Corner Booth Podcast

While in college studying mechanical engineering in the ‘80s, Shahpour Nejad worked part-time making and delivering pizzas. "It stuck with me. I am still loving the pizza business."   After moving from Cleveland to Sacramento, Nejad opened the very first Pizza Guys in 1986. "What a learning experience,” he says, adding, “We had 65 seats and offered a pretty extensive menu featuring a lunch buffet....

George McLaughlin had been a successful McAlister's Deli franchisee prior to selling his interest in 2007. "Being out of the business was tough on me," he recalls. "I really missed the guest interaction and working with the staff.” So, 10 years later, McLaughlin opened his first Vicious Biscuit unit in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., the counter-ser...

Award-winning Chef Jose Salazar was born in Colombia and raised in Queens, New York. His career includes working with Jean George Vongerichten, Thomas Keller, and other culinary luminaries. In 2008, he and his family moved to Cincinnati, where he now operates four successful concepts, including Salazar, Safi Wine Bar, Mita's, and Daylily. "I found Cincinnati to be a big, small town, where word of...

Inspired by the trend of healthy menu options in quick-service dining, Nelson Monteith, founder and CEO of Austin, TX-based Honest Mary's, left the oil and gas industry to become a restaurant entrepreneur. Monteith’s confidence in Honest Mary’s was fueled by months visiting similar concepts in California and Florida, as well as researching the quick-service sector. However, he was not as confident...

Sam Ballas grew up in a restaurant family, but he chose a career in finance upon graduation from college. However, 19 years later, he met Chef Sammy Gianopoulos, a Johnson & Wales University graduate with acclaimed culinary success at multiple concepts, and decided to return to the restaurant business.  Gianopoulos yearned to create a high-quality, counter-service restaurant that could easily...

Pop’s Italian Beef & Sausage (“Pop’s Beef”) has been a Chicagoland favorite for more than 45 years. The original Pop’s Beef store, located at 7153 W 127th Street in Palos Heights, IL, was opened March 24th, 1980, as a small family-run sandwich concept operation. Today, it is a successful franchisor with 17 locations.  “I was born in the business,” says Kacie Dancey, the eldest of founder Frank...

Hamp Lindsey's parents founded a small neighborhood grocery store 77 years ago. Today, it is a landmark restaurant in Spartanburg, SC.  “My father was always an entrepreneur,” says Lindsey. “He added a dining room to the store in 1949 and Wade’s Restaurant grew from there.”  Lindsey held various positions at Wade’s before he left to study engineering at Clemson University. In 1977, he returned to...

As a youngster traveling and dining out with his grandparents, William “Ford” Fry developed an interest in restaurants. "I wasn’t a very good student in school and didn’t do well working restaurant front-of-house positions, but when I attended culinary school in Vermont, something clicked and I found a love for cooking," says Fry. That love for cooking and his creativity led him to develop 26 awar...

Knowing full well the challenges of the restaurant business as a line cook at his family’s Atlanta restaurant, Federico Castellucci chose to study finance at Cornell University. However, he switched to the university’s hotel administration & hospitality program where his enthusiasm for the restaurant business was fueled by encounters with luminaries such as Danny Meyer and Michael Mina. Castel...

“There is a lack of information and some actual misinformation regarding current immigration policies to deal with today,” says immigration attorney Jacob Monty, a partner with Texas law firm Monty & Ramirez, LLP. Monty serves on both the James Beard Foundation and the Texas Restaurant Association boards of trustees and advised the George W. Bush administration on immigration reform. “When it...

Long Before Sarah Lieberman and J.C. Ricks were awarded “Best Chicken & Waffles” in the country by Good Morning America in 2023, they were running Dandelion Cafe, their 40-seat breakfast and brunch concept in Bellaire, TX.  As a teen, Lieberman worked in her parent's pizza restaurant.  After a brief career in the oil industry, she returned to hospitality in 2016 to open Dandelion Cafe. Ricks h...

Brian Mills and his business partners researched dining trends and successful restaurant concepts before creating CHOP5. “We chose health, freshness, and quality at a reasonable price as the basis of our concept as we saw those items as being most important to today’s dining consumer," says Mills. CHOP5 now operates restaurants in Ohio, Florida, and Colorado with plans for franchise growth. CHOP5...

