Guest: Faith Wheeler, Founder, Faith Wheeler & Company; Author, Chickens Don’t Fly
Host: Jane Howze, Managing Director, The Alexander Group
Episode date: August 12, 2026 | Run time: 30 minutes
Faith Wheeler, founder of Faith Wheeler & Company and author of the memoir-cookbook Chickens Don’t Fly, joins Jane Howze to discuss what actually keeps restaurants in business. Wheeler traces her path from 1980s advertising into a 16-restaurant portfolio at the $60 million Spectrum Foods group, explains how a menu fix at San Francisco’s Town Hall earned her the nickname “the restaurant doctor,” and shares the mindset shift, trading “I would love to” for “I will,” that led her to publish a 220-page, linen-bound “kitchen table book” a decade in the making.
Key Takeaways
What does Faith Wheeler say is the number one thing that keeps customers coming back to a restaurant?
Recognition — not food quality or research-driven menu design. Wheeler says no matter how much market research a restaurant does, “the number one thing a customer wants” is to feel recognized: a warm greeting, a favorite drink brought without asking, a hand on the table when they arrive. She calls the effect a “mini vacation” that turns a visitor into what she calls a “nucleus customer” who stays loyal as trends change.
How did Faith Wheeler get the nickname “the restaurant doctor”?
The name traces to her PR work at Mitchell Rosenthal’s San Francisco restaurant Town Hall, where general manager Doug Washington asked her to review the menu. She flagged that it had no cheese; the chef pushed back, then created a dish nicknamed “Faith’s melted cheese toast” that became the menu’s top seller — after which the chef started greeting her as “doctor.”
Can a restaurant succeed with mediocre food but great service?
Not for long, Wheeler says, though “mediocre” is relative. She points to the Houston’s restaurant brand as an example of a chain that has thrived on consistency and value rather than culinary surprise, arguing that food, service, staff continuity, and comfort all have to come together for a restaurant to outlast its competitors.
What mindset shift led Faith Wheeler to write Chickens Don’t Fly?
Wheeler says she stopped saying “I would love to,” a phrase she hears often from executives who want a career change, and started saying “I will.” She describes her own career moves not as pivots but as “the new bloom on the plant,” each one growing out of the last, and says the book itself had been “in her brain for 30 years” before she committed to it.
What is a “kitchen table book,” and how is Chickens Don’t Fly structured?
Wheeler coined the term for a cookbook-memoir hybrid meant to live on a kitchen counter rather than a coffee table: a 220-page, linen-bound, four-color book with more than 100 recipes and photographs, printed in Faenza, Italy. The stories are organized around seven locations that shaped her cooking, each paired with recipes and the people behind them, and it took about a year to produce with photographer Clay McLachlan.
From Advertising to a $60 Million Restaurant Group
Jane Howze introduces Faith Wheeler and asks how her hospitality career began.
“Faith is an entrepreneur, she’s an author, and she’s what people would call the restaurant doctor, in that her career in hospitality has impacted and set many a restaurant on its path to success.” Jane Howze
“My career started in my 20s in advertising. When I moved to the Bay Area in 1987, I went from working at Dole Foods as a marketer to Spectrum Foods, which was a $60 million white-tablecloth restaurant company — brands like MacArthur Park, Chow, and Prego. I had 16 different restaurants, and I just loved that job so much.” Faith Wheeler
Starting Faith Wheeler & Company
After having a baby, Wheeler left Spectrum to start her own firm, taking much of the talent network she’d built with her.
“As my husband aptly said, there was a new sheriff in town, so it was time to reconsider my nights in the restaurants. I started my own company, and Faith Wheeler and Company was fortunate to pick up all the general managers who were ready to start their own stores.” Faith Wheeler
How She Became “The Restaurant Doctor”
Wheeler explains the origin of her industry nickname, rooted in a menu fix at Mitchell Rosenthal’s Town Hall.
“There’s a wonderful story from Town Hall, where Mitchell Rosenthal had hired me to do PR. The general manager, Doug Washington, asked me to look at the menu because I was very good at analyzing menus. I came back and said, this menu doesn’t have any cheese on it and the public loves cheese. The chef was angry, but he went back and put a dish on the menu he named after me, Faith’s Melted Cheese Toast, and it became the number one selling item. That’s when he said, okay, doctor.” Faith Wheeler
What Actually Makes a Restaurant Succeed
Wheeler argues recognition, not research, is what keeps customers loyal and that consistency beats novelty over time.
