Trusted by Founders, Respected by Operators.
As operators before consultants, we’ve been there…and we don’t rattle.
At Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting, we’re a national team of restaurant consultants, operators, and culinary pros who help turn great ideas into great businesses. Whether you're launching a new concept, optimizing operations, or scaling your brand, we bring grounded expertise and practical tools to every phase of your restaurant’s growth.
No two projects are the same. That’s why we start by listening—to your goals, your vision, and your challenges. From there, we shape a plan that blends your creativity with proven systems and business fundamentals. We mix, test, and refine ideas into structured strategies you can execute with confidence. And we do it in a way that’s collaborative, honest, and genuinely enjoyable. (Because if it’s not fun, what’s the point?) Learn how our restaurant consulting process works.
Iterative. Transparent. Tailored to your business model.
We don’t prescribe solutions until we understand your operation. Every engagement starts with listening, then we build from there. Whether you’re validating a brand-new concept or fixing a business that’s gone off the rails, we guide you through a step-wise process that’s tailored, not templated.
Our phased methodology ensures you're only investing in what makes sense for your goals, timeline, and budget. From foundational modeling to launch and beyond, we help you see around corners, stay in control, and make smart moves with confidence.
Developers. Founders. Hospitality veterans. First-timers.
Some of our clients are private equity groups and seasoned operators expanding portfolios across multiple markets. Others are first-time restaurateurs who’ve inherited a lease and a dream. Many are tethered to landlords, cities, or universities who don’t fully understand the business they’re in.
Wherever you are on the journey, we meet you there—with the experience, candor,
and tools to move forward. We've supported food halls, hotel F&B, franchised concepts, chef-driven independents,
bars, bakeries, nonprofits, and nearly everything in between.
If you're
building something that serves people, and you want it to work, we’re probably the
right call.
Small enough to care. Experienced enough to scale.
We’re not career consultants. We’re the people restaurant owners hired to run their businesses, before we built a company of our own. That’s why we speak your language. That’s why we sweat the details. And that’s why our recommendations actually work.
We don’t send in a team of MBAs to build a slide deck and disappear. We walk the floor with you, sit with your P&L, and help you make decisions that affect real people, real money, and real outcomes.
Whether you're looking for a fractional partner or full-scope guidance, Blue Orbit delivers the leadership, structure, and insight to move your operation forward, with results that stick.
Ray Camillo Founder & CEO
Ray Camillo is the Founder and CEO of Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting, bringing over 30 years of hands-on hospitality operations experience and 16 years in senior leadership across hotels, restaurants, gourmet food retail, and consulting. With a unique blend of culinary training, strategic business insight, and operational expertise, Ray has become a trusted advisor to emerging brands and established operators alike.
Ray holds an MBA from Emory University, with a focus on finance and strategy, and degrees from both The Culinary Institute of America and James Madison University’s Hotel Restaurant Management program. His career includes leadership roles with iconic names like The Greenbrier Hotel, The Ritz-Carlton, Peasant Restaurants, Clyde’s Restaurant Group, Liberty House Restaurants, and eatZi’s Market & Bakery. His leadership is rooted in real-world experience, sharpened by a disciplined mindset shaped during his service with the U.S. Army’s 11th Special Forces Group (Airborne).
Ray founded Blue Orbit with a mission: to help clients design, refine, and scale restaurant concepts that are both creatively inspired and operationally sound. He believes restaurants should be exciting to create, rewarding to operate, and sustainable to grow - but only when built on a foundation of discipline and smart strategy. Blue Orbit exists to correct failing concepts and bring clarity to new ventures, always with an eye toward long-term viability and team culture.
An advocate for restoring professionalism and respect within the hospitality industry, Ray is selective about the clients and team members he partners with - favoring those who share his vision for excellence, creativity, and operational integrity.
For Ray, hospitality isn’t just a job—it’s a calling. And every client engagement is an opportunity to prove that, with the right approach, restaurants can be both a sound investment and a great place to work.
