Pilot Light Consulting builds your team of experts to fit your scope and concept ensuring your launch team’s know-how is exactly what your project needs. With decades of restaurant industry experience, our core team makes sure nothing gets missed when you’re building your dream restaurant.

Who We Are

  • OWNER & MANAGING DIRECTOR

    Courtney Blake is the owner of Pilot Light Consulting and has been working in the restaurant industry for over 20 years. Before becoming a consultant, she worked with respected chefs in North Carolina, New York City, and San Francisco including chefs Nick Balla and Cortney Burns at the now shuttered Bar Tartine, Dan the Pig Man in Charlotte and the late Molly O’Neill in upstate New York. She was previously co-chef of Private Dining Room SF, a pop-up restaurant located in San Francisco that focused on a ‘farm to neighborhood’ mission by raising funding for local partners such as Larkin Street Youth Services. She is a partner at OWL Bakery in Asheville, NC.

    Courtney holds an MBA with a concentration in Organizational Development from the University of San Francisco, a Masters Certificate in Hospitality Management with a focus in Foodservice Management from Cornell University, and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Leadership at Gonzaga University. She has been working with owner/operator clients to bring their hospitality vision to life through Pilot Light Consulting over the past seven years.

  • Project Director & Beverage Development

    Rosie Grillo began her career bartending at the Whiskey Flat Saloon in her home town of Volcano, CA. In New York City, she opened EMM Group's original Catch as head bartender, won Best Team at the Spirited Awards for Holiday Cocktail Lounge, was voted one of the top 50 Bartenders by Time Out NY, and was a Speed-Rack contestant.

    Rosie was most recently the General Manager at Point O’ Woods in Fire Island, New York and is now working on an Amaro with natural winery, End of Nowhere, in Amador County, CA.

  • Project Manager

    Heather Miller is the administrative master and project manager for Pilot Light Consulting. Her background in the food industry has spanned over 13 years. She prides herself in knowing the restaurants flow from front to back by learning the nuances of each role and how they work together to form a holistic system.

    Heather attended the College of Charleston where she received a Bachelors in Psychology with a focus in Developmental Psychology and a minor in Studio Art with a focus in Photography.

  • Marketing & BOH Operation

    Justin Lewis began his hospitality career in the kitchen and has launched two of his own hospitality brands: Amador Uncorked and Justin’s Pantry. Moving to the dining room, he was awarded a Court of Master Sommeliers, Certified Sommelier pin and WSET (Wine Spirits Education Trust) Level 3 certification.

    Today he is a partner in a construction business, volunteers in the kitchen weekly at a Portland, Maine, food rescue non-profit, and picks up shifts at his favorite local pizza shop.

  • Beverage Development & FOH Operations

    Miranda Escalante has worked in Asheville, NC, as the General Manager of Edison Craft Ales + Kitchen at the iconic Grove Park Inn and as the Beverage Director of Doubletree Asheville Downtown / General Manager of the Montford Rooftop Bar. As the lead bartender at Avenue M she revamped the bar program to match their Wine Spectator Award winning wine program.

    She is the co-founder of “Purple Teeth”, a pop-up wine club that focuses on collaborative learning and community. Miranda now works at the acclaimed Flat Iron Hotel in the bar program and is the co-chair of Asheville’s chapter of Restaurant Workers United (AFBU), the RWU’s largest chapter.

  • Business Innovation

    Allison Slaughter began her career in client services at retail marketing creative agency FCB/RED in Chicago, IL, and she has explored her passion for food with internships at Brown Bag Seafood in Chicago and Califia Farms in Los Angeles.

    Allison holds a MBA from the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley with a Graduate Certificate in Food Systems. Before joining Pilot Light she spent two years at top management consulting firm Bain & Company focusing on strategy, go-to-market, and transformation projects for food & tech clients.

  • Food Program Development

    Michael Evans has been working in the hospitality industry for 19 years. In San Francisco, he worked as Chef de Cuisine at Atelier Crenn and Commonwealth and was Sous Chef at Bar Tartine.

    After leaving San Francisco, Michael returned to his home town in Traverse City, Michigan in 2018 to continue his culinary journey and start new creative projects. Michael and his brother are the co-owners of Crocodile Palace, a small Sichuan restaurant opened early 2023.

Our History

Pilot Light Consulting was founded in August of 2016. After the first year of working with clients, our team realized that Pilot Light’s strength came from a human-centered systems thinking approach to business design. Because of this, we began strategically focusing on hospitality business launches allowing Pilot Light to work holistically across all components of our client’s businesses. This focus led to the development of the strategy, operations, and teams systems we now call the How My Restaurant Works® system (HMRW).

Pilot Light has continued to expand with a team of incredible hospitality industry veterans and creative problem solvers. Together we are working to make sustainable independent hospitality businesses where people can be proud to work and expanding our impact through our How My Restaurant Works® Substack and our forthcoming podcast Running the Pass.