Nathan Rostance

Nathan Rostance devoted 17 years to restaurant operations before founding The Ops Group in 2018. He began as a bartender, honing his craft in Brooklyn, NY, and Tucson, AZ, before settling in Minneapolis in 2004. In 2006, he made the leap into restaurant management, beginning a journey that would fuel his passion and shape his career for decades to come.

As a manager and operations director, Nathan worked with some of the most beloved restaurants in the Twin Cities, intentionally seeking diverse opportunities to expand his skills and knowledge across the hospitality industry. At Broders’ Pasta Bar, he learned how a small neighborhood restaurant could maintain exceptional quality and consistency for decades, while achieving remarkable business levels and remaining loyal to its neighbors and regulars. At The Oceanaire Seafood Room, Nathan immersed himself in corporate HR and restaurant accounting, while further developing his fine-dining skills in the expansive 200+ seat dining room.

In 2010, Nathan landed his dream job when he was invited to help open and lead the team of the James Beard Award-winning The Bachelor Farmer and Marvel Bar. There, he had the opportunity to integrate everything he had learned in operations management with everything he had always wanted to try, helping to build one of the most critically acclaimed restaurants the Twin Cities had seen to date. Over the next seven years, Nathan cultivated and led one of the strongest teams any restaurant has ever known, many of whom continue to inspire him to this day.

Restaurant Operations

Throughout his 17-year career in operations, Nathan opened a few restaurants and managed countless projects and events. While the majority of these projects were successful, they were consistently plagued with the same issues: schedule delays (if there was a formal schedule), budget overruns (if a budget even existed), communication breakdowns, excessive rework, and lots and lots of stress. He knew there must be a better way - but how?

His “a-ha” moment came in 2018, when a Google search led him to The Project Management Institute (PMI). Nathan quickly realize that project management was more than just a concept - it was a highly structured discipline that had been formalized, documented, and refined for decades. Inspired, he became a PMI member and began learning everything he could about professional Project Management. In 2022, he passed his CAPM exam with above target scores in all areas, officially earning his Certified Associate in Project Management certificate from PMI.

Today, Nathan integrates Project Management principles and methodologies into every aspect of his work at The Ops Group. He employs the same globally recognized frameworks used by Project Managers across a wide array of industries - from construction and engineering, to information services and technology, to the military and even NASA. This emphasis on Project Management, paired with Nathan’s extensive experience in restaurant operations, make The Ops Group uniquely positioned to help new and established restaurateurs successfully bring their restaurant dreams to life. This is why The Ops Group believes that by building restaurants better, we are building better restaurants - and shaping the future of the hospitality industry.