Great restaurants don’t automatically become great businesses. Scaling takes the right systems, people and strategy. Amir Yazdi, founder and managing partner of Bastian Capital, has spent more than 20 years building, operating and investing in restaurant brands, giving him a unique perspective on what separates concepts that grow from those that stall.

In this episode of Forktales, Amir shares what makes a restaurant concept investable, the biggest mistakes operators make when scaling, how rising labor costs and GLP-1s are reshaping the industry, and why restaurants continue to thrive as places that bring communities together.