Community Highlights: Meet Ali Gensert of 4Top Hospitality

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ali Gensert. 

Hi Ali, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
I am the Director of Marketing for 4Top Hospitality, a local independent restaurant group based out of Nashville. I’ve worked in the hospitality industry since I was 15. The hustle and bustle of restaurants have always excited me, so it was a natural career path to follow. Upon graduating with a degree in Service Management from UT, I began my tenure with 4Top Hospitality as the Sales Manager for Amerigo Italian Restaurant in Brentwood, TN. After two years, I took over the Nashville location, followed by our new restaurant, Etch, in 2012. My primary role was to increase catering and private dining business for the three local restaurants. As our company continued to grow, there was an increased need for marketing, so I began to focus my efforts on increasing our presence both online and in our local communities where our restaurants are located. This morphed into a new role, and a new division, for our company. Today, I oversee the sales and marketing department for our 15 restaurant locations.

I work directly with ownership, upper management teams, and external media and public relations firms to ensure our restaurants have ample online and community presence through digital campaigns, social media management, special events, advertising, and strategic partnerships. I manage our marketing and local sales teams to implement sales initiatives while upholding a strong brand presence in each market. As our company continues to grow, I assist with new store openings and develop relationships in new markets to expand our reach to offer excellence in food, beverage, and service to guests throughout the southeast.

I love food, being creative, and the overall dining experience, so I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot with my career. There is truly never a dull moment in the restaurant business, so it keeps me on my toes and allows me to work with some really great people along the way!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My first two years were my most challenging. I spent most of my time cold calling businesses by visiting them door-to-door (this was before LinkedIn, so I was prospecting the old school way!). I didn’t have formal sales training and was fairly introverted, so building relationships and sales were pretty challenging for me. However, I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. It taught me how to step out of my comfort zone and just figure it out, and I’m a much better leader because of it. 

The pandemic was also a rocky time, not just for me, but for everyone in the hospitality business. Going from full-service dining to takeout in a matter of days was extremely tough. The fear of the unknown coupled with rising costs and supply issues was palpable. We have locations in seven different cities, all of which were following the guidance of their local mayor and/or governor. This made it challenging to manage the ever-changing rules and regulations surrounding capacity restrictions and local ordinances. I read a lot of executive orders in 2020! But we kept pushing forward and pulled together to come up with creative ways to continue to feed our loyal guests. Some ideas worked, some didn’t, but the grit and passion our leadership team showed were immeasurable. I am fortunate to work for a company that kept the management team employed during that time and proud of what we accomplished. Today, we’re planning for our 16th location to open in early 2022! 

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about 4Top Hospitality?
4Top Hospitality is a multi-concept independent restaurant group with 15 locations throughout the southeast. Our establishments range from casual neighborhood Italian restaurants to upscale steakhouses to chef-driven hotspots. Since joining the company in 2006, our footprint has tripled in size, with even more locations on the horizon. 

Locally, we have Amerigo Italian Restaurant, Char, etch, etc., and Jasper’s restaurants in the Middle Tennessee area. We have a pretty simple philosophy in our company: “Make Guests Happy.” That’s what we strive to do every single day, to create memorable experiences for our guests. 

One of my favorite aspects of our company is that we promote a lot from within. More than half of our management and home office team started as hosts, servers, and cooks at our restaurants. Even our owners used to wait tables together! Having that opportunity for growth available for our staff is something I’m proud to be a part of, and I think it helps foster a well-rounded, experienced leadership team. 

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.4tophospitality.com
• Instagram: @alikate03