For much of the year before he sat down with Menu EN, Chef Kevin Hill slept on sofas and air mattresses. He gave up his own comfort so the money could go to the restaurant.
By then, he had built a catering business, opened a restaurant operation in Los Angeles, and earned financial backing from actor and comedian Marlon Wayans. None of it protected him from the daily reality of keeping a small food business alive.
Kevin is the founder of Bite LA, a Los Angeles kitchen serving Italian-American food with Southern roots. In Episode 6 of Menu EN, the restaurant podcast hosted by Lani Manaseryan and powered by Orders.co, he talks about the parts of ownership customers rarely see: the relationships that opened doors, the setbacks that nearly closed them, and what it cost him personally to keep going.
Watch the full Menu EN Episode 6 with Chef Kevin Hill
From Chicago to Los Angeles: How Kevin Hill Found His Way Into Hospitality
Chef Kevin Hill spent 17 years in hospitality before launching a food business of his own. It was not the plan.
Kevin was born in Chicago and studied English and pre-law in college. His family pictured him as a lawyer. Along the way, he realized that what he actually enjoyed was building relationships and working with people.
That led him to a job at Fairmont Hotels. His performance there earned him a newly created role and a chance to study hospitality management. From hotels, he moved into bars and restaurants and worked his way up through management.
Cooking came later, after years of watching how successful hospitality businesses actually run. When COVID-19 disrupted his career, Kevin completed culinary studies and eventually moved to Los Angeles. Cooking for friends there showed him that his passion could become a business.
That history matters at Bite LA. Kevin came to ownership after years of managing teams and serving guests, learning firsthand why customers come back.
The Grandmother Who Inspired Bite LA’s Cooking
Kevin calls his grandmother one of the greatest influences on his life. When she cooked, the family gathered, and everyone felt at home.
Her table also mixed traditions. Kevin remembers pasta served alongside fried chicken or catfish. That pairing of Italian-American dishes and Southern cooking became the foundation of Bite LA’s menu.
She also paid close attention to his early cooking. Kevin shares that she quietly kept a record of his first efforts in the kitchen, long before cooking became his career.
What she gave him was less a set of recipes than an understanding of what food should make people feel. Nostalgia still drives his creative process, and it explains his commitment to cooking from scratch. If Kevin did not make it himself, it does not go into the food.
What does B.I.T.E. stand for?
According to Kevin, B.I.T.E. stands for “Bringing It All Together for Everyone.”
The name reflects interests that reach beyond cooking: food, events, hospitality, and experiences that bring people together. Kevin has cooked for well-known clients, but the idea is meant for everyone, from a family picking up dinner to a small weeknight celebration.
How Marlon Wayans Helped Bring Bite LA to Life
Kevin met Marlon Wayans through a catering opportunity that came up after he launched his business. The two connected personally, and Kevin went on to cook for him over an extended period.
Marlon encouraged Kevin’s bigger ambitions. But Kevin is clear that encouragement did not arrive as a check. He developed a business plan, presented the concept, and went through repeated conversations and planning first. Eventually, Kevin says, he received financial backing, which he describes as an angel investment, that helped him launch his food truck and restaurant operation.
Kevin’s takeaway is practical. Knowing someone successful does not make a business work. A relationship can create the opportunity. The plan and the work behind it decide what happens next.
A Stolen Food Truck and the Financial Reality of Starting a Restaurant
Kevin started with catering. By his account, the catering business generated about $175,000 in its first year.
From there, he expanded into a ghost kitchen, a delivery-focused kitchen with no dining room, and a food truck. The truck was newly purchased and customized. About a week after it launched, it was stolen.
It was eventually recovered in San Francisco, heavily damaged. Kevin estimates the theft cost him roughly $25,000 to $30,000 between planned events and the disruption that followed.
The loss started a hard stretch. Kevin describes watching his savings run down, selling the food truck, and staying with other people so the restaurant could keep operating. He speaks openly about periods of deep discouragement, and about deciding to keep going anyway.
He did not get through it alone. People connected to his kitchen space stepped in to help, and Kevin credits that community for carrying him through the worst of it.
His story is not an argument that sacrifice is the price of entry. It shows how thin the margin for error is when a new business takes a hit, and how much the people around an owner matter.
Why Kevin Hill Believes Great Hospitality Requires More Than Great Food
Kevin’s answer is simple: customers remember how a restaurant makes them feel. He builds that idea into small, specific habits.
Every order leaves with a personal touch. Kevin writes thank-you notes on receipts and signs pizza boxes. Most of his customers never sit in a dining room, so those small gestures carry the hospitality a server would normally deliver in person.
When something goes wrong, he picks up the phone. Kevin recalls running out of an item a customer had ordered. Instead of quietly substituting another dish, he called, explained the situation, and offered alternatives. The customer later left positive feedback about the experience. An inconvenience became a reason to trust the restaurant.
He also asks his regulars what they think. When customers keep ordering the same dish, Kevin reaches out to learn what they enjoy and whether anything could be better. That is honest feedback from the people who matter most.
