Product Manager - Owner Experiences

SpotOn partners with Chef Francis Ang and Abacá on Masters of Filipino Flavors, a series to celebrate Filipino American History Month. SpotOn partners on Masters of Filipino Flavors, a series at Abacá in San Francisco with 16 Filipino American chefs and bartenders, Oct. 10-16. Megan Palmer October 7, 2026 - 5 minutes read * Chef Francis Ang to host 16 Filipino American chefs and bartenders during four themed services at Abacá on Oct. 10, 12, 14, and 16. * Filipino cuisine is the fastest-growing Asian cuisine segment, per Datassential. * Chef JB Balingit of Tropa Modern Filipino will take part in the Kamayan dinner on Oct. 14, his first appearance as SpotOn's Chef in Residence SAN FRANCISCO, October 7, 2026 - SpotOn, a leading restaurant technology provider, is proud to partner with Chef Francis Ang on Masters of Filipino Flavors, a four-night series at Abacá that brings 16 Filipino American chefs and bartenders to San Francisco in celebration of Filipino American History Month. The series runs Oct. 10, 12, 14, and 16 at Abacá, the Michelin-recommended Filipino-Californian restaurant inside the Kimpton Alton Hotel near Fisherman's Wharf. JB Balingit, the chef and owner of Tropa Modern Filipino in Lafayette, California, will cook for the Kamayan dinner on Wednesday, October 14th in his first public appearance as SpotOn's new Chef in Residence. Quick summary: Masters of Filipino Flavors is a four-part culinary series at Abacá in San Francisco, running Oct. 10 through Oct. 16, 2026, with 16 Filipino American chefs and bartenders from New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Portland, Charleston, and the Bay Area. SpotOn is partnering on the series to support the independent operators growing Filipino food in the U.S. Ticketed nights start at about $110 per person on OpenTable. Masters of Filipino Flavors lineup. Chef Francis Ang has spent the past decade helping define modern Filipino cooking in the U.S. Born in San Francisco and raised in the Philippines, he spent six months traveling the Philippine islands with his wife, Dian Ang, in 2016. That trip led to Pinoy Heritage, their pop-up restaurant telling the story of Filipino food through a modern lens. The couple opened Abacá in 2021. Since then it has been named one of Esquire's Best New Restaurants in America, made The New York Times' list of 50 top restaurants in 2022, and been a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Restaurant. It is also recommended by the Michelin Guide. Masters of Filipino Flavors is Abacá's annual Filipino American History Month series, which began with a fundraiser for victims of Typhoon Haiyan. The lineup brings industry leaders recognized by James Beard, Michelin, and Food & Wine into one room including Nikko Cagalanan, a James Beard Emerging Chef finalist and Chopped champion; Carlo Lamagna, a Food & Wine Best New Chef; and James Bailey, who rose from butcher to executive chef at Momofuku Las Vegas. * Brunch, Saturday, Oct. 10: Monique Feybesse of Tartes de Feybesse, plus Paul Faraon and Angelica Nulud of La Kalidad, bring French technique and Filipino-Asian American pastry to Abacá's weekend brunch. * Pulutan Nights, Monday, Oct. 12.: A walk-around night of pulutan, the Filipino tradition of food made for drinking and gathering. JP Reyes (The Sarap Shop), Chase Valencia (Lasita), Andre Casper (Roline's), and James Bailey (Istorya) host stations alongside Darwin Pornell, Ben Rojo, and Roxanne Bangalan (June Baby). * Kamayan Dinner, Wednesday, Oct. 14: A communal feast served on banana leaves and eaten by hand, cooked by Nikko Cagalanan (Kultura), Anton Dayrit (Tradicionale NYC), Jade Cunningham (Carabao), and JB Balingit (Tropa Modern Filipino). * Paubaya Tasting Dinner, Friday, Oct. 16: A four-course tasting menu from Carlo Lamagna (Magna Kusina) and Ellie Estrada-Londo (Nisei). "Most of us on this lineup run our own places," said Francis Ang, chef and co-owner of Abacá. "We know the grind: tight margins, long nights, and a cuisine people are only starting to discover. SpotOn backing a series like this tells me they're invested in the people running these restaurants too." Tickets for Pulutan Nights, the Kamayan Dinner, and the Paubaya Tasting Dinner are available through Abacá on OpenTable. Full series details are on Abacá's upcoming events page. Abacá is located at 2700 Jones Street in San Francisco, inside the Kimpton Alton Hotel in Fisherman's Wharf. Filipino food is growing fast, and independent owners are leading