Step 01
On the floor
We work a few real services — in the weeds with your team — before we say a single word about change.
Front-of-house consultancy
Great service
isn’t quiet.
It’s in your face.
We train restaurant floors — and the leaders who run them — to deliver service guests actually remember. Your kitchen’s already good. Let’s make the floor unforgettable.
FOHThe point of view
In Your Face means face-to-face. Fully present. Reading the table before a hand ever goes up. Confidence without arrogance. Warmth without a script. Most floors run on autopilot — we turn presence into a discipline, and discipline into revenue your guests can feel.
Devon Highland — Founder, In Your Face Hospitality
What we actually do
Engagements built around your floor — not a binder we hand everyone.
01→02→03→04→05→
FOH service training
Reset what 'good service' means for your whole floor — greet, read, sequence, recover. Practical, on-the-floor reps, not a slide deck. Your team leaves selling more and apologizing less.
Floor-leadership development
Build the GMs, captains and shift leads who hold the standard when you're not there. We coach the hard parts: running a pre-shift that lands, correcting in real time, and keeping people.
Service audits
We work your floor anonymously across several services, then hand you the honest read — where guests drop, where money leaks, and the three fixes that move the needle first.
Pre-opening & opening support
Open calm. We build your service standards, train the floor, and run the soft-open weeks so day one feels like week ten — and the first reviews reflect it.
Ongoing coaching
A monthly cadence that keeps the standard from sliding back. Floor walks, leadership 1:1s, and a standing line to call when a service goes sideways. Accountability that sticks.
Walk the floor — how an engagement works
No magic. Just an honest read and the reps to fix it.
01 / 04
Step 02
The honest read
A clear diagnosis: where guests drop off, where revenue leaks, and the few fixes that matter most right now.
Step 03
Build & train
We set the standard, then train the floor and the leaders to run it — in pre-shifts and live service, not a conference room.
Step 04
Hold the line
We come back. Standards slide without follow-through, so we stay close until the new normal runs without us.
At your table
The first conversation is free.
Bring the floor problem. We’ll tell you whether we’re the right fit — and if we’re not, who is.
Book a consult →01/ 05 · Walk the floor
The floor, before and after
Selected engagements. Venue names changed; numbers are representative.
Saltline
Charleston, SC · Coastal seafood · 120 seats
- Repeat-guest rate
- 28% → 49%
- Average check
- +21%
- Google rating
- 4.1 → 4.7
Cut comps nearly in half by fixing the first 90 seconds of every table.
Bar Lupa
Austin, TX · Natural wine & small plates
- Reviews citing service
- 12% → 41%
- Server retention (12mo)
- +34%
- Covers per night
- 140 → 190
Built three floor leads from within — turnover stopped bleeding the P&L.
The Fennel Room
Nashville, TN · New American · Pre-opening
- Opening-week rating
- 4.6
- Seating errors, month 1
- ~ zero
- 'Best new' features
- 3
Trained the entire floor in the two weeks before the doors opened.
Who’s behind it
Twenty years on the floor.
Devon Highland came up the hard way — busser to barback to server to GM to opening director for a James-Beard-nominated restaurant group across four cities. Devon has opened rooms, turned around rooms, and rebuilt floor teams that owners had already written off.
In Your Face Hospitality is the distillation of all of it: a belief that service isn’t a personality trait you hope to hire for — it’s a system you can teach, lead, and hold. Direct, warm, and relentlessly guest-obsessed.
What operators say
“Devon worked three Friday services before saying a word. The plan that came out of it was the most honest read on my floor I'd ever gotten.”
“Our food was always the story. Now the service is too — and the regulars notice. They're staying longer and spending more.”
“We opened calm. Anyone who's opened a restaurant knows that opening calm is basically a miracle.”
Book a consult
Let’s get in your face.
Tell us what’s going on with your floor. Devon reads every inquiry personally — expect real questions, not an automated sequence.
devon@inyourface.co
+1 (843) 555-0147
Charleston · Austin · Nashville · on-site anywhere