Our team is made up of people who think theoretically and act practically.

  • Andrew Hunter

    Culinary

  • Andy Simpson

    Design

  • Jeff Garver

    Operations

  • Cynthia O'Conner

    Design

  • Arlette Mulford

    Architect

Bios

Andrew Hunter - Culinary Lead

Andrew believes food doesn’t need to be complicated to be delicious. He believes the future of foodservice in Fine Food Fast with operations smartly designed to support ingenuity, customer and worker health, speed, consistency and controlling prime costs. He has created strategies that uniquely combine the art, science and logistics of food to achieve a clients vision.

Andrew is an entrepreneur who treasures his business relationships above all else. He has been retained by his principal clients: Kirkkoman, Wolfgang Puck, Niman Ranch and the Mushroom Council for more than 10 years.

Andrew’s business is divided into three practices: restaurants, commercialization and agriculture. With restaurants at a crossroads, Andrew is working with hospitality groups to re-imagine what their business will look like and how they stay viable and profitable in the post-Covid marketplace.

Chef Andrew earned an AOS in culinary arts from the Culinary Institute of America, a BA in culinary history from New College of California and an MA in museum studies from San Francisco State University

Arlette Mulford - Architect and Designer

Arlette has over 18 years of professional experience in commercial design and construction. She has led numerous large- and small-scale projects from early conceptual design stages to construction administration and project management.

Her areas of specialty include restaurant & food service design, and construction project management for commercial buildings, restaurants, and retailers. She has a long track record in working with owners to deliver strong design, on time and on budget.

Through her company, Archline Studio, Arlette works and collaborates with Resolute Hospitality to help deliver outstanding and well-designed projects to various clients.

Arlette has held key design and project management roles at leading firms such as Gensler’s Aviation Division, URW Airports (previously Westfield Airports), and HMSHost. 

Arlette holds a master’s degree in architecture from California State Polytechnic University, among others

Cynthia O’Conner - Designer

Cynthia has been working in the restaurant industry her entire life. She learned the business inside and out doing every job in her family’s bars, restaurants and hotel, and later, as an owner. Her earliest design work as a teenager was the family-owned locations. That early experience turned into a design career, that has included all aspects of brand, concept and menu creation. Her first full-time, multi-unit experience was creating the brand design for 35 Champs locations. Champs, at the time it was created, was the first highly successful polished casual sports bar chain in the nation. Since then, Cynthia has led the design of dozens of bar and restaurant concepts. Her operational experience means that she not only understands how to make a place look good, but that good design begins with an understanding of flow, function and profitability. “The food and design need to hold hands to give the customer the best experience. I design for flow and a comfortable, layered visual. Details matter always. I love the process of working alongside a client to translate their needs into a successful design.”

Andy Simpson - Design Lead

Andy is an endlessly curious person, best known for leading the design and development of hundreds of restaurants and other non-traditional venues. Andy’s career began in operations, opening new restaurants, training franchise owners and providing franchise support. This early experience provided a base of operational understanding that few in the design realm have, and means he knows what works and makes sense economically. Design that makes sense meets unit economic goals; creativity must be guided by common sense. There are a lot of great designers who can make something look good. Andy focuses on making it look great and meet the economic realities.

Andy believes that good design is based on who a brand is - their “why”. Inspired by companies that say and do what they actually believe, he helps clients get to their “why” to create vision and values that matter, and tactics to make them happen.

Andy’s design experience and client list is extensive and includes several prototypes, as well as concept creation and brand revitalization.

“The best things that have ever happened to me were in a restaurant (meeting my wife among the many), and while I will always have a love doing design work, being more operations-focused is a dream come true. I love working the expo line more than anything”.

Jeff Garver - Operations Lead

Jeff knows that caring, hardworking people are at the heart of every successful restaurant operation. He believes that understanding the operational needs, as well as the hopes and dreams of every individual on the restaurant’s team, is the first step in building a sound foundation.  Jeff's people-first philosophy is what makes the teams he leads and coaches enduring, high-performance standouts among their peers.                  

 His purpose-driven, “leave no one behind” leadership style extends beyond the restaurant and includes creating lasting successful relationships with guests, support team members, brand executives, landlords and vendors.

 Jeff is an operations veteran whose experience spans 20+ years as a successful multi-unit leader. He has led the operations departments of large franchise companies, owned and operated his own concepts, been a franchise owner, and specializes in non-traditional multi-concept multi-unit venues.

 He began his career in a one-unit start-up food court restaurant which went on to become a highly successful national chain. As the chain grew, Jeff oversaw development and leadership of the operations team, comprised of unit managers, new store openers and franchise field consultants. He became a franchise owner at 25, while continuing his role as leader of the corporate ops teams, growing the chain from 1-100 locations.

 He has owned and operated multiple franchise restaurants (Donato’s Pizza, The Steak Escape), as well as his own concepts (neighborhood bar and grill, a coffee shop and several sandwich shops). He found a niche buying struggling restaurants, improving operations and then selling the restaurants for a profit.

 He has held several corporate leadership roles, leading group operations for as many as 200+ locations. He worked closely with AAFES to operate 100 nationally branded restaurants on military bases worldwide. In recent years, his focus has been leading teams to operate restaurants in some of the nation’s largest airports and small boutique airports. He has provided consulting services for organizations ranging from local pizza chains to nationally recognized full-service chains.

We translate complex challenges into measurable execution. Spend a day with us and you will: a) learn something and teach others something, b) laugh a lot. c) be inspired and encouraged to share your gifts. Creating experiences people want to be part of covers a lot ground and we strive every-day to make that happen.