2025 to now, Hermosa Beach, CA
General Manager
Tiki Kai, Southbay Hospitality Group
Opened the room. All dining and bar operations, the menu, full P&L, hiring, compliance, and a service culture built on pride of craft.
Ronnie Riveron Culture and Hospitality Expert
It shows when nobody is watching.
I build rooms that hold it.
Sixteen years of rooms that held.
Hotels, fine dining, high volume, private events. Sixteen years building the culture behind the hospitality. Now leading Tiki Kai for Southbay Hospitality Group, and building the systems and brands behind the standard.
Ronnie Riveron, Culture and Hospitality Expert
Every room has a standard. It shows when nobody is watching.
Sixteen years building the culture behind great hospitality, in hotels, fine dining, and high-volume rooms. Now leading Tiki Kai. I build the systems and brands behind the standard.
Start a conversation
Who I am
People first. The market follows.
I learned hospitality in Havana, behind the bar of a hotel, where you look after a guest the way you would look after someone in your own home. Sixteen years and eight rooms later, that is still the whole job for me. People first. The guest, and the team that takes care of the guest.
The market is changing, and I think it is changing in the right direction. Owners want more than someone who can run a schedule and read a P&L. They want people who put people first, and who understand that hospitality is what moves the market: the guest who comes back, the server who stays, the name a room earns in its neighborhood. That is what I do, and I love doing it.
From Havana to Naples to Hermosa Beach, from a hotel bar to a $13M flagship, with five rooms opened from scratch and menus written for every one of them, every room I have led got the same thing from me: a team that cares, a standard that holds, and a guest who feels it. Off the floor, I build the systems behind that standard with AI tools, and I help brands and people grow their name the same way.
16 years on the floor8 venues, 2 countriesAnthropic certified in AI
- EducationBusiness Administration, Hodges University
- EducationManagement and Hospitality, University of Havana
- EducationComputer Technician and Graphic Design, University of Havana
- CertificationAnthropic, AI certification
Culture and hospitality
Hospitality is what the guest feels. Culture is why it happens.
- 01
Culture is not a poster in the office. It is what the newest server does at nine on a Saturday night when nobody senior is watching.
- 02
Hospitality is not a script. It is a room full of people who care, trained until caring is the easy option.
- 03
My job is to build the first so the second happens every night, at every table, whether I am in the building or not.
What I do
Three ways I make a standard hold.
Lead rooms
Culture and hospitality leadership for hotels, restaurants, and bars. Openings, menus, the floor, the bar, the P&L, the team. Sixteen years of it.
Build systems
Anthropic certified. I use AI tools to take the busywork out of operations: scheduling, inventory, reporting, training, guest follow-up. The standard stops depending on who is on shift.
Grow brands
I help brands and people grow their name: positioning, content, and the systems behind them, so the reputation holds as well as the room does.
The career
Eight rooms. Each one bigger than the last.
2023 to 2025, Naples, FL
General Manager
Twin Peaks
Opened two locations. Two high-revenue concepts, the flagship at $13M+ a year. Full P&L on an $8M operation, plus private events and catering.
2022 to 2023, Estero, FL
Assistant General Manager
Divieto Italian Restaurant
An $8M+ upscale Italian concept. Front-of-house pacing, the beverage program, guest recovery.
2021 to 2022, Naples, FL
Assistant General Manager
CMX Cinebistro
Opened the concept in Naples, then led the whole operation for seven months: $4.5M in revenue and 80+ associates across food, beverage, and film.
2018 to 2021, Naples, FL
Restaurant and Bar Manager
The Overlook Bar and Grill
Opened The Overlook of Naples: dining and beverage for a luxury private residential community, and personal hospitality for a resident membership.
2013 to 2018, Naples, FL
Restaurant Manager
The Arlington
Restaurant and bar in an upscale senior living community. Dining built around the people who live there.
2012 to 2013, Havana, Cuba
Assistant General Manager
The National Hotel
Operational leadership at one of Cuba's 5-star hotels. International standards, every department.
2010 to 2012, Havana, Cuba
Bar Manager
San Felipe Hotel
Beverage operations for a 4-star boutique hotel. Where the standard started.
What holding a room does
The standard shows up in the numbers.
Press and hold. Let go early and it dims again.
