The rebranded company, formerly RestoHost, expands a human-monitored AI concierge as restaurant operators increase their technology spending.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., July 29, 2026 — heytruffle, a fully managed AI phone concierge for multi-location restaurant groups, has raised new funding from Preface Ventures. The company also rebranded from its former name, RestoHost. It plans to use the funding to expand its service across the United States.
A growing market for restaurant AI
Restaurants are putting more money into artificial intelligence. In a 2025 Deloitte study, 82 percent of restaurant executives said they planned to increase their AI investment, though the report noted that industry adoption still lags. A 2025 Toast survey of more than 700 operators found that 86 percent were comfortable using AI.
Much of that interest is driven by a labor squeeze. The National Restaurant Association’s 2025 State of the Industry report found that many operators do not have enough staff to meet current demand. When dining rooms are short-handed, the phone is often the first thing to go unanswered.
A different bet on how to build it
heytruffle is taking a different path than much of the category. Many voice AI tools are built to automate quickly and run on their own. heytruffle instead sells a managed service. It trains a custom AI concierge for each restaurant and pairs it with a human team that reviews calls and improves the system every week.
The concierge handles reservations, catering, private events, and guest questions, and it routes callers to staff when a person is needed. The company says the model is meant to protect the guest experience, not replace employees. The goal, it says, is to give restaurant teams back the time to focus on the people in front of them. It traces the approach to its own background in running restaurants.
Traction with a high-volume group
One of its clients shows the model at scale. Rreal Tacos, a 12-location group in Georgia, uses heytruffle across all of its restaurants. The service handles more than 20,000 calls a month. In a typical month, it supported the seating of 14,085 guests, capturing demand during peak hours that a busy host stand could not always reach.
Where the funding goes
The new funding from Preface Ventures, a New York-based venture firm, will support the company’s expansion to more restaurant groups. As part of the announcement, heytruffle added order-taking for pickup and delivery to what its concierge can handle. It also introduced an integration with OpenTable that lets the concierge manage reservations within a platform many restaurants already use. The service is designed to work with the systems restaurants already rely on, including their POS and reservation tools.
“Restaurants do not need another piece of software to manage,” said Lucas Espina, founder and CEO of heytruffle. “They need the phone handled with the same care they give the guests in the room. This funding lets us bring that to more restaurant groups.”
The concierge also operates in several languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and German.
About heytruffle
heytruffle, formerly RestoHost, is a fully managed service that runs the phone channel for multi-location restaurant groups in the United States. It builds a custom AI concierge for each restaurant and backs it with a human team that reviews calls and refines performance every week. heytruffle handles reservations, pickup and delivery orders, catering, private events, and guest questions in multiple languages.
A live demo of the AI concierge is available at demo.heytruffle.ai.
Media Contact
Lucas Espina, Founder & CEO
heytruffle
[email protected] • www.heytruffle.ai
SOURCE heytruffle