Michael Maxwell Partner - VP OF OPERATIONS
Michael Maxwell is a Partner at Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting, bringing over 36 years of high-level hospitality operations and leadership experience to the firm. Since joining Blue Orbit in 2014, Michael has collaborated with Founder Ray Camillo on a wide range of concept development and operational strategy projects—a professional partnership that began in 1994 and continues to drive lasting results for clients nationwide.
Michael’s journey into the restaurant industry began after earning his degree in Southern Polytechnic State University in 1981. He quickly discovered his passion for hospitality while helping expand the iconic Peasant Restaurants group, where he played a key role in the growth of the Mick’s brand by refining and streamlining the restaurant opening process.
Throughout his career, Michael has held senior roles with some of the industry’s most respected names, including Chevy’s Fresh Mex, Cinebistro, Legal Sea Foods, Rare Hospitality, The Fifth Group, Concentrics Restaurants, Metrotainment Cafes, and eatZi’s Market & Bakery. Known for his engaging leadership style and operational savvy, he has opened more than 40 restaurants and designed impactful training and development programs that have elevated service standards and team performance across brands.
With a passion for teaching and mentoring, Michael approaches every client engagement with energy, creativity, and a focus on building scalable systems that lead to lasting success. His ability to blend engineering-minded precision with hospitality-driven heart makes him a powerful asset to both startup concepts and legacy brands seeking transformation.
SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER
Joe Alessandroni brings more than 20 years of restaurant operations, concept development, and hospitality consulting experience to Blue Orbit. After graduating from San Francisco State University's Entrepreneurship program, Joe managed some of San Francisco's top cocktail bars, including Rickhouse, winner of "Best High-Volume Cocktail Bar" at Tales of the Cocktail.
Joe later spent more than a decade working across Singapore and Hong Kong, where he developed award-winning restaurant and bar concepts, built operational and training systems, and advised luxury hotels, independent restaurant groups, and Michelin-starred restaurants. His experience spans financial modeling, management systems, menu development, training, service standards, and restaurant openings.
At Blue Orbit, Joe leads complex consulting engagements from diagnosis through implementation, helping owners turn ambitious ideas and operational challenges into practical, financially sound restaurant businesses.
PROJECT MANAGER
Michael Daniel brings more than 13 years of hands-on restaurant leadership and operations experience to Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting. His career has included high-volume concepts, multimillion-dollar businesses, restaurant openings, and the day-to-day realities of leading teams in demanding operating environments. His expertise spans P&L management, budgeting, cost and inventory control, hiring and training, leadership development, and building practical systems that improve consistency and accountability. Throughout his career, Michael has developed managers, strengthened operating routines, reduced costs, and helped teams navigate growth and change. At Blue Orbit, he works with owners and operators to create stronger systems, better-performing teams, and more disciplined businesses without losing what makes each concept unique. Michael is currently pursuing his MBA at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, where his studies in strategy, finance, and leadership complement his practical operating experience.
CHEF CONSULTANT
Kevin brings over 30 years of culinary leadership to Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting. He is the Chef and Owner of Pendolino, an acclaimed Italian neighborhood bistro in Atlanta’s Chastain Park. Over his career, he has led the opening of more than 20 restaurants from concept through launch, blending creative vision with operational excellence. His experience includes nine years with chef Tom Colicchio’s Gramercy Tavern and Craft brands, followed by serving as Vice President of Culinary for Ford Fry Restaurants, where he developed several of Atlanta’s most celebrated dining destinations. Kevin’s expertise spans concept creation, menu development, design, and high-volume operations, making him a trusted partner for our clients.
CHEF CONSULTANT
Matt Hull brings over a decade of culinary expertise to Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting, with a career defined by his commitment to farm-to-table dining. A graduate of the Virginia Culinary Institute, he is known for crafting menus that celebrate seasonality and the bounty of local producers. As Executive Chef at Zynodoa, Matt strengthened ties with Virginia’s farming community, creating dishes that reflected the rhythm of the seasons. While there, he also served as opening chef for Blu Point Seafood, blending fresh coastal flavors with regional sourcing. Matt’s style combines refined technique with deep respect for ingredients at their peak, making him a trusted partner in menu development, kitchen design, and operational refinement. At Blue Orbit, he applies his experience to help clients build distinctive concepts, elevate food quality, and deliver memorable dining experiences.