“Understanding your customer is so important that, no matter how much research you do, you learn that the number one thing a customer wants is recognition. If you go to the same restaurant many times and no one notices you’re there, you’re less apt to care for the place, versus if you get a warm embrace.” Faith Wheeler
“I’ll use Houston’s as an example. I’d argue they’ve done enormously well because of their value and their consistency — all the pieces of the puzzle they’ve pulled together. Consistency, a strong food program, that warm embrace, terrific service, comfortable chairs — it all comes together.” Faith Wheeler
Staffing, Turnover, and Culture
Asked through TAG’s recruiting lens, Wheeler says front-of-house turnover is normal — only her business partners are expected to stay for the long haul.
“One can’t count on all of those people as lifers unless they’re part owners of that store. The front of the house especially turns over often. I would only expect my partners to stick with me forever. If my chef leaves, I would hope my first-in-line cook would take that role, and hopefully the consumer wouldn’t notice the difference.” Faith Wheeler
The Power of the Pivot: From Restaurant Doctor to Author
Jane Howze asks about “the power of the pivot.” Wheeler reframes the idea entirely.
“I’m not even sure I see my career moves as pivots. I see them as the new bloom on the plant — they’re all interrelated, but each one forms from the piece before. Writing a book was something that was in my brain for 30 years. I think pivoting, or even realizing your dreams, starts from an undying feeling that you must. Not ‘I would love to,’ but ‘I’m going to, somehow, some way.’” Faith Wheeler
“The one thing I love about the book is there’s an underlying resonance of courage on every chapter.”Jane Howze
“If you read the book, I’m very big on the word courage. It starts with ‘care,’ which is French for heart. I let my gut and my heart drive — that separates me from a lot of rational people.” Faith Wheeler
Building Chickens Don’t Fly: A “Kitchen Table Book”
Wheeler describes the book’s structure and the year-long production process.
“The recipes have been kicking around for a very long time — some go back to my childhood, some were iterated from chefs I worked with. The stories are based on seven locations I either lived in or that influenced my cooking, and it was easy to break the book up by location and let the recipes follow the stories.” Faith Wheeler
“There were times I did six setups in a day, flying all over the place to get the right shots. My fantastic photographer, Clay McLachlan, got a call in October saying we didn’t have enough assets and had to go to New York and Nashville for a three-day turnaround. It’s a big project when you’re working on a four-color book with over 100 photos and recipes.” Faith Wheeler
Where to Find the Book — and What’s Next
Wheeler closes with upcoming signings, where readers can buy the book, and her next travel destination.
“I’m all lined up at Hudson Grace in New York City on the 17th of September, the 18th in Greenwich, Connecticut — another Hudson Grace opportunity — and the first of October I’m in a brand-new store for me called Books by the Bay, a Sausalito bookstore that also runs a wonderful 501(c)(3) called Literacy by the Bay.” Faith Wheeler
Highlights
“No matter how much research you do, you learn that the number one thing a customer wants is recognition.” Faith Wheeler, Founder, Faith Wheeler & Company
“I don’t even know if I see my career moves as pivots. I see them as the new bloom on the plant.” Faith Wheeler, Author, Chickens Don’t Fly
“It starts with ‘care,’ which is French for heart. I let my gut and my heart drive.” Faith Wheeler, Founder, Faith Wheeler & Company
By the Numbers
- $60 million — size of Spectrum Foods, the white-tablecloth restaurant group where Wheeler managed 16 restaurants before starting her own firm
- 16 — restaurants under Wheeler’s management at Spectrum Foods
- 220 pages — length of Chickens Don’t Fly, a four-color, linen-bound book printed in Faenza, Italy
- 100+ — recipes and photographs featured in the book
- ~1 year — production time for the book, after roughly 30 years of the idea taking shape
- 8 completed, 3 upcoming — book signings held or scheduled as of the recording, including Hudson Grace (NYC, Sept. 17; Greenwich, CT, Sept. 18) and Books by the Bay (Sausalito, Oct. 1)
About Faith Wheeler
Faith Wheeler is the founder of Faith Wheeler & Company and the author of Chickens Don’t Fly, a 220-page “kitchen table book” that blends memoir, cookbook, and career-reinvention story. Known in the San Francisco restaurant industry as “the restaurant doctor,” she built her career managing 16 restaurants for the $60 million Spectrum Foods group before founding her own hospitality consultancy and working with restaurateur Mitchell Rosenthal’s San Francisco restaurant Town Hall.
About Jane Howze
Jane Howze is Managing Director of The Alexander Group, an executive search firm specializing in senior leadership roles for law firms, professional services firms, and life sciences organizations.
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