Cameron Mitchell on how great hospitality leads to industry-leading AUVs

Take-Away with Sam Oches

Nation's Restaurant News

Business, Entrepreneurship

4.9 • 17 Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Cameron Mitchell, founder and CEO of Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, a Columbus, Ohio based group that has 68 restaurants across 20-plus concepts from coast to coast. When Cameron set out to be a restaurateur over three decades ago, before he ever opened a restaurant, he wrote that he wanted to build a company with “great people delivering genuine hospitality,” and that continues to be the mantra driving the renowned hospitality in his group. His flagship brand is Ocean Prime, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and expects to close the year with around $285 million in sales at just 21 locations. Sam sat down with Cameron in Columbus at Mitchell’s Ocean Club — the original Ocean Prime location — to learn more about his philosophy around hospitality and how that has a direct impact on sales.

In this conversation, you’ll find out why:

Sometimes when a restaurant isn’t working, you just need to start over
You should hone your site selection process over time to nail your perfect location
When you accept status quo, things start to go downhill
If you take care of your team, they’ll take care of your guests, who will take care of your company
The P&L maybe changed, but the demand for fine dining experiences has not

Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at sam.oches@informa.com.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Takeaway with Sam Okas, a podcast for leaders of growing restaurant companies looking to take their businesses to the next level.
0:07.7	In nearly two decades covering restaurants, I've gained access to some of this industry's most influential decision makers, and I'm letting you in on the conversations.
0:16.4	In today's episode, you'll hear from the founder of a Midwest restaurant group that has quietly become one of the most iconic restaurateurs in the country and learn how his
0:26.0	flagship brand is achieving average unit volumes of around $14 million.
0:31.6	Cameron Mitchell is the founder and CEO of Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, a Columbus, Ohio
0:36.8	based group that has 68 restaurants
0:39.1	across 20-plus concepts from coast to coast. When Cameron set out to be a restaurateur over three
0:45.3	decades ago, he wrote down that he wanted to build a company with great people delivering genuine
0:51.1	hospitality. And that continues to be the mantra that's driving the renowned
0:55.6	hospitality in his group. His flagship brand is Ocean Prime, which is celebrating its 20th
1:02.1	anniversary this year and expects to close the year with around $285 million in sales at 21 locations.
1:10.5	Ocean Prime's $14 million average unit volume is one of
1:13.9	the best among multi-unit concepts in the U.S. And Cameron says the company has a handful of locations
1:20.2	that are doing over $20 million per year. So how do they do it? I sat down with Cameron here in
1:27.3	Columbus at Mitchell's Ocean Club,
1:29.4	the original Ocean Prime location, to learn more about his philosophy around hospitality
1:34.6	and how that has a direct impact on sales. In this conversation, you will learn more about
1:40.2	why you should hone your site selection process over time to nail your perfect location,
1:45.7	how things start to go downhill when you accept status quo, and why if you take care of your team,
1:51.0	they will take care of your guests who will take care of your company. If you learn anything
1:55.5	from this episode, go follow takeaway wherever you listen to podcasts and leave some feedback. It's the
2:00.5	best way to get
	...

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