CONTROLLER
After graduating with a BBA in Management and Retail from Hood College, Allison Miller launched her career as a corporate buyer for mid-Atlantic department store giants Woodward & Lothrop and John Wanamaker’s. She has managed multi-million dollar buying budgets and sharpened her financial management and procedural skills, currently serving as the solid foundation of Blue Orbit.
Allison has an incredible eye for retail and passion for structure, developed through her work with the prestigious retail operations at The Greenbrier Resort and Rich’s / Lazarus / Goldsmith department stores. Allison currently helps create systems, define merchandising strategies, and develop back office protocols.
CRAFT COCKTAIL PROGRAMS & BAR SERVICE
Max’s blend of hospitality and trend-worthy creativity has been treating patrons (and followers) in San Francisco since 2011. He has quickly climbed the Bay Area’s mountain of notable bars and restaurants, from high-volume service at destinations such as Rye and 15 Romolo, to food-driven craft cocktails at The Alembic, to managing the team at the legendary music-hall-turned-supper-club, Cafe du Nord. Since 2017 Max has been mixing drinks and making smiles at Trick Dog – undoubtedly one of the most creative, admired, and awarded cocktail bars in the world. When Max is not working on client projects or mixing spectacular drinks, he gives back to the community through fundraisers, seminars, tastings and competitions as the Treasurer of the US Bartenders’ Guild – San Francisco Chapter Council. Max’s love of cocktail and portrait photography has become an indispensable tool for us, while his lively sense of humor and bottomless supply of puns make eyes roll wherever he goes. Max lives in Oakland, CA with his wife Suzi and their two dogs, Maggie and Penny.
CHEF CONSULTANT
Born in Thailand and raised in Georgia, Pete grew up in a family of cooks and learned professional techniques from his father, a hotel chef at The Ritz-Carlton. He went on to open Puma Yu’s in Athens, GA, a celebrated restaurant that blends Thai tradition with southern ingredients and earned him recognition as a 2024 James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: Southeast. At Blue Orbit, Pete channels his creativity into designing menus that are bold, approachable, and full of character—bringing unique flavor combinations and fresh energy to every client project.
BAR PROGRAMS
Calling Eric Simpkins a bartender is like calling Thomas Keller a cook. We consider Eric an educator, restaurateur, chef and mixology expert. While honing his craft at the prestigious Pegu Club, he trained at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan. The knowledge and expertise in New York inspired him to move back the South to share his passion for the “immaculate cocktail”, making him one of the top pioneers in creating today’s thriving craft bar culture.
Eric has overseen many trendsetting bar programs including Trois and Drinkshop and was named a 2007 Rising Star Bar Chef by StarChefs. He was also selected by The Beverage Network as one of their 2008 Ten Trendsetting Mixologists to Watch. His cocktails gain local and national recognition from competitions, including the 2013 Vinos de Sherry Cocktail Competition and the inaugural 2014 Kodawari Shochu Cocktail Competition. His cocktails have been featured in publications like Food & Wine, Imbibe, Southern Living, The Tasting Panel, and the LA Times.
CREATIVE CONSULTANT
Steve Mousourakis is the owner of bighouse graphix, a designer and creative consultant with with more than two decades in strategic marketing, advertising and design. With a solid understanding in marketing objectives, branding principles and the strategies needed to build strong brands and achieve results he is skilled at translating market insights and trends into focused creative strategies. Steve oversees and inspires every project with energy, intellect, and attention to detail. From the days of brown Macs, metal printing plates and Netscape Navigator, he has grown bighouse graphix into a relevant, leading-edge creative print, web and communications group that clients rely on. He makes the complex seem simple, leads with enthusiasm and has a strong eye for details. When not thinking about design, or stressing over the proper sans serif font, you can find him traveling with his wife and 13 year old son.
Expert Restaurant Consulting for Lasting Success
Immediate Insights. Lasting Solutions. Proven Results.
Running a restaurant is hard work—but it doesn't have to be a guessing game. Our team of experienced restaurateurs offers hands-on guidance, whether you're launching a new concept, repositioning an existing brand, or need management support to drive profits to the bottom line.
