What & Who

The COS Consultants Story

COS Consultants was founded by Chester Howell after decades of operational leadership, systems development, and multi-unit operations within the restaurant & hospitality arena.

This restaurant & hospitality consulting organization evolved in a time when work and family life were changing. After so many experiences during his professional growth period over a short couple of decades, the foundation of these advisory services evolved. One thing was for sure — through all of the uncharted waters in Howell's storied career, many mistakes had been made. While each taught its own lesson at the time, most need not be repeated. It is that understanding that allows COS Consultants to share such a unique set of strategies for effective and solid growth.

As is often experienced by our clients, we share with you what you need to hear, not necessarily what you want to hear. We believe in building continued growth on solid foundations that are designed distinctly for your organization. When needed, COS Consultants is able to tap into its selective network of hand-picked contractors who are highly skilled and the best of the best in very specific areas within the hospitality field.

Chester Howell

After earning his BA in Psychology and then graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, he embraced unique culinary opportunities in cities such as New Orleans, Rome, Italy, and New York to pursue his creative ambitions. During his time in NYC, he embraced a much bigger arena in the restaurant world outside of the kitchen and transitioned to a restaurant BOH operations role with a start-up operation to broaden his knowledge with experiences beyond the production kitchen.

With Chester's leadership, creativity, and self-taught ability to develop operating solutions, he quickly became a pivotal and integral player in the company's growth — which culminated 15 years later with 35 fine dining establishments across many major markets in the US. To date, Chester has been involved with 45 restaurant openings and concept conversions overseeing a variety of responsibilities.

Embracing early technologies as they became available, he was credited with the creation and development of an efficient and effective multi-unit level BOH purchasing strategy and program that expanded to competitively handle north of $50M annually. He also embarked on the development, buildout, and operation of off-premise commissaries. During this time, he also took on pre-opening project management for new restaurants, as well as multi-unit ongoing facilities management.

Continuing to broaden his experience, Chester went on to gain additional experience incorporating full regional multi-unit management of the western division, after working with the company to complete a minority capitalization with a Wall Street private equity firm.

As time went on, Chester realized that the experience he had gained in these big, fast, and competitive metropolitan markets allowed him to understand most business environments, most operators, and creatively develop foundations and systems that would securely prop up an entity for growth and success.