Michael Tipps

Michael Tipps has spent 30 years in hospitality. He has worked, managed, consulted on, and opened every kind of venue. Hotels. Restaurants. Bars. Nightclubs. Fast service.

He started the way most of us did. Chain restaurants in South Florida. Runner. Busser. Server. Every position on the floor. That foundation still shapes how he reads a room.

At 19 he moved to New York City. He started behind the bar at the Tribeca Grand Hotel and worked his way into management at a remarkably young age, at one of the most talked about venues in Manhattan. He built food and beverage programs that grew revenue and cut costs. What drove him most was the guest experience and getting the best out of his people.

At 23 he trained in classic cocktails under Sasha Petraske of Milk & Honey, the man who brought the craft cocktail back to America. He went on to run the Grand Bar at the Soho Grand under Ian Nicholson, where he learned to build self managing teams and real hospitality standards. High end lounges. Boutique hotels. Nightclubs. Dive bars. He worked them all.

In 2006 he began consulting across the country. He appeared on Paramount Network's Bar Rescue as a bar expert. He toured the country with Jon Taffer and Chef Brian Duffy on the Nightclub & Bar University Rescue Tour. He has served for years as a speaker, contributing writer, and advisory board member for the Bar & Restaurant Expo.

A decade on the road taught him one thing. Struggling venues fail for the same reasons. Concept. Design. Location. Construction. Operations. Training. Lighting and sound. Menu. Marketing. And almost always, hospitality itself.

So in 2016 he cofounded Invictus Hospitality, the first full service hospitality consulting firm in the country. One team handled everything. Legal analysis. Liquor licensing. Site selection. Lease negotiation. Concept. Design. Architecture. Construction management. Opening. Operations. Menu and beverage development. Training. Marketing.

In 2022 he left Invictus. In 2023 he founded Maverick Theory.

Maverick Theory Concept & Design Studio is the only design firm in the country built by food and beverage and hotel operators. Designers and architects take their direction from them. Function comes first. Then narrative storytelling turns it into intriguing, mind bending concepts. The studio works like a film production company, assembling the right specialists for every project.

The Idiot Savants is the operations arm. It brings in people still working at the highest levels across the country. They install systems owners can run without expert experience, so the business stays successful long after opening night.

Concept. Design. Operations. One vision, start to finish.