Restaurant Job Posts Are Just The Start For a New Chicago Start-Up

All-in-one software solutions are all the rage and a pair of Chicagoans want to bring that convenience to restaurant owners and workers with a new subscription-based platform called Cover, a web-based product with access to four applications.

Membership will allow users to browse and put up full-time, part-time, and gig job posts; share recipes, and connect restaurant owners with experienced chef consultants to eliminate routine challenges that organizers say have plagued the industry for years. If restaurants want to find staff to hold a special holiday brunch, Cover should help them. If workers are traveling for an extended period and want to pick extra shifts or learn a new skill — like butchering or cooking fish — Cover should help them. Workers and operators will have separate subscription options. Pricing wasn’t disclosed.

The founders are Ty Fujimura and Brian Paul. Fujimura has been divesting from the restaurant industry in recent months, closing lauded sushi restaurant Arami and Michelin-starred Entente, while selling SmallBar in Logan Square. He continues to co-own Lilac Tiger in Wicker Park. Paul’s background is in tech, having worked for Cisco Systems, Whirlpool, and SAP.

In 2020, the two met through friends with Fujimura sharing a barrage of age-old complaints about the challenges of running a restaurant. Paul says he was shocked that no one had come up with better ways to address finding workers and matching laborers with the right positions based on experience levels. No one wants to overwhelm an entry-level bartender with a job at a high-volume cocktail lounge. Cover won’t charge employers per job post, so the hope is more opportunities will be available. Workers, of course, hope staffing managers are more responsive to inquiries, too. Competitors include sites like Culinary Agents and GigPro.

Fujimura says he wants to match distressed restaurant and bar owners with experienced professionals with solutions, adding that Cover is “something that the industry really needs” and will give them a chance to reduce costs and survive a volatile environment. Fujimura says he wishes he had a resource like what he and Paul want Cover to become when he was younger. As an independent restaurant owner, he’s cognizant he doesn’t have the resources of a large restaurant group: “What would a 27-year-old me need right now?” Fujimura says.

The platform also wants to bring in chefs, giving them a chance to make money by sharing recipes: “We now have the mechanism for us to make that payment work,” Paul says.

Fujimura mentions frequent collaborators Won Kim of Kimski (the two are also partners in Lilac Tiger) and Brian Fisher (Fujimura’s former chef at Entente) as already signed on: “I think we have to check a little bit of our ego at the door,” Fujimura says. “No one wants to ask for help.”

Restaurant owners could potentially save money by reducing spending on menu research and development by using recipes from Cover. For example, if a bar owner wants to zest up a pedestrian salad, they could find a tried-and-true salad dressing online. For older chefs tired of the grind who want to pursue other interests or attain a better work-life balance, the recipe exchange could extend their culinary careers: “The last thing they want to do is open another brick-and-mortar restaurant,” Fujimura says.

The service industry is America’s largest employer, a $1 trillion industry, according to the National Restaurant Association. Knowing those facts, Paul remains perplexed as to why the industry is plagued by resource scarcity and costs. Cover will help address those problems cost-effectively and quickly, Paul says.

Cover also aims to bring transparency to staging, a controversial practice in the restaurant world akin to an internship. The platform would do this by posting essential details like pay, hours, and a job description — details often omitted in most industry job listings. Reducing operational costs is a priority for Fujimura, who candidly remarks about the industry’s desire for low-cost labor, something that will no doubt ruffle many in the workforce. Fujimura’s argument is while gig work doesn’t offer health insurance or other benefits, it does give laborers flexibility and work experience that will make them more attractive to employers.

Well-known restaurants don’t have a problem finding employees. Star chefs like Alinea’s Grant Achatz and Ever’s Curtis Duffy have countless stories of persistent would-be workers who dream of working at their restaurants. Cover is banking that not everyone can work at a Michelin-starred venue. Those workers could accrue experience elsewhere and all parties could benefit, in theory.

Additional features will also be slowly rolled out, but as Cover builds a user base, Fujimura and Paul want to establish a members-only online community, called the Nosh Pit. The social media discourse can sometimes be dizzying. Paul perks up when asked if he and Fujimura want Cover to become a “holistic enterprise solution” for the hospitality industry, thought in the same way as Peloton is thought of for fitness. He sees Cover as a way to leverage expertise all in one place.

“It’s important for us to get through to our peers and other folks and that we make this a Chicago project,” Paul says.