Enough choice
One great default, easy modifications. Ordering shouldn't feel like homework.
About
Based in Spokane. Built to expand.
PNW Restaurant Group is an independent restaurant company. The individual restaurants will have their own brands; PNWRG is the layer underneath, the systems, technology and ownership ideas that carry from one to the next.
RM
Raustin Memon
Founder / Operator
Raustin's background spans restaurant ownership, technology, marketing, partnerships and customer research, including restaurant operations, Uber Eats, senior marketing roles and building AI-powered tools for small businesses. PNWRG brings those threads together: restaurants as the operating business, technology as leverage, and a broader question about who should benefit when the business works.
01Build
02Measure
03Learn
04Improve
We don't expect to get every answer right on the first try. The point is to build, measure, learn and keep improving the system, on repeat.
What we believe
How good can we make the deal?
That question, asked while still building a great business, leads to a surprisingly different restaurant. These can sound like unrelated decisions. They're all the same idea.
Fewer things, done exceptionally
Small menus mean more repetition, fresher ingredients, less waste and more attention on every dish.
Great product first. Then make it affordable.
Start with the product we want to serve, then improve the operation until a fair price is possible. Never cheapen the product to hit a number.
No tipping, no hidden fees
Paying our people is our responsibility. The price on the menu should be the price.
No crisis pricing
Real costs change. A temporary shock shouldn't become a permanent price floor, and if costs come down, prices can too.
People share in what they create
Meaningful GM equity and employee ownership, with vesting, accountability and clear rules.
A neighborhood fund at every store
Not corporate philanthropy. A store-level fund, so part of a location's success stays with the neighborhood supporting it.
What we're betting on
Not less. Enough.
By the time a trend is safe enough for everyone to copy, the better opportunity may already be going the other way. So we don't only ask what's working, we ask what people are getting tired of.
Not zero choice.→Enough choice.
Not zero profit.→Enough profit to build something durable and grow.
Not cheap food.→Great food made affordable through better operations.
Not employees running the company.→Employees sharing in the success they create.
Not charity.→A successful business returning value to its neighborhood.
Not never raising prices.→Being able to look a customer in the eye and explain why we did.
The mission
Build the kind of restaurant we wish existed.
A few things done exceptionally well. Simple ordering. Unusually good value. Fair treatment of the people doing the work. And a business that grows because people love it, not because we figured out how much more they'd tolerate.
Most restaurants fail anyway. If we're going to take that risk, we'd rather fail trying to do the right thing than succeed by copying practices we think are bad for customers, employees and communities.
Contact
Let's talk.
We'd like to hear from people who want to work with us, restaurant operators, technology companies, researchers, community organizations, investors and development partners, and anyone with an idea we haven't thought of.
Generalhello@pnwrg.com
Careerscareers@pnwrg.com