About
Michael “Mike” Qasguargis
An experienced New York operator. Not a hospitality guru.
Short versions
Mike spent years behind bars, on restaurant floors, managing teams and operating venues in New York. About two decades in hospitality, from front-line restaurant and bar work into senior operational leadership.
He eventually realized that a lot of hospitality problems aren't caused by employees who don't care. They're caused by businesses that don't have systems. Good people inside bad systems struggle. Great hospitality needs both: good people and good operations.
Smooth Hospitality was built to bring those together. Technology and data should make the work more efficient. They should not erase the human part that makes hospitality worth anything.
He knows what it's like when someone calls out Saturday afternoon. When the walk-in breaks. When labor is running too high. When inventory doesn't match sales. When a manager isn't performing. When a private event shows up early. When the room gets crushed. When a review stings, the POS dies, a vendor misses, and the business still has to take care of people.
That's the world Smooth exists in.
Let's TalkInside the rooms
The work that built Smooth.
General Manager, Finback Brewery
Multi-unit taprooms in Brooklyn, Long Island City, and Glendale, Queens. Operations, managers and hourly teams, staffing, events, inventory, SOPs, service, vendors, guest recovery, revenue.
Multi-Unit General Manager, Clinton Hall
Three locations. About a hundred employees.
Director of Operations, Runaway Rooftop
Senior operational leadership in a high-volume New York room.
Task Force Manager, IGC Hospitality
Supporting operations across a hospitality group of about twelve venues.
Additional leadership in bar management and beverage operations. Years inside active hospitality businesses. Not solely advising them from an office.