$13M+ flagship
Directed two high-revenue concepts at Twin Peaks, the flagship doing $13M+ a year.
Five openings
Opened five rooms from scratch: Tiki Kai, two Twin Peaks locations, CMX Cinebistro, and The Overlook of Naples. Hiring, training, systems, and the standard from night one.
$8M, full P&L
Owned the whole number on an $8M operation: budgets, forecasting, labor, cost of goods, and the results.
80+ associates
Ran the whole operation at CMX Cinebistro for seven months: $4.5M in revenue and a team of 80+ across food, beverage, and film.
Menus, written and costed
Menu creation and development in every format: the dishes, the beverage list, pricing, costing, and training the team to sell them.
$8M+ fine dining
Oversaw daily operations, pacing, and the beverage program at Divieto, an upscale Italian concept.
Two concepts at once
Multi-unit leadership over two dining and bar concepts in Naples, with private events and catering on top.
Private events
Private dining at Divieto, events and catering at Twin Peaks, curated programming for a resident membership at The Overlook.
Wine and beverage
Started behind the bar in Havana. Sixteen years later I still write the list: wine, cocktails, cost, and training.
Residents who know my name
Eight years of dining for people who live where they eat: a luxury residential community and a senior living community in Naples.
5-star to high volume
From a 5-star hotel in Havana to a private residential community in Naples to a concept bar in Hermosa Beach. Same standard.
Two countries, eight rooms
Sixteen years, every move a bigger room or a bigger role, and no shortcuts on the standard.
Hours back to the floor
AI tools for scheduling, inventory, reports, and training, so managers spend their time with guests and teams instead of spreadsheets.
Names that hold
Positioning, content, and the systems behind them, for brands and people who want their name to carry.
Table 01 of 14
What the market is saying
The numbers agree. People first is the business.
0%
Management turnover in full-service restaurants, up from 31% before 2020.
Black Box IntelligenceTraining
Has overtaken pay as the number one way operators keep their people in 2026.
Restaurant365, 2026 mid-year report0%
Of operators have put AI to work in the back office or plan to, and most of them say it saves time.
Restaurant365, 2026Owners want someone who keeps people, trains them, and uses the tools well. That has been my job for sixteen years.
How I lead
The standard is a habit, not a speech.
Be on the floor.
The leader is visible during peak service. Guests see it. Staff feel it.
Coach, don't blame.
When something slips, we fix the system and train the person. Nobody gets thrown under a table.
Own the number.
I read the P&L like a menu. Labor, cost of goods, covers, check average. Every week, not every quarter.
Any GM can read a P&L and make a decision. The real job is reading the room before it even opens. Lights on first. Not for ambiance. To see clearly.Ronnie, on LinkedIn
What's next
Two more candles on the table.
The standard keeps moving. Both of these are on the calendar, and both are already in progress.
In progress
2027
Sommelier certification
Formal wine credentials behind a beverage program I have written and run for sixteen years.
In progress
2027
Community Association Manager license
The Florida CAM license, for the private residential communities where I have already run the dining.
Straight answers
What owners ask before they call.
- Why so many venues?
- Every move was a bigger room or a bigger role. From behind the bar to leading the whole house, from a $4.5M room to a $13M flagship, in two countries. You get someone who has already seen the problem you are about to have.
- Fine dining or high volume?
- Both, on purpose. Divieto taught pacing and wine. Twin Peaks taught volume. Tiki Kai needs both every night.
- Do you know wine and beverage?
- I started behind the bar and I still write the beverage program. Wine list, cocktails, cost, and training.
- AI tools in a restaurant?
- Yes, and I am certified by Anthropic to use them well. Where they save hours and never where they touch the guest: scheduling, inventory counts, reports, training material, review replies drafted for a human to send. The floor stays human.
- Clubs and residential communities?
- Eight years of it in Naples, and the Florida CAM license is on the calendar for 2027. For a board, food and beverage is a strategic asset and the biggest driver of member satisfaction. I treat it that way.
- Will you relocate?
- Yes.
- What are you looking for?
- A group that takes culture and standards seriously and wants one person to own hospitality for a room, a property, or a portfolio. And brand or systems projects where the same discipline is wanted.
Contact
If you need a room that holds, let's talk.
Open to leading culture and hospitality for a room, a property, or a group, and to brand and systems projects. Willing to relocate. References from ownership available on request.