SALIDO Spotlight
Get to know our Account Executive, Rachel Rozen who is part of our CX customer experience team. She acts as a liaison between our industry partners, customers and our product team.
What do you do at SALIDO? My role includes educating customers on our system, managing installs / implementations and troubleshooting any issues they have through our support channels. Being in daily contact with our customers, I receive their direct feedback on feature requests or issues to take back to our product team and engineers. I educate our product team on the hospitality aspects of these new features, why the customer may want/need these updates, and in conjunction, assist with discovery sprints (the beginning phase of developing new system features) to help ensure changes happen the best way possible.
What is your career background? Hospitality has been infused into my blood at a young age. It started when my family would head up to Kutsher’s Hotel in the Catskills for the Jewish High Holidays. Each year, both sides of my family would come together at the same resort. Meal times was a treasured experience for all but left an impression on me specifically. The Maître-D knew everyone by name, we had the same server and backwaiter for years, they made everything so special it felt like they were an extension of our family. From that moment, I knew I would be part of this industry.
Later in High School, I began to pursue a career in hospitality. I was in an advanced art class that took us to a culinary school. I made chocolate covered strawberries from scratch and it was the first time I realized that cooking is an art. I also started working at a local fine dining restaurant where I also experienced the side of the restaurant world that no one loves — closings. My senior year the restaurant abruptly closed. I was heartbroken, but this just pushed my desire to make a difference in the culinary and hospitality industry.
Originally I thought college was going to be heading to Brandeis and working in the Jewish Studies world, I changed to culinary school and attended Johnson & Wales University, earning an Associate’s degree in Culinary Arts and Bachelor’s in Culinary Nutrition. I had various internships around the country and abroad, including the Champneys Health Spa outside of London, where I had my first opportunity to work hand-in-hand with farmers and purveyors. They would pull up in their truck and I would choose and purchase all the freshest produce possible.
After graduating, I was accepted for Hyatt Hotel’s management training program and worked in various positions from front-of-house hotel positions and smaller sports bars, to a 1000+ cover breakfast restaurant and leading large-scale banquets event centers. My last position with Hyatt was at Olive 8 in Seattle as the Director of Restaurants, overseeing the hotel’s three-meal restaurant, room service and coffee shop. After about 8 years, I knew another change was needed and thought the time was right to fulfill my dream of living in New York City. I moved, got a job as a floor manager at ABC Kitchen. Over four years, my position led to becoming the general manager of ABC Kitchen, and roles that were newly created, such as overseeing all three ABCs (Kitchen, Cocina and V).
What about SALIDO brought you in? I’ve been industry for almost 20 years, and knew my time was coming to an end in operations. I wanted to explore other options in the industry, and was working at ABC Kitchen when we implemented SALIDO last spring. I’ve used a bunch of the more traditional POS systems over the years. I personally enjoyed working with the system and found it really easy to use from an operator perspective. I really loved the SALIDO team and working with them (especially how hospitable they were to meet our needs.) Shu Chowdhury, SALIDO’s CEO & Founder, asked me to join SALIDO and I thought… why not? I could use all the skills I learned over the years to help better SALIDO while also knowing my knowledge would be of great value, and in turn, the help the hospitality industry thrive with better software. I now have the opportunity to help restaurants solve problems and make their lives easier on a day-to-day basis.
How do you let your brain relax? Headspace is a great mediation app that I use when I need to reset and gain focus. I’ve also recently started listening to podcasts such as The Daily, 2 Dope Queens and Bowery Boys (all about NYC.) I’m on the hunt for new ones and open to suggestions. I used to run and am just getting back into it. My goal is to run the New York City Marathon this year!
What is your favorite cuisine? After leaving ABC Kitchen and before starting at SALIDO I did a two and a half week trip to Southeast Asia visiting Thailand, Singapore, Bali and Malaysia. I love the food from that region, especially Indonesian food, which I find has every flavor in one dish — sweet, savory, salty, etc. The cuisine is just more vibrant. I also love Thai food. In the city, Bali Kitchen is a really neat fast casual place and Selamat Pagi in Brooklyn are from the same people that own Van Leeuwen Ice cream.
Where are you from? Vestal, New York, which is near Binghamton.
What is your eat “any time of the day” food? Berries. If there were nothing left on this world, I would choose berries, any kind…strawberry, blueberry, blackberry…they’re just refreshing and make you feel good.
Where do you live in the city? Prospect Park South (Brooklyn). In the hood, I love Corthaiyou and Mondayoff by Plant Love. They’re both excellent Thai places. Silver Rice for sushi and Mexico Diner has the best chilaliques. In other parts of Brooklyn, I’ll head to Lilia, Maison Premiere, Yours Sincerely and St. Anselm in Williamsburg; Hometown Bar-B-Que in Red Hook; and Chuko Ramen in Prospect Heights. In Manhattan, my favorites are The NoMad Bar (Chicken pot pie!); Casa Mono (late night and wine); Cherche Midi (steak frites); Santina (squash carpaccio); and Loring Place (fresh, local)! I’m always trying someplace new!
Where do you like to eat near work? Down in the NoHo area, I really like Bar Primi and Ghost Donkey (Love their mezcal cocktails) for post work. For lunch, I usually put my culinary degree to work and usually cook at home and bring in lunch.
What is your favorite drink? Negroni! Sancerre. Rose. Any Italian Red. Bordeaux. Burgundy Pinot Noir….Love after dinner drinks and dessert wine especially Nonino Amaro and Sauternes. Lately, I’ve fallen in love with a Brooklyn made Fernet from Arcane Distilling.
What about Food & Drink pairing? Tough question but when I want something comforting I’d have to say Steak Frites and a glass of Red Burgundy! For dessert- Chocolate Cake and Sauternes.
Anything else? I was my high school mascot, the Golden Bear for four years! Also a huge Syracuse Men’s basketball fan. I used to keep stats for women’s basketball and to date read the stats sheets religiously.
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