it. Filipino cuisine is the fastest-growing Asian cuisine segment in the country, according to Datassential. The community supporting this growth is about 4.2 million strong, according to Census data cited by The Food Institute, including the Filipino chefs and owners introducing their unique twist on Filipino cuisine in tasting menus, cocktail bars, bakeries, and neighborhood dining rooms across the country. A growing number of Filipino restaurants are powered by SpotOn's restaurant management system that provides access to capital loans and improves cash flow, notorious barriers for women and immigrant-owned restaurants. They include Tropa Modern Filipino in Lafayette, Patio Filipino in San Bruno, Estrellita in Atlanta, and Abstrakt Filipino Essence in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. "Filipino food is one of the fastest growing cuisines in the U.S.," said Zach Hyman, co-founder and co-chief executive officer of SpotOn. "That momentum is coming from independent owners and chefs like JB and Francis. Families putting their recipes on the menu and building something that's theirs. That's who we show up for every day. So when 16 of them come together for four nights, we're all in." JB Balingit is the chef and owner of Tropa Modern Filipino and The Hideout Kitchen in Lafayette. He runs his restaurants on SpotOn and sits on SpotOn's Restaurant Advisory Council. As Chef in Residence, he brings 18 years as a chef, owner, and operator to SpotOn and will lead sales, business development, and partnerships in the San Francisco Bay Area. He'll focus on restaurants cooking cuisines that are still finding a wider audience, including Filipino food. "Tropa is my love letter to my upbringing in Manila," said JB Balingit, Chef in Residence at SpotOn. "Joining SpotOn lets me take what I've learned running my own restaurants and share it on a bigger scale. Now I get to help other independent operators serve the food they love, keep costs in check, bring in more revenue, and run a restaurant that's built to last." Restaurant owners and operators who want to see how SpotOn, a leading restaurant technology company, supports independent restaurants with its POS platform and restaurant management system can visit spoton.com/restaurant-pos. About spoton. SpotOn is a leading restaurant technology company that builds practical AI into the tools operators rely on every day. Its restaurant management system brings together the point-of-sale, online ordering, reservations, and labor management, plus access to top integrations into one platform. AI is integrated throughout so operators get the benefits of artificial intelligence without having to think about it. SpotOn backs it all with 24/7 support and hospitality. For more information, visit www.spoton.com. Media Contact:

JB Balingit joins SpotOn as Chef in Residence after 18 years in restaurants. JB Balingit, chef-owner of Tropa Modern Filipino and The Hideout Kitchen in Lafayette, California, joins SpotOn as Chef in Residence. In his new role, he helps Bay Area owners and operators control costs, grow revenue, and build businesses that last. JB Balingit October 6, 2026 - 4 minutes read The chef and owner of Tropa Modern Filipino and The Hideout Kitchen on cooking the food he grew up with in Manila and helping independent chefs and operators control costs, grow revenue and build celebrated restaurants Quick summary: JB Balingit, chef-owner of Tropa Modern Filipino and The Hideout Kitchen in Lafayette, California, joins SpotOn as Chef in Residence. In his new role, he helps Bay Area owners and operators control costs, grow revenue, and build businesses that last. A reviewer once asked me why I decided to cook Filipino food at this point in my career. I paused and gave him the only answer I had: "It was time." It took me 18 years to get there. I worked as a line cook, opened my own restaurant, washed my own dishes, and learned most of what I know about this business on the job. Now, as Chef in Residence at SpotOn, a leading restaurant technology provider, I get to pass that on to owners who are just starting out. How I got my start in restaurants. I grew up in Manila, and that's where I first fell for cooking. When I moved to the U.S., I started as a dishwasher and worked my way through every station with long shifts, a lot of burns, and close attention to how the best operators ran their kitchens. What I found was the most successful operators were the ones who focused on value: consistent food, sincere hospitality and memorable