Restaurant Consulting · Austin Metro

A consultant who actually ran the restaurant.

Ben Mouton — 35 years in restaurants, 14 of them owning his own.

I ran the P&L for fourteen years. Opened one converted diner in Leander in 2012, added Cedar Park in 2018, consolidated to a single unit in 2024, and sold it in 2026 — prime cost held at 62% the whole way.

Most restaurant consultants bill $150–350 an hour or $1,500–5,000 a month — and keep the number behind a call. I'm at $150 and $1,500, printed below.

What I Work On

Menu pricing & plate cost

Price, portion, and plate-cost work aimed at food-cost points — while keeping the dishes your regulars actually order.

Food & labor cost control

Prime-cost discipline from someone who held 62% in his own building — schedules, ordering, waste, and the numbers behind them.

Openings & turnarounds

Pre-opening systems, permits and inspections, and triage when an existing room is bleeding.

Systems & POS

25 years on the technology side too — POS implementation, reporting you'll actually read, and picking software that earns its fee.

Vendor & supply negotiation

Review distributor pricing, terms, and delivery windows against your actual volume — and push for the match.

Compliance

TABC and health-inspection readiness built into daily operations, not crammed before a visit.

Custom Software

Heard about operators building their own software and don't know where to start? That's the other thing I do. I run an AI-driven development system that built the restaurant and field-service apps shown on this site — if your restaurant needs something custom, the same system can build it. Scoped per project; bring the idea to the free intro call.

Pricing — Published, Not Quoted

I also build the $9.99-a-month app that covers a good chunk of this. Consulting is the human layer the app doesn't replace — a live operator in your numbers with you, one-on-one, at rates printed here instead of hidden behind a discovery call.

Intro Call

Free · 30 minutes

  • Tell me what's hurting
  • I'll tell you whether I can help
  • Custom software ideas welcome
  • No deck, no pitch

Working Sessions

$150 / hour

  • Menu costing, P&L review, ops problems
  • On-site in the Austin metro, or remote
  • Single sessions welcome — no minimum

Monthly Advisory

$1,500 / month

  • Standing weekly session + on-call access
  • Numbers reviewed monthly, together
  • Cancel any month — no contract lock-in

Let's Talk

Bring an owner's eye to your numbers.

Independent restaurants and small groups in the Austin metro — Cedar Park, Leander, Round Rock, and Austin proper. If I'm not the right fit, I'll say so on the free call.