Joiners

Our guest this week is more than just a bartender (though there's no questioning his bonafides in that arena) -- he's a glorified YouTube sensation who's managed to successfully marry his love of making craft drinks with his panache for storytelling and performance. Anders Erickson stops by the Joiners studio to tell us all about getting his start as a soda jerk in Door County Wisconsin, his thesp...

This week, we dive deep into a big cup of joe with none other than Xavier Alexander of Metric Coffee. His dogged persistence and commitment to independence have earned him one of the top spots the city’s coffee upper echelon, and his knowledge of and passion for every part of the process are both crystal clear and inspiring. He tells us about buying his first coffee machine with credit cards and s...

This week's guest's body of work is rivaled only by his low-key demeanor and genial humility about it all. From working under Charlie Trotter and Grant Achatz, to taking a chance with Town House in Virginia's countryside, to opening the much-lauded pairing of Smyth and The Loyalist in the West Loop (with so much more in between), John Shields is a true gem of the Chicago culinary scene, and it was...

As the Director of Sustainability and School Food for the Academy for Global Citizenship, this week’s guest is piloting a revolutionary new way of thinking about food in schools, with a holistic system that integrates environmental justice, urban farming, and equity into the school’s curriculum and structure — right in the heart of Chicago. With a master’s degree in Human Development and Education...

For our fiftieth episode, we're lucky to be joined by none other than R.J. Melman: he's the president of Lettuce Entertain You, one of the finest restaurant groups in the country, a family enterprise renowned for its imaginative spirit and commitment to quality. He tells us all about growing up immersed in restaurant openings, how Lettuce settles on new concepts (it always starts with the food), a...

Raised on pans of arguably some of the best beef stew ever made in the Chicagoland area, our guest this week comes from a family devoted to taking care of the neighborhood with excellent food and warm hospitality. From its halcyon days as Raskin’s, to its evolution into Manny’s and beyond, Dan Raskin joins us to tell us all about what it was like growing up in and around Chicago’s finest Eastern E...

This week, we're joined by a man whose bombastic diction is matched only by a glut of talent and good taste. Won Kim is a DJ, artist, and chef whose raw curiosity and passion for collaboration has brought about some, well, extremely cool shit . Join us for a conversation about the hustle, the importance of good communication, amplifying pop-ups, and so much more. Plus — a shocking secret affinity...

With is/was brewing, this week's guest is flipping the script on craft brewing, expanding its scope while honoring its heritage with less-conventional beer styles, all composed with impeccable care and razor-sharp technical savvy. Mike Schallau joins us to share his journey, from playing jazz guitar in college to crafting some of the city's best artisanal beer. And what do you know, he brought som...

Funeral Potatoes is composed of Eve Studnička and Alexis Rice -- they're industry veterans from the catering world who opened a virtual kitchen during the pandemic, and now they’re transitioning into a full-on brick and mortar. Today, we're talking with Eve, who walks us through their origin story, shining a light on some of the more unconventional sides of hospitality in our city that are really...

Don’t let this week’s guest’s low-key demeanor fool you — she is a creative powerhouse behind Hogsalt, a restaurant group known for their impeccable design and commitment to quality, and her work speaks for itself. On the precipice of their first (okay, technically second) foray into Paris, co-founder and beverage specialist Jean Tomaro joins us to chat the concept-to-implementation process, the i...

You might notice that this week's guest is a bit... untethered (in the best possible way). Though he might not be tied to any particular concept, or restaurant, or project, when we talk about the "colorful characters" in our intro, our guest is exactly the kind of person we're referring to. He harbors a vast quantity of knowledge about various foods -- and beyond that, he's an enthusiast who truly...

This week, we're thrilled to be joined by a man who takes no shortcuts and leaves no stone unturned: the Ramen_Lord himself, Mike Satinover. A true enthusiast and champion for the Japanese culinary staple, he got his start sharing recipes and musings on Reddit, and has grown his personal brand and knowledge to impressive heights. His passion culminates in the imminent opening of his own restaurant...

This week, we welcome one of Danny’s mentors to the studio for a special conversation with a man who embodies the true spirit of generous hospitality.   He helped spur Chicago’s cocktail revolution with forward thinking and graceful grit at The Whistler, and gave us one of the city’s best tiki bars with the opening of Lost Lake in 2017. We are lucky to have renowned bartender, cocktail champion, a...

