

What I help with

Operator and finance first.

Prime cost, EBITDA, and operational excellence are the core of every engagement — that's where I start. From there, I bring the full toolkit to grow the top line and run the business better.

Operations & financeThe core
01Prime cost & unit economics — the number that decides everything.
02Labor & operations — productivity, systems, and SOPs that hold.
03Turnaround & profitability — stop the bleeding, restore the margin.
04Financial models & forecasts — cash-flow projections, scenario models, and dashboards you can read.
Grow the top lineTraffic & revenue
05New restaurant openings — the playbook to open on time, on budget, and on-brand.
06Loyalty programs — build and run programs that bring guests back.
07Third-party delivery — tame 3P: fees, menus, margins, and ops.
08Local store marketing — store-level LSM playbooks that drive traffic.
09Menu & concept — engineering, costing, and positioning.
Run it betterModern edge
10Tech stack — evaluate and build the right POS and systems for your size.
11AI & Claude Code — real AI in daily ops; train your team to move faster.
12Lean & Six Sigma — engineer productivity; cut waste; raise throughput.
13Systems & enablement — the SOPs and training that make it repeatable.
The Diagnostic
Start here · 2–3 weeks
A teardown of your numbers and a prioritized 90-day roadmap. The fastest way to see where the money is.
Fractional CFO
Monthly retainer
An operator-CFO in your corner — P&L reviews, prime-cost tracking, cash flow, and a dashboard that tells the truth weekly.
Growth & Expansion
Project sprint
Openings, loyalty, 3P, and LSM builds, or the model and investor materials to open the next unit or raise.
Numbers you can see

Dashboards, models, and forecasts — built fast.

Cash-flow projections, unit-economics models, and live KPI dashboards, so you're never a quarter late to the truth.

Prime cost
52.2%▾ 9.3
EBITDA margin
21.8%▴ 11.4
Cash runway
2.2 yrs▴ 1.1
Who it's for

From first units to multi-unit groups.

Emerging brands
Finding the model — get the economics sound before you scale.
Multi-unit groups
Protecting margin — keep prime cost and labor in line as you grow.
Growth operators
Chasing the top line — openings, loyalty, third-party, and local marketing.
Turnarounds
Bleeding now — stop it, restore the margin, and rebuild the model.
The approach

Numbers first. Then a plan you can run.

STEP 01
Diagnostic
We start with the numbers. Two to three weeks, one honest picture of the model.
STEP 02
The plan
A prioritized 90-day roadmap — the few moves that actually change the P&L.
STEP 03
In your corner
Stay on as your operating partner, or run the plan yourself and check back in.
You get a firm

A firm — not a freelancer.

At the core is operations and financial discipline. Everything else plugs into that — a vetted bench of specialists, on call when a project needs more than me.

The core
Operations
The discipline that makes execution repeatable — systems, SOPs, and standards that hold at scale, from one unit to a hundred.
The core
Financial Discipline
P&L rigor and prime-cost control — the numbers that keep every decision honest and every dollar accountable.
Plus a vetted bench of specialists
Catering
Full-service catering ops, pricing, and growth.
IT & Systems
POS, integrations, and the infrastructure that runs it.
HR & People
Hiring, training, and org design that scales.
Finance & Accounting
Bookkeeping, controls, and clean reporting.
Marketing
Brand, digital, and the demand that fills seats.
Real Estate & Sites
Where — and whether — to open. The art and science of site selection on decision variables and data.
Experience

Fleets fixed. Markets opened. Margins moved.

Two decades operating multi-unit restaurants — fast-casual and full-service, emerging brands to national chains — the stories behind the playbook.

Venture-backed fast-casual
Turnaround → profitability
Took over a concept where every unit was losing money and led it to a profitable fleet — rebuilding operations end to end, standing up catering and loyalty as real revenue centers, building the financial infrastructure, and co-leading the Series B that funded the next chapter.
PE-backed fast-casual
Multi-market scale & hospitality
Ran operations for a ~50-unit brand across seven markets — opening new markets, stacking multi-year comp-sales growth, building catering into a major revenue mix, and lifting hospitality to top-tier guest scores.
National fast-casual
Pre-IPO East Coast scale
Grew and ran the East Coast ahead of the company's IPO — opening the New York and Philadelphia markets and scaling the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia region into the top performer, moving unit margins across a hundred-plus restaurants.
Full-service & casual dining
Multi-unit foundation
15 years across full-service and casual dining before fast-casual — high-volume Italian, national casual-dining brands, and food & beverage for landmark venues, including RAMMY-nominated concepts — with full P&L, service, and team ownership.
Track record

Operated from the line to the boardroom.

20+ yrs
COO, CEO & strategic partner across multi-unit restaurants.
$113M
P&L owned at scale — portfolios up to 100+ restaurants.
$10M
Co-led a Series B — model, forecast, and investor data room.
1,900 bps
Store-level EBITDA gained taking a losing fleet to profitability.
Who's behind it

Trey Moats

Trey Moats

"I build restaurant companies that grow — and make money doing it."

Founder, Prime & Proof. For 20+ years I've scaled multi-unit restaurant companies — fast-casual and full-service, domestic and international — as a COO, CEO, and strategic partner, with P&L ownership up to $113M and portfolios of 100+ restaurants.

I've led operations at brands including Roti Modern Mediterranean, Vapiano, and Potbelly — opening new markets, stringing together multi-year comp-sales growth, and building the SOPs, training, supply chain, and tech that make growth repeatable. Most recently, at RASA, I took a venture-backed fast-casual concept from every unit losing money to a profitable fleet and co-led its $10M Series B.

My full-service roots run just as deep. I've opened and operated full-service restaurants including Timpano and Zola — two separate concepts, each earning its own Best New Restaurant nomination at the RAMMYS, the awards of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington — plus high-volume Italian venues spanning California-Italian Paolo's to Cin Cin Trattoria, and food & beverage for landmark venues.

Prime & Proof is where I bring that full operator's toolkit to founders and operators — get the model sound, open new units on a real playbook, grow the top line deliberately, and prove it before betting on the next location.

See it. Solve it. Ship it.
I find the problem, design the fix, and actually implement it — a result, not a deck.
Speed is a discipline
Move fast, and teach the team to move fast. Momentum compounds; hesitation costs.
Fail fast, then learn
Quick experiments over perfect plans — learn, innovate, and run the next one better.
Contact

Let's build something that makes money.

Tell me where you're stuck — margins, growth, a new unit, or a raise. The first conversation is on me.

Email
[email protected]
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Based in
Metro Washington, D.C. Area
& nationwide (remote)
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