Menu Talk

Steven Clarke, VP of marketing for Golden Krust, has worked his way up the family-run Jamaican fast-casual restaurant group. The first location opened in Bronx, N.Y. in 1989 by his uncle, Lowell Hawthorne, and Clarke continues to follow his uncle’s mission to bring a taste of Jamaica to the world. Golden Krust now numbers 100 units and has introduced generations of Americans to foods like braised...

We Got Company is a subtly music-themed bar in the trend-forward neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York. The founders, Jify Shah, Ian Everall, and Paul Ramirez met when working at the Cameo Gallery, a beloved music venue in Williamsburg owned by Shah that closed in 2015. They opened We Got Company four years later, and Ramirez, who had tended bar at Cameo and elsewhere, ended up as the...

Menu Talk: The executive chef followed his passion, pivoting from a teaching career to the restaurant world, and is making waves with his inspiring seafood menu. Josh Hunt, executive chef at Cordelia Fishbar in Washington, D.C., started out as a high school Spanish teacher. After several years on the job, he realized his true passion was cooking — a passion he developed from a foundational memory...

Ryan Poli opened the first restaurant where he was the boss just three years ago. Before that, he’d spent decades running other people’s restaurants in Chicago — Butter, Perennial, Tavernita — as well as Catbird Seat in Nashville, but Iggy’s, an Italian restaurant in the Nashville neighborhood of Wedgewood-Houston, is the first one that he fully owns, with his brother Matthew Poli. Ryan’s the chef...

JoJo Hernandez worked as a chef at country clubs and fine-dining kitchens, but his culinary heart was always with his family’s Filipino cooking. He began introducing those cherished dishes to the Jacksonville, Florida, community through pop-ups at events, eventually operating a food truck while still helming the stove at his day job. But his lifelong dream was to have a brick-and-mortar restaurant...

Eric Leveillee is the culinary director of The DeBruce, a 12-roomboutique hotel in the Catskills community of Livingston Manor, N.Y., where he has worked since 2020, offering a seasonal tasting menu as well as regular à la carte service. He spent his formative culinary years in Philadelphia aftergraduating from Temple University with a degree in economics. He started at a Mexican restaurant called...

Christian Nuñez, owner of Buena Vista Restaurant & Barin New York City, was raised in a restaurant family, but he swore he wouldnever get into the business himself. All that changed when he was recruited ata Penn State college career fair by Chipotle Mexican Grill to become a managerin training. He took his Chipotle experience home to his father’srestaurant, helping to turn it around into a pr...

Justin Devillier has been running the award-winning New Orleans restaurant La Petite Grocery for around two decades, and he’s about to branch out for the first time. Although born into a Navy family in California, his family has been in Louisiana for generations and he moved to New Orleans in the early 2000s, before every city in the country had an interesting culinary scene, to pursue his career...

Don Conner is CEO of Whiskey ‘N Rye with several locationsin California’s Central Coast. The full-service “modern smokehouse” is differentiated by its California-style barbecue, which is a melding of different regional American styles. The restaurant concept is also known for its wide selection of brown spirits, many of which are sourced from local distilleries and are crafted into both classic an...

Michael Zentner has followed a fairly normal career path in the restaurant industry, but in many ways has had an unusual level of success. He started by washing dishes in restaurants in his native Rhode Island and then attended The Culinary Institute of America before working in restaurants in Idaho, Boston, and Washington, D.C., including a stint with chef and restaurateur Michael Schlow. He move...

Magnolia Bakery started as a small neighborhood bake shop in New York City’s Greenwich Village and quickly rose to fame as a cupcake destination, thanks to “Sex and the City.” Today it numbers 53 locations and franchises are popping up around the U.S. and the world. Bobbie Lloyd has been with the company 20 years, joining when there was just that one original shop. She has served in a number of ca...

Veteran restaurateur Joey Campanaro opened Little Owl 20 years ago in New York City’s West Village to nearly instant acclaim with his legendary pork chops and meatballs. He has since expanded his business to include three other restaurants and an event space. The Philadelphia native with family roots in the Italian regions of Calabria and Molise got his start washing dishes on the Jersey Shore and...

Shah’s Halal started out as a food cart on the streets of Queens in New York City in 2005, selling gyros and rice bowls with Afghan flavors. The simple menu used 100% halal ingredients, a rarity at the time, but the demand for halal food kept growing.  Although the quick-service menu now is more extensive, it’s still very simple, said CEO Khalid Mashriqi during the podcast. Burgers, chicken sandwi...

