As the restaurant industry continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible, Crunchtime is proud to recognize the teams leading the way in innovation, efficiency, and operational excellence. At this year’s Ops Summit, we celebrated our third annual Ops Excellence Awards, honoring those who are redefining the standards of excellence in restaurant operations.
With an impressive group of finalists from across the hospitality industry, this year’s competition showcased the strategies and systems that drive success at scale. From global brands to highly specialized concepts, these organizations represent the creativity, discipline, and leadership required to deliver operational excellence every day.
Meet the 2026 Ops Excellence Awards Finalists
Ahead of Ops Summit, Crunchtime customers were invited to submit nominations highlighting how their teams are leveraging data, processes, and technology to achieve operational excellence. From a strong pool of applicants, five finalists were selected for their standout performance across scale, complexity, and measurable impact:
- Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
- Gong cha
- MSC Cruises
- Panini Kabob Grill
- P.F. Chang’s
Each finalist took the stage at Ops Summit 2026, sharing how they are tackling complex operational challenges and driving consistency across diverse environments. From managing global franchise systems to orchestrating large-scale dining operations at sea, their presentations highlighted the many ways operators are innovating to improve performance and support their teams.
Across every presentation, one theme remained clear: the power of connected systems and data-driven decision-making to streamline operations, improve visibility, and enable better outcomes across the business.
Announcing the 2026 Ops Excellence Awards Winner
Following the presentations, Ops Summit attendees cast their votes live to select this year’s winner, and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema came out on top.
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is a premium dine-in theater concept that combines film, food, and hospitality, now operating 40 locations nationwide after growing from a single-screen repertory theater in Austin, Texas.
Dennis Ogaard, Senior Manager, Operations Services, presented the organization’s operational achievements, which included:
- Reclaiming thousands of hours per month across 29 corporate locations, equating to significant monthly labor savings.
- Sustaining a 3% monthly improvement in cost of goods sold for more than 20 consecutive months.
- Delivering hundreds of thousands in total monthly savings across all locations.
- Significantly improving team productivity by reducing inventory time from 10 hours with three managers to just three hours with two managers.
- Eliminating administrative complexity by replacing dozens of manual spreadsheets with streamlined systems, enabling operators to focus on delivering exceptional cinema and dining experiences.
Together, these operational improvements are delivering millions in annual impact.
“By moving away from 35 manual spreadsheets to real-time intelligence via Crunchtime Insights, we’ve not only achieved significant savings in labor and COGS, but we’ve given our managers their time back,” said Ogaard. “We’ve streamlined inventory counting, allowing our teams to get out of the office and back onto the floor to deliver the best theater experience in the world.”
Beyond efficiency gains, these improvements are enabling more strategic reinvestment across the business.
“We’re realizing significant labor efficiencies each month, and not all of that goes straight to the bottom line because we reinvest in our people,” said Ogaard. “Over the past few years, wages have increased substantially as a result, and we’ve expanded benefits to give part-time team members access to insurance they didn’t have before.”
A Special Thanks to All Participants
To everyone who applied, thank you for sharing your stories and successes. The Ops Excellence Awards continue to highlight the innovation, resilience, and dedication shaping the future of restaurant operations.
Congratulations to our winner, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, and to all of our outstanding finalists and honorable mentions, including Dave’s Hot Chicken, Fazoli’s, Five Guys, Habit Burger & Grill, Philz Coffee, Pressed Juicery, and Zaxby’s. We’re proud to stand alongside you as you continue to raise the bar for operational excellence.
Here’s to another year of innovation and achievement. Stay tuned as we continue to celebrate and support restaurant operators pushing the boundaries of excellence in 2026 and beyond.
