Owner & Founder
Brian Howard
25 years in hospitality. 17 venues across three coasts. Four operator tenures, thirteen consulting engagements, and a platform now codifying the methodology into software any operator can deploy.
James Beard 2026 Outstanding Restaurateur Finalist · Michelin Bib Gourmand ×2 · Tales of the Cocktail 2010 Top 5
25+
Years in hospitality
17
Venues on record
4
Operator tenures
8
Cities worked
SF · Chi · NOLA · Boston · Palo Alto · Oakland · San Ramon · Kauai
The Story
Built Behind
the Bar.
The founding room was Restaurant August in New Orleans. John Besh's first restaurant, 2001 to 2003, as Bar Director and AGM. Before the empire, before the James Beard, before the media run — just a kitchen and a floor learning to operate at the level that would produce all of it.
Chicago came next. The Drawing Room, 2009 to 2011, as Director of Operations across Three Headed Productions' five-venue Chicago group. $30 million in combined annual revenue. The program became a Top 5 Tales of the Cocktail Bar Room Brawl finalist in 2010 and earned Nightclub & Bar Magazine Cocktail Lounge of the Year the same year. Head bartender Charles Joly won NBC's national cocktail competition out of that room.
The Chapel in San Francisco, Hojoko and O-Ya in Boston, Waimea Plantation Cottages in Kauai — the consulting years covered three coasts and four time zones. Each engagement a different shape of the same problem: how do you build a room that runs the way its concept promised?
August 1 Five as Managing Partner (2016–2019). Year one beat budget by a million dollars. That's where I hired and trained Jordan White, now Managing Partner at Barbary Belle. The partnership was a two-year bar run, not an interview.
Then the consulting portfolio — Shinmai, Berber, The Salt, Novela, Ettan, Hotel San Francisco, others — and Cityscape as Complex Beverage Director at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square (2024–2025). Five outlets, $10 million in beverage programs, 120 Union staff, a $5 million rooftop relaunch.
Now at 653 Commercial Street building Barbary Belle — a room I know because I consulted on the previous tenant at the exact address. The consulting gets you open. The platform keeps you running. Barbary Belle is the proof of concept for both.
Career
The Timeline
Major chapters. Each row links to the full case on Roles & Clients.
Bar Director / AGM
Restaurant August (John Besh)
Fine-dining founding years. Times-Picayune Five Beans rating earned during this era. Besh won JBF Best Chef: South in 2006, three years after the tenure ended.
Bartender & Bar Manager
Chicago
High-volume service, cash discipline, learning to read a room from behind the well. Foundation for the Drawing Room Director role that followed.
Director of Operations
The Drawing Room / Three Headed Productions
5 Chicago locations, $30M annual revenue. Tales of the Cocktail 2010 Top 5 Bar Room Brawl finalist. Nightclub & Bar Cocktail Lounge of the Year 2010. Charles Joly won NBC's On the Rocks out of this room.
Consulting — F&B operations
The Chapel
400-cap music venue with 85-seat bar and 75-seat restaurant at 777 Valencia. Multi-space F&B coordination. SF Weekly Best New Live Venue 2013.
Consulting — resort transition
Waimea Plantation Cottages
10-month supervisory role across Aston → Coast Hotels management contract transfer. Operational continuity through a legal and staffing transition at a 27-acre cottage resort.
Consulting — opening beverage
Hojoko / O-Ya (Cushman Concepts)
Opening consulting for Tim & Nancy Cushman's izakaya at The Verb Hotel Fenway. Concurrent evaluation of flagship omakase O-Ya. Best of Boston 4 years running 2016–2019.
Managing Partner
August 1 Five
Full P&L ownership. Year-one sales beat budget by $1M. SF Chronicle 3.5★ + Michael Bauer Top 100. Beat Bobby Flay S16 win. Hired and trained Jordan White (now Barbary Belle Managing Partner).
Consulting portfolio
Shinmai · Berber · The Salt · Ettan · Novela · Hotel SF
Concurrent consulting engagements across SF, Oakland, Palo Alto, and San Ramon. Michelin Bib ×2 (Berber). JBF 2026 Outstanding Restaurateur Finalist (Ettan). 10-day post-COVID relaunch (Hotel San Francisco, 653 Commercial).
Complex Beverage Director / GM
Cityscape, Hilton SF Union Square
SF's tallest bar. $5M rooftop relaunch across the Hilton and Parc 55 complex. 5 outlets, $10M beverage programs, 120 Union staff. PR Newswire, SF Standard, Timeout SF all named Brian as GM and menu author.
Owner & Founder
Liquid Chef Consulting + Barbary Belle
LCC as a full consulting firm. Barbary Belle under construction at 653 Commercial Street — same address as the prior Hotel San Francisco consulting engagement. BarbaryCoastOS platform running as the technology layer.
Recognition
The Work Speaks.
Venue credentials earned during operator tenures and consulting engagements. Full press record on the Press page.
Top 5 Finalist, Bar Room Brawl
The Drawing Room, Chicago
National finals. Peers: The Varnish (LA), Rickhouse (SF), Drink (Boston), one other. Paired with Nightclub & Bar Magazine Cocktail Lounge of the Year 2010.
Outstanding Restaurateur — Finalist
Ettan / Cal-India Collective, Palo Alto
Srijith Gopinathan and Ayesha Thapar named finalists for the Cal-India Collective (Ettan, Copra, Eylan, Little Blue Door). Consulting engagement covered bar equipment, 3 rounds of R&D, and beverage P&L.
Bib Gourmand — Two Consecutive Years
Berber, San Francisco
Turn-key consulting engagement — equipment design + selection + negotiation at 350-seat scale, full beverage program. Venue ran five years, closed March 2024 with the Michelin recognition intact.
Best of Boston, Four Consecutive Years
Hojoko, Fenway
Best Placemaker (2016), Best Burger (2017), Best Neighborhood Restaurant (2018), Best Bar Scene (2019). Bar managers hired during the engagement (Daren Swisher, Joe Cammarata) went on to launch Daiquiris & Daisies and Tall Order.
Michael Bauer 3.5★ + Top 100 Bay Area
August 1 Five, San Francisco
Highest critical credential during the Managing Partner tenure (2016–2019). Also: SF Weekly opening-cocktail feature, Food Network Beat Bobby Flay Season 16 win, tablehopper opening bulletin.
Now
What I'm building right now.
In development
Barbary Belle
653 Commercial Street, San Francisco. The room I consulted on as Hotel San Francisco, now building as my own.
See the concept →
Active firm
Liquid Chef Consulting
Taking consulting clients now. 7-phase playbook, three engagement tiers, with Barbary Belle as the live proof of concept.
See services →
Platform
BarbaryCoastOS
Twenty years of methodology, as software. 37 specialist engines running against your venue's data. Consulting, running 24/7.
See the platform →
Philosophy
Build the System,
Not Just the Bar.
“I don't just advise. I build the infrastructure.”
Most restaurant consultants give you a binder and wish you luck. I build the infrastructure. The SOPs. The training systems. The financial models. The technology stack. And then I stay.
That's the difference. Liquid Chef Consulting isn't a service company. It's an operating system. Barbary Belle is where I prove it works. Your venue is where I deploy it.
Start Here
The first call is free.
Now you know who you'd be working with. Tell me what you're building. I'll tell you exactly how I can help, what it costs, and whether it makes sense to work together.
No contract until we agree on scope. No retainer on one-time audits. First call is diagnostic — no pitch.