From playing professional basketball to owning a successful multi-unit foodservice management company, George Tinsley is committed to excellence.  “Life was difficult for me as a child growing up in Louisville, KY. My stepmother died when I was 13 and I was having a difficult time in school. One teacher recommended I quit but it was another very special instructor that mentored me and introduced m...

Penn Station East Coast Subs celebrates its 40th anniversary this year! Lance Vaught joined founder Jeffrey Osterfeld in 2002 as a franchise adviser charged with improving unit performance. “I really connected with the challenges and concerns of small business operators and saw our franchisees more as brand ambassadors," Lance tells us. What started in 1985 as a small bagel shop and delicatessen i...

At 21, Troy Guard left community college in San Diego to return to Hawaii, his birthplace, where he mentored under Roy Yamaguchi, celebrity chef. Guard recounts, “I started in the pantry, worked my way through the kitchen, and over the next eight years opened restaurants with him [Yamaguchi] in Tokyo and New York City.” At 38, Guard opened his first restaurant in Denver. “I knew the culinary side...

“My family had a farm in North Dakota,” says Michelle Korsmo, CEO of the National Restaurant Association. “I was raised knowing that helping each other was the best way to help ourselves and that together people really can make a difference.” Korsmo gained early restaurant experience working at TGI Fridays before becoming a state government lobbyist. From there she transitioned to CEO positions wi...

When Peter Yang’s parents immigrated to San Diego from China, they did not aspire for their children to be employed in food service. “My parents were trained designers in China, and had always hoped their children would graduate college and choose professional careers,” says Yang. Nevertheless, he grew up in the family restaurant and went on to develop Pokeworks, the world's largest fast-casual, p...

Eatzi’s Market & Bakery (Eatzi’s) was created by award-winning concept developer Phil Romano in 1996 as a joint venture with casual dining restaurant company Brinker International, Inc. Soon after its launch, Adam Romo joined Eatzi’s as the company’s first CFO.  "The initial acceptance was way above expectations," says Romo, adding, "The concept successfully offered something new and different...

Emily Hunt Turner is the founder and CEO of All Square Enterprises, a Minnesota non-profit organization. A former civil rights attorney, she created a restaurant and food truck business that provides a fresh start for people with a criminal record. Says Emily, “By investing in those recently released [from prison] and those with criminal records and trying to move forward, we provide a sense of pu...

Sisters Jackie and Jessica Rodriguez started working in the family restaurant business as teenagers. With time and hard work, they have grown into leadership positions in this successful multi-concept hospitality company in El Salvador. What started as a San Salvadorian bakery created by their grandparents, grew into a 20-unit chain under the leadership of their father.  Sixteen years ago, the fam...

In 2014, Cameron Gerber bought a hotel and restaurant near his home outside Varney, a small community in Ottawa, Canada. After trying to sell the real estate, he and his brother Andrew opened a casual full-service concept on the property, with no restaurant experience. Their first restaurant struggled until they renovated it into Pebbles Family Buffet, which became a local hit.  The success of the...

Alex Eagle was general counsel for Austin, Texas-based fast-casual concept Freebirds World Burrito before becoming its chief executive officer in 2018. Albeit his hands-on restaurant experience was limited, he forged ahead with plans for the concept’s improvement, leaning on his attention to detail and ability to motivate others. Quoting Jim Sullivan, CEO and founder of leadership and development...

Tom O’Keefe is managing director of the 17-unit Louisiana and Texas family-style concept Southern Classic Chicken. O’Keefe says that he was initially drawn to the company by its 35-year customer following that he describes as "cult-like." Says O’Keefe, "Brothers Howard and Leon Fanning had just taken over operations and were placing emphasis on growth when I decided to join. The combination of qua...

As immigrants from the Soviet Union and speaking little English, Piroshky Piroshky Bakery’s founders launched the business 32 years ago in a 350-sq.-ft. space at Seattle’s Pikes Peak Market. In this episode, owner Olga Sagan tells how her grandparents created an Eastern European pastry business that is now a nationally recognized brand. "Quality never goes out of style," says Olga. "We use the fin...

Getting "money, money, money" to finance their businesses is always a hot topic of interest for restaurant owners and operators. Meet Celeste Deal, chief sales officer with ARF Financial. She has 24 years of funding experience and has provided more than $120 million in 12,000 different transactions with small-business operators.  Here, Celeste shares her knowledge to help us secure funding, manage...