Episode 20: From Faking QuickBooks to Building a Culinary Empire — Kwini Reed on Financial Literacy, Real Estate, and Resilience

• Guest: Kwini Reed, Co-Founder & COO of A Table for Two Hospitality | Poppy + Rose, Poppy & Seed, Root of All Food Catering

• Episode: 86 Reason Ep20 | Kwini Reed: Financial Literacy and the Restaurant Real Estate Strategy

• Episode Duration: 1hr 10m 21s

• Published: March 02, 2026

• Topics: Restaurant Finance, Financial Literacy, Real Estate Strategy, California Restaurant Scene, COVID-19 Crisis Management, Women in Hospitality, Culinary Television, Restaurant Operations, James Beard Foundation

Episode Summary

What happens when you trade dreams of becoming the next Whitney Houston for a hotel accounting desk, and end up building one of Southern California's most celebrated culinary brands? For Kwini Reed, the path was anything but planned. And that, she'll tell you, is precisely why it worked.

In this episode of the 86 Reason Podcast, host Xavier Mariezcurrena sits down with Kwini Reed, co-founder of A Table for Two Hospitality and the operational engine behind Poppy + Rose, Poppy & Seed, and Root of All Food Catering, for an unfiltered conversation about money, marriage, crisis, and what it really takes to build something that lasts in the California restaurant scene.

A James Beard Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership Fellow, board member of the California Restaurant Association's LA Chapter, and a dedicated member of Regarding Her—a national nonprofit advancing women in food and beverage—Kwini brings a perspective that is equal parts accountant, operator, and advocate.

🎧 Listen now To All Episodes

The Crash Course That Launched a Career

Kwini Reed never intended to be a restaurateur. She wanted to be a singer. But when the grind of the music industry wore her down, she pivoted—applying for an accounting role at a hotel with one small problem: she didn't know the software.

"I lied," she admits without a hint of regret. Asked in the interview if she was proficient in QuickBooks and Excel, she said yes. She went home that weekend, learned both programs from scratch, got the job, and never looked back.

What followed was a rapid rise through the financial infrastructure of hospitality—from temp accounts payable clerk to Controller—giving Kwini an unusually deep understanding of the back-office machinery that keeps restaurants alive. While most operators come up through kitchens or front-of-house, Kwini came up through reconciliations, payables, and profit-and-loss statements. That difference, she argues, is everything.

The lesson isn't just a good story. It's a blueprint: bet on yourself, close the skill gap fast, and never underestimate what you can learn in a weekend.

Building a Business Together—and Making It Work

Kwini's path to restaurant ownership was also a love story. She and her husband, Chef Michael Reed, built their culinary business together—a partnership that blends her financial acumen with his creative vision in the kitchen. Together, under the banner of A Table for Two Hospitality, they've created a portfolio of restaurants that feel personal, rooted, and deeply tied to the community they serve.

But romanticizing a husband-and-wife business partnership misses the real complexity. Running a company with your spouse requires ruthless clarity about roles, intentional communication, and the ability to separate the business relationship from the personal one—especially when things get hard.

When Kwini officially took over operations in January 2020, she could not have predicted what was coming next.

Crisis Management: Doing the Hard Thing to Protect Your People

Two months after stepping into her new operational role, the COVID-19 pandemic brought the California restaurant industry to a complete standstill.

Kwini's response was counterintuitive but decisive: she laid off her entire staff.

Not out of panic. Not because she was giving up. But because she understood—thanks to her financial background—that laying off her team was the fastest way to ensure they could collect unemployment and survive the shutdown. It was a calculated act of leadership, prioritizing her people's financial security over appearances.

What happened next said everything about the culture she and Chef Michael had built: many of her employees came back voluntarily, working without pay to help keep the restaurant alive.

The team pivoted to community give-back programs, leaning into the trust they had built over years of service. They didn't just survive—they reinforced the foundation of their brand at the exact moment most restaurants were falling apart.

The takeaway for operators: Culture isn't built during the good times. It's revealed during the crisis. And if you've invested in your people the right way, they'll invest back in you when it matters most.

McDonald's Is Not a Restaurant Company — And Neither Should Yours Be

If there is one piece of advice from this episode that every operator needs to internalize, it's this:

"McDonald's is a real estate company. It is not a restaurant group."

Kwini delivers this line not as trivia, but as a strategic north star. McDonald's most significant asset isn't its menu—it's the land and buildings it owns underneath thousands of franchises worldwide. The food is the vehicle. The real estate is the wealth.

