AMP Up1 Hospitality is readying its roster as it prepares for the next phase of growth. In late October, the experiential dining and entertainment company behind Your 3rd Spot and forthcoming concept The Looking Glass announced three senior leadership appointments. The group promoted Chris Barrows to chief operating officer, Erin Callahan to senior vice president of operations and managing partner overseeing the Midwest, and hired Atlanta chef Joe Schafer as culinary director and executive chef.
The leadership moves arrive as AMP Up1 is building The Looking Glass, an immersive social playground designed to accommodate more than 1,000 guests, set to open in downtown Atlanta in spring 2027. Plus, the team is expanding Your 3rd Spot to a second location at Veridian—a 225-acre mixed-use development in Schaumburg, Illinois—in 2028.
For founder and chief vision officer Josh Rossmeisl, the appointments are about building the operating teams and culinary capabilities needed to support those ambitions.
“We’re thinking about the company we want to become, not just the one we’re operating today,” he tells FSR. “Great real estate, access to capital, and incredible ideas are all important, but ultimately, the success of our brands will be determined by the people we surround ourselves with.”
“You can’t wait until you’re ready to open the next location to start building that leadership foundation,” he adds.
From Hourly Employees to the C-Suite
Barrows is stepping into the COO role after serving as AMP Up1’s chief people officer, bringing nearly two decades of experience in operations and talent development.
His hospitality career began in 2007 as a host at Kings Dining & Entertainment in Boston, where he met Rossmeisl. A Georgia State University graduate with a degree in managerial sciences, Barrows advanced through floor management, assistant general manager, and general manager positions before taking on companywide responsibilities in systems, training, recruiting, and talent development.
“Starting as a host taught me that the opportunity in front of you matters more than the destination you can’t control yet,” Barrows says. “I took a pay cut to be around the right people and situation. I didn’t have grand end goals, but I bet on myself to do a good job and a find a way to be successful. That decision has shaped everything since.”
His advice to leaders in similar situations? “Stop fixating on where you’re going and do something with where you are. The next rep leads to the next opportunity,” he says. “That’s still how I think about growth and leadership today. The opportunities that ending came weren’t there when I started, and I like to believe that the work created them. When they came, I was ready.”
As a member of AMP Up1’s founding leadership team, he helped build the recruiting practices, training programs, and leadership development systems supporting Your 3rd Spot’s Atlanta debut. His expanded responsibilities now include company operations, leadership development, and maintaining consistent standards as the portfolio grows.
The promotion also puts an internal development story at the center of the company’s expansion: a former hourly employee is now responsible for leading its operations.
That employee-first philosophy is baked into the company’s DNA. At the heart of the group’s success and future outlook is an innovative approach to team empowerment—one that grants employees a genuine stake in the company’s success.
Before Your 3rd Spot opened in fall of 2022, Rossmeisl had conversations with his business partner and chief solutions officer, Doug Warner, about the idea of introducing their own employee ownership model. “We said, ‘We want to give our team some skin in the game, and give them an upside to what we’re creating. And we don’t want them to have to jump through hoops to have to do it,’” Rossmeisl previously told FSR.
As big believers in creating a new kind of workplace that gives workers an actual stake in the business, Rossmeisl and Warner took the route of developing a unique managing partner program that assigns each participant units based on their role in the company, contributions, and future expectations for that particular position. Now, around 90 percent of the company’s managing partners started in hourly roles.
READ MORE: Why Your 3rd Spot is Betting the Future of Hospitality on Employee Ownership
Callahan is another great example. Her working relationship with Rossmeisl stretches more than 25 years, but it all started when she became a server at Kings Dining & Entertainment. She then held roles including general manager, regional vice president of operations, and vice president of operations technology, overseeing more than a dozen venue openings across multiple states.
“Erin is one of the best operators I’ve ever worked with,” Rossmeisl notes. “She understands hospitality, she speaks technology fluently, and there are very few challenges I wouldn’t trust her to take on.”
That background gave her experience across several demands of opening and running an experiential dining venue, from construction and dining room operations to technology implementation and team development. When the call came to help build Your 3rd Spot from the ground up, it was the easiest yes Callahan had ever given, she told FSR.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned is that opening a venue isn’t really about opening a building. It’s about building a team and a culture that can deliver what you imagined long after the excitement of the opening is gone,” she says.