Our guest this week wears a lot of hats. As the founder and creative director of Good Beer Hunting, he's fostering a worldwide conversation and community around the ubiquitous brewed beverage and helping breweries of all shapes and sizes thrive. He also founded Feel Goods Company, a full-definition beverage development studio innovating on the always-evolving world of drinking. That's right: brand...

We can say with absolute confidence that this week's guest is the most famous butcher in all of Chicagoland. Luckily for us, he's also an affable mensch and an extremely pleasant hang. After studying jazz at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Rob Levitt found his true passion in the culinary arts, and decided to trade his tenor saxophone for an even-more-cutting arsenal of meat-rendering imp...

Our guest this week cut her culinary teeth at her parents’ restaurants, where she witnessed firsthand what it takes to run a successful operation, and Oaxaca’s Seasons of the Heart Culinary school, where she opted to go instead of Paris. This devotion to heritage, augmented by an almost mystical creative approach, has helped her find success as the chef-owner of Logan Square’s lauded Mi Tocaya Ant...

Our guest this week never intended to break into the newspaper game, but we are happy he did. Nick Kindelsperger stumbled into food writing by following his gut — after college, he moved to New York City, where he was blown away by the ubiquity of high quality food, and the concept of making one single dish as well as you possibly can. Fast forward to now — Nick is a food critic for Chicago’s pape...

With a body of work as impressive as it is diverse, our guest this week is a consummate world builder whose unique approach to concept development marries a commitment to community with acute systems thinking. That's right: this week, Cecilia Cuff pops by to tell us all about her international hospitality journey, from bringing trays of food to the neighborhood trash collectors as a child, to laun...

April Fool's pranks, James Beard awards, and more cheesecake than we know what to do with -- this week, we're talking to our friend Elana Schulman of Eli's Cheesecake, who knows all of these things well. She tells us about growing up in a food family, the extended history of Eli's, and what makes Chicago style cheesecake Chicago style. And at the head, the boys play an educational round of two tru...

We've been trying to get this week's guest on since we started the podcast, and even though we weren't able to record this episode over cocktails, we hope you agree that it was worth the wait. Terry Alexander of One Off Hospitality is the industry veteran behind countless classic joints of today and yore, from Danny's Tavern to Big Star . He tells us all about falling ass-backwards into the world...

This week, we're joined by Fifty/50 Restaurant Group's extraordinarily talented Director of Beverage, Julietta Campos. She joins us a mere two weeks after she helped open Kindling, a new concept bar that encompasses two floors of Chicago's historical Willis Tower, a project three years in the making. She tells us all about what such an undertaking entailed, offers some insight into The Aviary's ho...

We’ve got an exciting one for you this week, folks. You know him from his PBS series Mexico: One Plate at a Time , his seven James Beard Awards, and his winning run on Top Chef Masters -- and you've probably dined at Frontera Grill , Topolobampo , Tortas Frontera , or any of his other widely lauded restaurants. That’s right: this week we are talking to Rick Bayless , the magnanimous master of Mexi...

For Episode #32, we're shucking the oyster of life down to its bare essentials with our friend Pete Ternes. He's one of the founders of Bungalow by Middle Brow, once "the littlest bar in Illinois," and one of our favorite brewpubs around. He tells us about his days farming oysters in a windy atoll in French Polynesia, and how that experience helped him leave behind a career as a corporate tax lawy...

This week, we break one of the Violet Hour's cardinal rules by having their bartending alum Abe Vucekovich crash the podcast. He's currently working as the beverage director of Meadowlark, one of Chicago's best craft cocktail lounges. He delves into his unique approach to curating a fine drinking experience, illuminates the process of developing one of the most creative menus in the business, and...

This week, we're going long on all things agave with one of its most zealous evangelists: Lou Bank of Saving Agave for Culture, Recreation, Education, and Development, or S.A.C.R.E.D., a not-for-profit corporation that helps build libraries, replant agave, and maintain water-preservation systems in rural Mexico. A delightful raconteur, Lou comes to the studio to do more than preach the holy gospel...