About
Epicurean Digital Consultants blends 20+ years of hospitality leadership with cutting-edge digital design, branding, and AI automation.
Our Story
Epicurean Digital Consultants was founded in June 2024 by Ali Solak, a Senior F&B Operations Executive with 20+ years of experience directing operations across 250+ outlets in five countries.
Throughout his career — including multiple London openings for Simit Sarayi — Ali kept seeing the same pattern: brilliant food businesses being held back by digital strategies that didn't understand hospitality, and consultants who'd never actually run a restaurant.
Epicurean Digital Consultants exists to bridge that gap: genuine, hands-on F&B operational experience combined with modern digital design, branding and marketing. You work with Ali directly, not an account manager.
Before EDC
20+ years in hospitality operations, before Epicurean Digital Consultants existed. These were Ali’s own businesses and operational roles — not consultancy engagements, and not EDC client work.
- 39 Steps Coffee Haus, London. Mesut Özil was an investor in the business. I worked with him directly, day to day, from the first fit-out through to a trading operation — site selection, kit, supply, hiring and the opening rota.
- Guaca, Chelsea, London, 2011–2014. My own restaurant: Guaca Mexican Restaurant and, alongside it, Steakhouse by Guaca. I owned and ran both — the menus, the kitchen, the floor and the books.
- Simit Sarayı, London — Oxford Street, Bond Street, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Villiers Street, Southampton Row, King's Road and Green Lanes.
- Responsibility for 250+ outlets across five countries.
Named individuals and brands denote roles held during a 25-year career. They do not imply endorsement of Epicurean Digital Consultants Ltd.
Much of that work was opening Turkish food and drink sites in London. Here is what the UK process involves for a Turkish brand.
How I work
The food comes first
A website can't fix a dish that doesn't sell. If your menu or your margin is the real problem, I'll say so before I quote you for anything digital.
Built for a phone at six o'clock
Most people find you standing on a pavement, deciding where to eat, on a phone with one bar of signal. That's the moment your site has to work. Everything else is decoration.
AI where it saves you hours
Answering the same booking question forty times a week is a job for software. Reading a room on a Friday night is not. I use AI for the first and stay out of the way of the second.
Plain English, plainly reported
No dashboards you'll never open. You get told what was done, what it cost, and what changed — in a language you'd use with your own staff.
Meet the Founder
Ali Solak
Founder & Lead Consultant
With 20+ years in hospitality leadership and digital marketing, I founded Epicurean Digital Consultants after witnessing too many exceptional food businesses struggle in the digital landscape. Having worked across every aspect of hospitality — from day-to-day floor operations to large-scale venue launches — I saw first-hand how the industry was caught between generic web agencies with no food knowledge and traditional F&B consultants with limited digital expertise. I built EDC to bridge that gap: one consultancy that truly understands both your kitchen and your online presence. Every strategy I deliver is grounded in real operational experience, not just marketing theory.
Introduction
In his own words
A short introduction from Ali Solak, founder of Epicurean Digital Consultants.
On the avatar. The presenter in this video is an AI-generated avatar of Ali Solak. The words are his own.
25 years across these kitchens, floors and counters
Logos are the property of their respective owners and denote roles held or work delivered during a 25-year career. They do not imply endorsement of Epicurean Digital Consultants Ltd.
39 Steps Coffee Haus, Soho
39 Steps Coffee Haus, Knightsbridge
Simit Sarayı
You Work With Ali Directly
Epicurean Digital Consultants is founder-led. You work with Ali directly, not an account manager. Where a project needs a specialist — a designer, a developer — one is brought in for that piece of work, and Ali stays responsible for it end to end.
What I've Built
Beyond consultancy, I build the tools hospitality businesses actually need. Born from 20+ years of operational experience — solving problems I ran into myself.