experiences. What running The Hideout taught me about ownership. In 2015, I opened The Hideout Kitchen & Cafe in Lafayette. I was the chef, the dishwasher, the carpenter, and whatever else the day needed. SpotOn served the hearty American food the neighborhood wanted: steaks, fried chicken, and burgers. That restaurant taught me how to manage costs, grow the business, and keep regulars coming back. It also taught me how much an owner carries alone. When the walk-in goes down at 7 p.m. on a Friday, it's on you. When labor creeps up or a vendor raises prices, it's on you. Every independent operator knows that feeling. Why I opened Tropa Modern Filipino. In August 2025, I opened Tropa Modern Filipino (in The Hideout's original space). Tropa is my love letter to my upbringing in Manila. The room reflects the city I remember and my ancestral home. The cocktails are named for Filipino heroes, mythical creatures, and nostalgic places. The menu has the dishes I care most about, made the way I want to make them now: adobo sticky ribs, kilawin with coconut milk, oxtail kare-kare, and chicken inasal with calamansi and lemongrass. Why Filipino restaurants still face a harder road. Filipino food is still hard to find in this country. Only 1% of Asian restaurants in the U.S. serve Filipino food, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. That's despite Filipino Americans being the third-largest Asian group in the country, according to AAPI Data. Fewer than 10% of U.S. counties have a Filipino restaurant at all. It's a big opportunity, and it comes with a real challenge. When guests don't know your food yet, you have to cook well and teach them what's on the plate, all while running a tight business on thin margins. Owners cooking Filipino, Thai, Ethiopian, Oaxacan, and many other cuisines have to balance this every day. What a Chef in Residence does at SpotOn. I've run my restaurants on SpotOn since 2020. I also sit on SpotOn's strategic advisory group where operators like me help shape the product roadmap. Joining SpotOn lets me take what I've learned running my own restaurants and share it on a bigger scale. As Chef in Residence, I lead sales strategies, business development, and partnerships in the San Francisco Bay Area. Now I get to help other independent operators serving the food they love keep costs in check, bring in more revenue, and run a business that's built to last. In practice, that looks like: * Controlling labor costs with scheduling tools that use real POS sales data to match staffing to how busy you are * Knowing your numbers with profitability analysis that scans your P&L for overspending, waste and errors * Reaching new guests through online ordering and marketing that brings guests back * Filling tables with reservations and waitlist tools that make booking easy The right technology takes some of the weight off, so you have more time and money for the parts of the job you love. Where to find me this October. I'm cooking the Kamayan dinner on October 14, 2026 at Abacá's Masters of Filipino Flavors series in San Francisco, alongside Nikko Cagalanan, Anton Dayrit, and Jade Cunningham. SpotOn is partnering with Chef Francis Ang on the series. Tickets are on OpenTable. Talk shop with me. Food heritage matters. When a family recipe makes it onto a menu and finds its audience, the whole dining scene gets better. My job is to help more of those restaurants stay open long enough to find their people. If you run a restaurant in the Bay Area, I'd love to hear what's working and what's eating into your margins. Frequently asked questions. Who is JB Balingit? JB Balingit is the chef and owner of Tropa Modern Filipino and The Hideout Kitchen in Lafayette, California, and Chef in Residence at SpotOn. He has 18 years of experience as a chef, owner, and operator. What does SpotOn's Chef in Residence do? SpotOn's Chef in Residence leads sales, business development, and partnerships in the San Francisco Bay Area. The role focuses on helping independent restaurant owners and operators control costs, grow revenue, and run more profitable businesses. Where is Tropa Modern Filipino? Tropa Modern Filipino is on Mt. Diablo Boulevard in Lafayette, California. It opened in August 2025 and serves modern Filipino dishes inspired by JB Balingit's childhood in Manila. How common are Filipino restaurants in the U.S.? Filipino restaurants make up about 1% of Asian restaurants in the U.S., according to a 2023 Pew Research Center analysis. Fewer than 10% of U.S. counties have one.