Technology can route an order to the kitchen. It cannot write the note, make the call, or ask the follow-up question. Loyalty comes from pairing reliable operations with that kind of personal attention.
Building a Restaurant That Works: What Kevin Learned About Operations
What customers experience depends on what happens behind the scenes, and Kevin learned that part by doing it.
His kitchen space is limited, so he arranged it carefully. He thought through equipment placement, prep stations, storage, and how people move through the space during service. A small kitchen runs better when its layout matches the work the staff actually does.
Then there were the tablets. Kevin was running separate devices for Uber Eats, Grubhub, and DoorDash. Switching between them created frustration and added work to every shift.
He also talks about consistency. Customers plan around a restaurant’s hours. Unexpected changes or late orders break their expectations. Reliable hours, organized order management, and clear communication are what let customers count on a small kitchen.
How Orders.co Helps Bite LA Manage Orders and Focus on Hospitality
Kevin was introduced to Orders.co because we could bring his delivery orders together. Here is how that connects to the challenges he describes.
“You got these three tablets that are just either on your wall or lying down somewhere, and it’s like so annoying”
One place for delivery orders
Our restaurant order consolidation integrates supported marketplaces, including DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub, so incoming orders arrive in one connected system. That means less time moving between devices, less manual order handling, and more attention for prep and guests. Kevin still keeps some devices for direct customer communication, so the change was fewer screens, not zero.
Menu and availability changes without platform-hopping
Kevin needs to change item availability and pause or adjust online orders when the kitchen requires it. With centralized menu management, restaurants manage menus, item availability, and connected ordering channels from one place. Kevin specifically values being able to ask our team for help with those adjustments instead of handling each platform separately.
A direct ordering channel
Bite LA’s online ordering page runs on Orders.co. Customers order directly from Kevin, usually for pickup. Direct orders still carry payment processing costs, but Kevin notes they avoid the marketplace commission he pays on app orders. At the time of the interview, he was receiving about one or two direct online orders a week. Marketplaces still help new customers find him, while a branded direct ordering website gives regulars another way to order. Growing that channel takes steady promotion.
Help when it matters
Restaurant problems do not keep office hours, so we offer 24/7 customer support. Kevin highlights how easy it is to text our support team and get help with menu updates.
Kevin also makes a point every operator should hear: technology is a tool, not a guarantee that sales will suddenly increase. Owners still have to learn their systems, talk to their support team, and actively engage customers.
Reinventing Bite LA’s Menu and Looking Ahead
Kevin’s earlier menu came with a heavy operational load and high food costs. So he rethought what he wanted to make and how the kitchen could run better.
Part of the answer was bread. Kevin learned breadmaking, developed sourdough and other from-scratch products, and introduced pizza and new menu ideas. He documents the process on social media and tests dishes before committing to a full rollout. The goal is to respect Italian culinary traditions while keeping the Southern influences that came from his grandmother’s table.
Looking further ahead, Kevin talks about opening in other cities, naming Houston and New York as possibilities, and about teaching cooking classes. These are goals, not announced openings.
A menu has to reflect both who a restaurant is and what its kitchen can realistically produce. Kevin’s changes show that a concept can be refined without losing what makes it personal.
What Restaurant Owners Can Learn From Chef Kevin Hill
- Know why you are opening. Kevin’s concept comes from his grandmother’s table and a clear idea of what B.I.T.E. means. That purpose guides his decisions, but it did not replace the business plan he had to write before anyone invested.
- Build relationships before you need them. A catering job led to his investor. People around his kitchen helped him through his hardest stretch. A customer who gets a phone call instead of a silent substitution remembers it.
- Take operational complexity seriously. Kitchen layout, delivery tablets, a menu the business can afford to produce, and dependable support all shape how a shift goes.
- Make hospitality personal. A signed pizza box costs almost nothing, and customers notice it.
None of this is a formula. It is what worked, and what almost did not, for one founder in Los Angeles.
Visit or Order From Bite LA
Bite LA is Chef Kevin Hill’s Los Angeles food business, serving Italian-American cooking with Southern influences and a focus on from-scratch food. It operates as a kitchen-based, pickup-focused business rather than a sit-down restaurant.
- Founder: Chef Kevin Hill
- Address: 1870 W Washington Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90007
- Phone: (312) 554-9515
- Online ordering: Order from Bite LA online
- Instagram: @thebite.la
For current hours and menu items, check the ordering page or Bite LA’s Instagram.
About Menu EN: Real Stories From the People Behind Restaurants
Menu EN is an English-language podcast featuring conversations with restaurant owners, chefs, and hospitality entrepreneurs. Each episode gives the people who run restaurants space to share their challenges, mistakes, successes, and lessons.
The goal is to give aspiring and current operators firsthand insight they can apply to their own businesses, including the realities customers rarely see.
Follow Menu EN on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
Menu EN shares the real stories behind restaurants and the lessons of the people who build them. The podcast is hosted by Lani Manaseryan and powered by Orders.co.