For independent restaurant operators running on razor-thin margins in one of the most expensive states in the country, this reframe is revelatory. Owning the building your restaurant sits in transforms your operation from a cost center into an asset. It gives you leverage, flexibility, and—critically—an exit strategy that doesn't require selling the business itself.

Kwini frames this as the advice she is actively giving to her daughter: don't just build a restaurant, build a portfolio. Because when burnout comes—and in this industry, it comes for everyone eventually—owning the real estate means you still have something of lasting value, whether you keep operating or not.

This perspective, forged through years of accounting experience and operational reality, is the kind of financial literacy that most culinary school programs never teach.

The Financial Literacy Gap—and Why It's Killing Operators

Kwini doesn't mince words about the most common failure point she sees in the restaurant industry: operators who don't know their numbers.

Her accounting background isn't just a quirky origin story—it's the reason her businesses have survived. She understands reconciliations. She reads a P&L the way a chef reads a recipe. She knows where the money is going before it disappears.

For operators who didn't come up through finance, the gap can be fatal. Restaurants with great food and terrible back-office discipline close every single day. Kwini's message is direct: you don't have to be a CPA, but you cannot afford to be financially illiterate.

Know your food costs. Know your labor percentages. Know what your reconciliations should look like. And if you don't know yet—learn. The weekend Kwini spent learning QuickBooks before her interview is proof that the gap between "I don't know" and "I know enough" can be closed faster than you think.

Reality TV: The Dark Side of the Cooking Competition Circuit

Chef Michael Reed has competed on some of food television's most demanding stages, including Tournament of Champions and Chopped. Kwini has had a front-row seat for all of it—and her assessment is sobering.

The production cycle is grueling. The editing is beyond your control. The narrative arc of your appearance is shaped entirely by producers, not by you. And while the exposure can generate short-term buzz, it rarely translates directly into the kind of brand equity that drives long-term business growth.

Her advice to operators considering the competition circuit: understand what you're signing up for before you sign the contract. Television exposure is a tool—but only if you control how you show up outside the edit.

Which brings her to a broader point: independent operators must invest in filming their own content. Social media has given every restaurateur a direct line to their audience. Use it. Tell your own story, on your own terms, before someone else tells it for you. The platforms are free. The authenticity is irreplaceable.

Secure Your Own Mask First

For all of Kwini's strategic sharpness, perhaps her most important message is the simplest: take care of yourself.

Running a restaurant—especially in California, especially as a family business, especially through a pandemic—requires enormous reserves of mental and spiritual energy. Kwini is unambiguous about the fact that self-care and a healthy work-life balance are not luxuries in this industry. They are prerequisites.

Burnout in hospitality is not a personal failure. It is an occupational hazard. The operators who build sustainable careers are those who treat their own wellbeing with the same discipline they bring to their P&L.

Secure your mask before helping others. It's an instruction every restaurateur needs to hear—and most don't until it's too late.

About Kwini Reed

Kwini Reed is the co-founder and COO of A Table for Two Hospitality, leading operations across Poppy + Rose, Poppy & Seed, and Root of All Food Catering in Southern California. A native of the region, Kwini leveraged a deep background in hotel and retail accounting to build a thriving, family-run culinary business alongside her husband, Chef Michael Reed.

She is a James Beard Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership Fellow, a board member of the California Restaurant Association's Los Angeles Chapter, and an active member of Regarding Her, a national nonprofit dedicated to advancing women in the food and beverage industry. Her work spans operations, advocacy, and mentorship—making her one of the most complete voices in the California restaurant conversation today.

Connect with Kwini:

• Company: poppyandseedoc.com

• Instagram: @poppyandrose

• LinkedIn: Kwini Reed

The Best Operators Know What They Don't Know—Until They Do

Kwini Reed's story carries a through-line that every operator in this industry can learn from: the willingness to close the gap between what you know and what you need to know—fast, without excuses—is the real competitive advantage.

She didn't wait to be credentialed before learning QuickBooks. She didn't wait for the perfect moment to take over operations. She didn't wait for someone to explain financial strategy to her. She moved, she learned, and she built.

At Over Easy Office, we believe that the most powerful insights in hospitality come from operators who have lived the hardest lessons. This is why we host the 86 Reason Podcast—not just to tell great stories, but to give operators the frameworks, perspectives, and permission to run their businesses with more clarity and confidence.

Whether you're managing your first set of books or navigating the real estate strategy for your third location, you don't have to figure it out alone.

Ready to share your story? We're always looking for hospitality leaders who are willing to get honest on the mic. If you've built something, survived something, or learned something that others need to hear, contact us today. We'd love to have you at the table.