Join chefs and restaurateurs Joe Giacomino and John Vermiglio as they share their remarkable journey transforming Detroit's dining scene. Since opening Grey Ghost in 2016 as just the second destination chef-driven restaurant in the city, these Chicago-trained culinary partners have witnessed—and helped drive—an extraordinary urban revival. From navigating a dangerous street where early guests...

From casual tacos to caviar and champagne — discover how restaurateur Marc Falsetto transformed Fort Lauderdale's dining landscape and pivoted to luxury during a pandemic. As founder and CEO of Falsetto Hospitality, Marc Falsetto has been instrumental in shaping Fort Lauderdale's restaurant scene. Starting with casual concepts under Handcrafted Hospitality — including the popular Tacocraft Mexican...

From dishwasher to award-winning mixologist, Tara Wong's journey through Detroit's hospitality scene is a masterclass in passion and perseverance. Starting in professional kitchens as a teenager two decades ago, she made the leap to bartending and never looked back. Through mixology competitions, self-taught expertise, and an obsession with creating unforgettable guest experiences, Wong ho...

From first-time restaurateur to hospitality empire builder, Jeremy Sasson's journey is a masterclass in passion-driven entrepreneurship. Despite zero restaurant experience, he opened Townhouse Birmingham in 2011, fueled by a childhood spent dining out and a deep love for the hospitality experience. Today, his Heirloom Hospitality Group operates six thriving concepts across Michigan and Nashvil...

Adrienne Cole is co-founder and owner of House of Marigold in Louisville, Kentucky, a full-service breakfast, brunch and lunch restaurant she opened with her husband, Kris, in 2023. She started her restaurant journey operating a small corporate café in a busy downtown office building, eventually expanding into an elevated, Southern-inspired catering company with Kris as chef. Now the pair is growi...

Meet Tom Berry, Chief Culinary Officer of COJE Management Group! 🍽️ Tom oversees 11 unique restaurants across Boston, spanning everything from Mexican and Chinese to Peruvian, Mediterranean, Cuban, French, and classic American steakhouse cuisine. A passionate traveler and chef, Tom draws inspiration from his adventures around the globe—and from the beautiful island of Nantucket, where he honed his...

Dimitri Zafeiropoulos has been global beverage director of Greek seafood concept Estiatorio Milos since 2022, having joined the company in early 2019. He worked his way up fromthe role of sommelier at Milos’s second New York City location, at Hudson Yards, to general manager of that location, to wine director for New York, and then to his current role. Now he coordinates supply of Greek and other...

Bryan O'Kelly didn't start his culinary career in culinary school—he started washing dishes at a Charleston restaurant to pay for college. But once he got behind the stove, he never looked back. He dropped out of college to pursue his passion for cooking, and it led him to some of the most celebrated kitchens in the South. In This Episode: 🔪 From McCrady's to Husk: How working under l...

Eric Dale has spent more than 21 years shaping Denver’s pastry scene at Rioja, where he has built a reputation for creative desserts, sourdough baking, and innovative pastry techniques. In this podcast episode, Dale discusses his unconventional journey from studying fashion design to becoming one of Denver’s most respected pastry chefs. Before joining Rioja, Dale attended culinary school and later...

Join Pat Cobe, Senior Menu Editor at Restaurant Business, for an exclusive conversation with Chris Simms, CEO of Lazy Dog Restaurants. Discover how this innovative casual dining chain is navigating 2026's challenging landscape while staying ahead of food trends. 🍽️  What You'll Learn: How Lazy Dog balances affordability with premium dining experiences The strategy behind their $15 Fireside...

Spike Gjerde has long been one of the most committed regionalists in American cooking — so committed that for a while his Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore didn’t serve lemon, black pepper, or vanilla because they don’t grow in the Chesapeake Bay region. Instead he used local vinegar, fish pepper, and other ingredients from Maryland and Virginia. He has modified his stance on that and expanded his bu...

The Michelin-starred Washington, D.C. restaurant is steeped in a rich culinary heritage shaped by the bounty of the region and the chef’s vision.  When Chef Jeremiah Langhorne opened The Dabney in 2015, his goal was to make it a showcase for the bounty of the Mid-Atlantic region. Washington, D.C. was going through a restaurant renaissance 10 years ago, he said, and the timing was right to introduc...