How we became a high-functioning, multitasking machine…
Octo Hospitality was founded by Jamie Munoz and Cody Morgan, two New Orleans natives who shared a passion for building and opening restaurants. The last 4 years were spent in amazing locations including Aruba, Key West, Costa Rica, Mississippi and Alabama, doing just that — building. Taking a blank space and having a vision of what could be is what drives us to show up every, single day. It became our goal to make sure every space we built was both aesthetically pleasing and functional so that teams could operate efficiently and guests had a seamless experience.
Jamie Munoz
Like any good New Orleanian, Jamie got his start a world renowned club and event venue, City Lights, located in the New Orleans’ historical warehouse district. He further pursued career opportunities working with local foodie giants like Ruth Fertel of Ruth’s Chris Steakhouses and Dickie Brennan of the Brennan family of restaurants — including Bourbon House a $14M per year establishment (no bigs, right). These opportunities laid the foundation for the first 20 years of his career.
Jamie has continued to expand his knowledge and embrace his own creativity in the process. While his skillset expanded so too did the opportunity, with a 3-year term at Augusta National Golf Club to work with The Masters Golf tournament. While there, he ran Berkman’s Place, a 5 restaurant facility for VIP tournament members. The last 5 years was spent as Vice President of Operations of Lucy’s Retired Surfer’s Bar & Restaurant, where he took a single location from New Orleans and expanded it to several other locations in the US and beyond. Jamie was instrumental in opening the Key West, Aruba, Costa Rica locations of Lucy’s that are still thriving today.
Jamie now focuses his time on building, triaging, and creatively inspiring hospitality concepts.
Strengths:
Creative Design, Vision, Design Efficiency, Cost Management, Analytics
Cody morgan
Since the age of 15, Cody loved working in restaurants. There was something about the organized chaos, guest experience and general buzz of a restaurant that later influenced her to pursue a degree in Hotel, Restaurant & Tourism from University of New Orleans. Shortly after graduating, Cody jumped into her first management role at a new concept, The Rum House Caribbean Taqueria, located on the ever-so popular Magazine Street. She then spent the next 5 years assisting in the expansion of The Rum House to a 2nd location in Baton Rouge.
Having built a strong working relationship with the owners, she was asked to flex her creative operation muscles on a new concept, The Red Dog Diner, where she realized her love for development, operating multiple units and design.
Like Jamie, Cody was recruited by Augusta National Golf Club to work The Masters Golf Tournament. Over the last few years Cody ran the dining room in the Clubhouse, with exclusive access to tournament players and Augusta National members.
Now with Octo Hospitality, Cody is taking her experience and enthusiasm of hospitality concept development to new levels.
Strengths:
Team Building, Guest Experience, POS training, FOH Hospitality, Marketing, Brand