David C. Shinney

After years as a high- energy, hands-on manager, executive and consultant, David Shinney created DCS Associates, LLC, Hospitality and Restaurant Consultants.

As a consultant, line manager and executive in restaurants, hotels, and gourmet food emporiums across the country and internationally, Shinney conceptualized, launched, operated and improved the quality of food & beverage, operations, customer service, marketing, and the bottom line for a list of Boston clients that includes Stephanie's on Newbury, Grill 23 & Bar, a world class steak and seafood house and the Ruth Chris’ Steak House flagship in the historic Boston Old City Hall. He restructured management and operations at Davio’s Restaurant Group and The Bay Tower, in Boston, MA and he developed and managed eight plus restaurants with multiple concepts for the Briar Group, Brighton, MA, leading the Group’s transition to becoming a major factor in the Irish upscale casual theme business and fine dining segment in Boston, opening Azure (now City Table) / City Bar (The Lenox Hotel), one of the city’s fine dining and hip bar scene institutions.

He has also consulted to a list of market leading hotel clients, boutique and flagged, including the Ocean Cliff Hotel and six affiliated businesses in Newport, RI, the Westin Hotel in Providence, RI, The Colony, Palm Beach, FL, a boutique British Colonial icon, the Art Deco Hotel Astor in Miami’s South Beach and the urban Lenox Hotel in Boston.

He was also was sought out to secure a retail gourmet expansion opportunity, Carmine’s, Boca Raton FL., for the national chain Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Nashville, TN, He opened and operated several gourmet food and wine retail concepts including Sutton Place Gourmet (now Balducci’s; also Hay Day Country Farm Market, in southern CT) in the Washington, DC, VA and MD metro area.

Internationally, Shinney developed three concepts and completed business planning individually and as a combined enterprise, in Prague, the Czech Republic. They included Parnas, Cafe Slavia and Otto's Bar and Grill, respectively a fine dining restaurant and a European "Cafe Society" bistro, both with Czech Republic /  Czechoslovakia historical significance; Otto’s was to be an American specialty food restaurant with signature bar.

DCS Associates’ clients currently include Teranga, Boston’s first and only authentic Senegalese restaurant: the Rusty Nail, Stowe, VT, Mt Stowe’s premier après ski destination; the world-renowned Worcester Art Museum; Joe’s Famous Steak and Cheese, a 40 year legacy family business passed from father to son; KNR Restaurant Group in Miami Beach, FL (and soon New York City),  including Quattro Gastronomia Italiana, the highest of the high end Italian restaurants and Mokai, an uber chic, A-List, nightclub, both in South Beach. He also works on an ongoing basis with a growing stable of Boston and environs clients.

Shinney’s education reinforces his consultancy breadth: Boston College, BA, Economics, the MBA program, Boston College Graduate School of Business (concentration in Marketing); Johnson and Wales, culinary studies; numerous NRA, MRA, industry seminars; in depth Wine Spectator / Court of Master Sommelier beverage course work.

He is frequently quoted in the trade and consumer press and is often engaged for interviews and/or appearances on radio and TV as a respected restaurant / hotel professional. He teaches in the graduate program at Boston University School of Culinary Arts; and is a Founder and a member of the Board of Trustees, the Anthony Spinazzola Foundation and served on the Board of Directors, Massachusetts Restaurant Association and the Boston chapter of the American Institute of Wine & Food.