Howard Gordon has spent more than 50 years helping people and organizations see what could come next and working alongside them to make it happen. His career includes helping The Cheesecake Factory grow into one of the industry’s most recognizable brands, helping to increase the company’s online sales from approximately $600,000 to more than $6 million and bringing bilingual digital recipe systems into restaurant kitchens. He also created Paradise Tropical Tea, which became the top -selling iced tea in U.S. restaurants.
“Hospitality has always been about making people feel welcome and sharing knowledge so the entire industry can improve,” Gordon says. “Technology, strategy and growth are valuable when they make the experience better for guests and employees.”
Gordon’s connection to hospitality runs through generations of his family. A native New Yorker, he is a third-generation member of the restaurant business and fifth-generation member of the baking industry - Gordon's grandfather helped establish the Cake Bakers and Bread Makers Union and served as its president for more than 40 years.
After high school, Gordon attended college in New York before following the head of its hotel and restaurant department to UW-Stout Polytechnic with a group of classmates. At UW-Stout Polytechnic, Gordon completed his bachelor’s degree in hotel and restaurant management. He remembers a close-knit campus where practical learning was central to the experience. One of his favorite memories is a microwave oven cooking class, which Gordon believes was the first of its kind in America. Litton Industries had provided microwave ovens to the university, and Gordon and several other men enrolled in a home economics course to learn how to cook with the emerging technology.
The experience taught Gordon to approach new technology with an open mind and curiosity. “There were a lot of hands-on opportunities at Stout for us to understand the business a little better,” he said. “Throughout my career I’ve come to approach new technology with an operator’s questions,” Gordon said. “I always want to know: What problem can it solve? How can it improve the work? How will it help the people using it?”
Gordon returned to New York after graduation. With an introduction from his grandfather, he entered the restaurant industry and soon moved into hotel operations. At the Waldorf Astoria, he became the hotel's youngest American manager. The experience helped shape his belief that a manager must understand both the guest's view and the realities facing the people delivering the experience.
He later became a regional food and beverage director before joining a friend’s high-end coffee and tea company. That move opened the door to product innovation, and ultimately led to the creation of Paradise Tropical Tea. Gordon and his colleagues spent about a year developing the beverage, testing fruit extracts including papaya and mango while working through formulation, flavor and shelf life. At a time when restaurant iced tea choices were largely limited to traditional or sweet tea, the tropical blend stood apart. It became the leading iced tea in U.S. restaurants and later expanded into retail.
“There was nobody doing that,” Gordon said. “It became very novel.”
In 1996, Gordon joined The Cheesecake Factory, which had seven restaurants at the time. He became the company’s first senior vice president and took on a broad role that included business development, marketing, communications and operations. He helped support the company's rapid expansion, worked across corporate and restaurant teams, assisted with more than 150 new openings and represented the brand in national media.
As the company grew, Gordon saw opportunities to use technology as a practical tool for solving operational and business problems. He helped create The Cheesecake Factory's first website and online ordering system, replacing a process in which customers called an 800 number in Florida to place orders. Annual online sales rose from about $600,000 to more than $6 million.
Gordon brought his forward-thinking mindset into restaurant kitchens. The Cheesecake Factory executive team recognized that kitchen display systems could do more than show orders; they could help teams manage the kitchen and access consistent information. Digital recipes in English and Spanish gave employees a faster, more useful way to do their jobs.
Gordon and his colleagues shared what they were learning with restaurant and technology companies outside the organization. "The goal really was to strengthen the industry and not just The Cheesecake Factory," he said.
That willingness to share ideas has remained central to Gordon's work. After leaving The Cheesecake Factory, Gordon continued advising restaurant and hospitality companies in strategy, growth, operations, project management, leadership development, marketing and technology.
Today, Gordon is chief business officer and a partner at Curate Technologies, where he combines his hospitality expertise with emerging technology to make the restaurant experience more seamless. Curate’s Instant App technology lets guests access a restaurant’s digital experience without downloading an app, reflecting Gordon’s continued focus on using innovation to make hospitality better.
Service to the next generation is an important part of Gordon’s legacy. For more than 25 years, he has mentored aspiring hospitality professionals, sharing industry experience and helping students understand the realities and opportunities of the business. He has also returned to UW-Stout Polytechnic to share his experience and career advice with students.
Gordon is also preserving the lessons of his career in a memoir, “Eating Over a Garbage Can! — Tales of Survival, Success and Service in the Restaurant Industry.” The book captures the humor, challenges and rewards of a career in the restaurant industry, where meals are sometimes eaten standing up between crises and service remains at the heart of the work. It is scheduled for online release in December 2026.
Throughout his career, Gordon has embraced new ideas while staying grounded in a belief that people matter most. Whether introducing new technology, mentoring the next generation or sharing the lessons of his career, he continues to create opportunities for others to learn, grow and succeed.