Unified Tech Stack FAQ: your top questions answered for 2026. A unified tech stack is the goal behind the tech stack consolidation push sweeping the restaurant industry in 2026. But operators have a lot of practical questions before they start ripping systems out. Below are the questions restaurant leaders are actually asking - with straight answers. (For the full strategy, see its companion piece on Tech Stack Consolidation: The 2026 Restaurant Playbook.) What is a unified tech stack for restaurants? A unified tech stack is a set of restaurant systems - POS, payments, online ordering, loyalty, kitchen display, labor, and reporting - that share one connected data layer instead of operating as separate, siloed tools. The practical test is simple: when a guest orders, does that behavior automatically flow to your loyalty, CRM, and reporting, or does someone have to export and re-upload it? A unified stack means the data moves on its own. How is a unified tech stack different from "best of breed"? "Best of breed" means picking the single strongest tool in every category, even if they come from different vendors. A unified tech stack prioritizes how well the pieces work together over how each scores in isolation. After years of best-of-breed sprawl, many operators found the integration gaps cost more than any one tool's extra feature was worth - which is exactly why consolidation became the 2026 headline at the National Restaurant Show. Do I have to rip out all my current systems? No - and that's a key theme operators raised this year. A poll of roughly 56,000 National Restaurant Show attendees showed strong interest in retrofit strategies that avoid a full rip-and-replace. The smarter path is to anchor on your POS and payments core, keep the systems that still perform, and consolidate around them using native integrations and open APIs rather than replacing everything at once. How much does a fragmented stack cost me? The leaks add up fast. Third-party marketplace commissions run 15% to 30% of a delivery ticket depending on plan tier (FoodyOS, State of Restaurant Tech 2026), and disconnected systems force staff to rekey data by hand - scheduling automation alone saves managers an estimated 8 to 10 hours a week (US Tech Automations, 2026). A unified tech stack recovers both the margin and the labor hours a fragmented one quietly burns. Will a unified tech stack help me take more direct orders? Yes, because it connects your ordering channel to loyalty and CRM so first-party ordering actually becomes stickier than the marketplaces. Direct ordering is already climbing: 62% of U.S. restaurants now accept orders through their own website or app, up from 28% in 2019, and 67% of consumers say they prefer a restaurant's own channel (Restolabs, 2026). A unified stack is what turns that preference into retained guest data. How does AI depend on a unified tech stack? AI is only as good as the data it can reach. Between 26% of operators actively deploying AI tools (National Restaurant Association, 2026) and 69% using it in some form (Popmenu, January 2026) are already experimenting, and 82% of executives plan to grow AI budgets (Deloitte, 2025) - but a model that can't see your POS mix or loyalty history underperforms. Unifying the stack first is what makes those AI dollars pay off. Which vendors are building unified platforms? At the 2026 National Restaurant Show, eight major providers - including NCR Voyix, Toast, Square, Restaurant365, and SpotOn - demonstrated platforms that unify business management with self-service hardware. The market is clearly consolidating toward fewer, deeper partners, though true end-to-end coverage still varies by vendor, so due diligence on integrations matters. What should I prioritize when choosing a unified tech stack? Prioritize clean integration with your existing POS and payment ecosystem, a realistic 5-to-7-year lifecycle, secure payments, and a vendor likely to still be standing in five years - the exact criteria operators flagged at this year's show. Features win demos; integration and longevity win the decade. Want to go deeper on building a unified tech stack that pays for itself? Give The Hospitality Hangout a listen - it's where operators and C-suite leaders trade the real playbooks behind restaurant tech. Guest churn - the rate at which your regulars quietly defect to another brand - is the number behind the 2026 retention crisis. Operators keep asking the same practical questions about it, so here are clear answers backed by this year's data. (For t... The regular - the guest who shows up every Tuesday without a coupon - has always been the most profitable seat in the house. In 2026, that seat is emptying faster than at any point in recent memory. Customer retention has quietly become the industry...