First Watch CEO Chris Tomasso on inspiring culture and leadership among your team
Take-Away with Sam Oches
Nation's Restaurant News
4.9 • 17 Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2026
⏱️ 72 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Chris Tomasso, CEO of First Watch, a daytime café concept with more than 600 locations doing over a billion dollars in sales annually. Chris is coming up on his 20-year anniversary with the brand, having started as CMO back in 2006 and helping late cofounder Ken Pendery build First Watch into a powerhouse over the course of two decades. Chris has become known for his accessibility as a leader; he hand-writes notes to all employees celebrating milestones and eats his lunch in the company break room just like everyone else. But Chris doesn’t think these qualities should be so rare for a CEO; he understands that the actions of a leader resonate throughout a system and ultimately help it succeed as a business. Sam sat down with Chris in a Tampa First Watch location for the latest episode of the Signature Series — powered by the Coca-Cola Company — to learn more about how this shy kid with a journalism degree ultimately became one of the restaurant industry’s most inspiring leaders
In this conversation, you’ll find out why:
- Good leadership resonates further than you think
- You either grow with your company or you don’t
- People perform better when they’re not intimidated
- To develop culture, leaders must be aware of everything they say and do
- Restaurants must avoid “short-termism,” even when it feels like the only option
- Careers are like pinballs and you can’t predict where you’ll end up
Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at sam.oches@informa.com.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 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. |
| 0:08.0 | In nearly two decades covering restaurants, I've gained access to some of the industry's most influential decision makers, and I'm letting you in on the conversations. |
| 0:16.8 | In today's episode, you'll hear from the CEO of a breakfast and brunch chain about the unique |
| 0:21.8 | career path he's taken to the top of a billion dollar public company and how he's |
| 0:27.4 | inspiring his team to create one of the industry's most respected company cultures. |
| 0:33.0 | Chris Tamaso is the CEO of First Watch, a daytime cafe concept with more than 600 locations doing over a billion dollars in sales annually. |
| 0:43.3 | Chris is coming up on his 20-year anniversary with the brand, having started as CMO back in 2006, and helping late co-founder Ken Pendery build First Watch into a powerhouse over a couple of decades. |
| 0:58.6 | Much has been written about Chris's accessibility as a leader. |
| 1:02.3 | You've probably heard that he handwrites notes to all employees celebrating milestones, |
| 1:07.5 | and he eats his lunch in the company break room, just like everyone else. |
| 1:11.6 | But Chris does not think that these qualities should be so rare for a CEO. |
| 1:16.2 | He understands that the actions of a leader resonate throughout a system and ultimately |
| 1:21.0 | help it succeed as a business. |
| 1:23.3 | I sat down with Chris in a Tampa First watch location as part of our latest episode in the |
| 1:28.4 | signature series powered by the Coca-Cola company to learn more about how this shy kid with a |
| 1:33.7 | journalism degree ultimately became one of the restaurant industry's most inspiring leaders. |
| 1:38.9 | In this conversation, you will learn more about why good leadership resonates further than |
| 1:43.4 | you think, how people perform better when they're not intimidated, and why restaurants must avoid short-termism, even when it feels like the only option. |
| 1:53.2 | If you learn anything from this episode, go follow takeaway wherever you're listening to podcasts and leave some feedback. |
| 1:59.6 | It's the best way to get this episode and these |
| 2:02.1 | lessons into the hands of a fellow restaurant leader. Jumping now into my interview with First |
| 2:06.9 | Watch CEO Chris Tomaso. Also, don't forget to stick around after the interview as I will share |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nation's Restaurant News, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Nation's Restaurant News and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.