As former “Vice President of Getting Sh*t Done” at Your 3rd Spot, Callahan will now oversee AMP Up1’s Midwest operations, beginning with the development and opening of Your 3rd Spot in Schaumburg. Her previous experience in the Chicago market will help her guide operational readiness and leadership development for the location, plus evaluate future Midwest opportunities.
“With Schaumburg, we get to take everything we’ve learned in Atlanta—what worked, what didn’t and, most importantly, why—and build something better from day one,” she says. “We’ll protect what makes Y3S special while giving our new team the opportunity to make it their own, because culture isn’t something we can hand them during orientation. They’ll have to help us build it.”
She adds, “We don’t want to simply bring what we built in Atlanta to the Midwest; we want to listen, understand the community, and create something that feels like it belongs here. The best hospitality makes people feel like you thought about them before they ever walked through the door. If we can create that feeling for our team and our guests, Y3S becomes more than somewhere people go… it becomes a place they feel is theirs.”
READ MORE: The Women Powering Play, Purpose, and People at Your 3rd Spot
Bringing Fine-Dining Experience to High-Volume Operations
Newcomer Schafer joins AMP Up1 with more than 30 years of culinary experience across independent restaurants, multiconcept groups, and large entertainment venues.
A Georgia native and honors graduate of the Art Institute of Atlanta, he held senior culinary positions within Anne Quatrano’s restaurant group, including Bacchanalia and Little Bacch, and worked with Ford Fry’s Rocket Farm Restaurants.
Schafer also led the Atlanta Hawks’ culinary program at State Farm Arena, overseeing food for NBA games, concerts, premium clubs, suites, and major events. During his tenure, the arena ranked No. 1 in the NBA for food and beverage satisfaction among season ticket members.
Most recently, he served as vice president of culinary at Electric Hospitality, overseeing Ladybird Grove & Mess Hall, Muchacho, Ranger Station, and the group’s events and catering business.
When asked what drew him to the opportunity with AMP Up1, Schafer says “I’ve been looking for an interesting place to really bring a combination of the things I learned over the years. A fine dining eye and mentality alongside quality at high volume from the S&E side,” he says.
“The other thing, more importantly, is the culture and infrastructure Your 3rd Spot has,” he says. “It is very apparent that there is growth preparedness here, and the overall attitude of the staff is very positive and enthusiastic as they are part of that growth.”
At AMP Up1, Schafer will oversee culinary direction and operations across the portfolio, including Your 3rd Spot and The Looking Glass. His responsibilities include developing kitchen teams and building systems that maintain food quality and consistency in high-volume settings. The assignment reflects the company’s emphasis on chef-driven dining within its entertainment-focused venues. Food is intended to be a reason guests return, not simply an accompaniment to the activities—a departure from some of the early concepts in the “eatertainment” category, where food was an afterthought.
In order to execute a chef-driven menu strategy consistently across all locations and concepts, Schafer plans to build a solid team at Your 3rd Spot, “so no beats are missed as I shift attention to The Looking Glass,” he says, and will give “them the tools they need to be successful without me. Then, we’ll do the same at TLG.”
Building Beyond Your 3rd Spot
When Rossmeisl and Warner opened Your 3rd Spot at The Works in Atlanta in 2022, they were inspired by the idea of having a “third place” you frequent beyond work and home—emphasizing ownership by using “your” in the name—Your 3rd Spot delivers a “vibe-forward” guest experience best described as “a playground for grown-ups.”
The team transformed a 26,000-square-foot warehouse into a dynamic social dining destination with more than 80 games, from low-tech party games like giant Jenga to classic video games, digital darts, and even a bowling alley, complemented by high-end craft beverages and upscale sharable small plates. The venue earned a place among FSR’s Top 50 Independent Restaurants last year.
With expansion on the horizon, AMP Up1’s next task is carrying the training, culinary execution, and operating culture behind its first venue into a broader portfolio. Barrows, Callahan, and Schafer will each lead a different part of that effort.
Rossmeisl adds, “I know where we want to take AMP Up1, and I know the road ahead won’t always be easy. But having leaders of this caliber, with this level of talent, experience and commitment to developing others, gives me tremendous confidence in our future. It makes our entire company stronger and creates opportunities for the people who are growing alongside us.”
