Running a restaurant means the marketing and the math happen in the cracks of a shift. The new menu needs descriptions written between prep and service. A one-star review went up overnight and it needs a reply that sounds like a real person, not a script. Today's special needs a post before the lunch rush. And the question that decides whether any of it matters, what each plate actually costs you against what you charge, usually gets answered on a napkin if at all.
An AI agent suits this because the work is short, frequent, and built on things you already know: your menu, your prices, your room, your voice. The agent does exact food-cost and margin math instead of rough guesses, generates a clean image concept for a social post, and remembers your restaurant's voice and recipes so a special takes thirty seconds instead of a stalled ten minutes. Wire it to Telegram and you can fire prompts from the line or the walk-in without opening a laptop.
Set your restaurant's details in Memory once, then the prompts below cover the menu, the reviews, the socials, and the numbers. You run the room. The agent handles the words and the arithmetic.
Capabilities this leans on
Do this first. Menu copy, specials, and review replies all sound right once the agent knows your restaurant and voice.
Remember these facts about my restaurant: we're Cardo, a neighborhood Italian trattoria in the Highlands neighborhood of Denver. Voice is warm, a little playful, never stuffy, we write like we talk to regulars. We're seasonal, pasta-forward, with a short natural-wine list. Entrees run $22 to $34. We're closed Mondays, brunch on weekends. We avoid food cliches like 'mouthwatering' and 'culinary journey'. House target food cost is 28% to 32% of menu price.
Give it the dish; get copy that fits the menu and the voice.
Write menu descriptions for these five dishes in Cardo's voice, each one line, 12 to 18 words, no cliches: 1) cacio e pepe with hand-cut tonnarelli; 2) braised short rib pappardelle; 3) wood-roasted branzino with salsa verde; 4) burrata with peach and basil; 5) tiramisu. Mention one or two real ingredients each, no overselling.
Now write a 30-word blurb for the top of the dinner menu that sets the tone without being precious.
Save this as a Skill called 'Menu copy in Cardo voice' so I can run it whenever we change the menu.
What you get: A full set of on-voice descriptions and a saved Skill for every future menu change.
Turn what the kitchen has into copy and an image concept, fast.
Tonight's special is corn agnolotti with brown butter and sage, $26, about 40 portions. Write an Instagram caption in our voice under 40 words with a soft call to come in, plus a shorter version for our Stories.
Generate a warm, appetizing image concept for it: a plate of golden agnolotti with sage, on a rustic table, natural window light, cozy trattoria feel, room for text at the top.
What you get: A ready-to-post caption set and an on-brand image concept before the dish even hits the pass.
Draft replies that protect the room's reputation and still sound human.
Reply to this 5-star Google review in Cardo's voice, under 50 words, warm and specific, no copy-paste feel: 'Best short rib pasta I've had in Denver, our server Marco was great.'
Now a 2-star Yelp review: 'Food was good but we waited 25 minutes past our reservation and nobody said anything.' Write a reply that owns the wait honestly, doesn't make excuses, and invites them back. Under 70 words.
Save both as a Skill called 'Review replies' with one warm template and one for service complaints.
What you get: Honest, human replies for good and bad reviews, plus a saved pair of templates for the next ones.
A week of posts and image concepts from a short brief.
Plan our Instagram for the week: Tuesday a new-menu teaser, Wednesday a behind-the-pass shot of pasta being cut, Thursday the natural-wine of the week, Friday the weekend special, Saturday brunch. For each, write the caption in our voice and describe the photo or image we'd use.
Generate an image concept for the wine-of-the-week post: a glass of chilled red on a marble bar top, soft evening light, a hand reaching for it, warm and inviting.
What you get: A full week of captions and image directions you can hand to whoever runs the phone.
Exact numbers on what a plate costs and what it should be priced.
Cost out the corn agnolotti: 4 oz '00' flour at $0.90/lb, 3 eggs at $0.28 each, 6 oz corn at $2.10/lb, 1 oz butter at $4.50/lb, sage and parm call it $0.75. What's the plate food cost, and at a 30% target food cost what should it sell for? We're charging $26, so what's our actual food-cost percentage and margin per plate?
If corn jumps to $3.40 a pound for the rest of the season, what does that do to the plate cost and the food-cost percentage at $26, and what price would hold a 30% target?
Across these eight entrees and their prices and plate costs, rank them by margin per plate and flag any over 33% food cost. [paste the list]
What you get: Real plate costs, a defensible price, and a ranked view of which dishes actually make money.
Scheduled tasks and a connected phone keep it moving during service.
Every Thursday at 2pm, ask me what the weekend specials are, then draft the Instagram captions, the Stories version, and a line for the specials board for each.
(From Telegram) Quick cost check: chicken parm, 8 oz cutlet at $3.80/lb, 4 oz mozz at $5.20/lb, 3 oz sauce at $1.40/lb, sides call it $1.10. Plate cost and the price for 30% food cost?
What you get: A weekly specials draft that prompts itself, and instant food-cost math you can run from the line.
Local service businesses
Quotes, reviews, follow-up, and Google posts without sitting at a desk.
Content marketing
Draft long-form, atomize it everywhere, and compare models to pick the best line.
Bookkeeping & finance
Categorize transactions, run margin and runway math, chase invoices, and close the month.
Open the Agent, paste any prompt above, and change the details to fit your business.