Joiners

How do you get from Dua Lipa to Hibiscus Wine in three moves or less? Find out this week, when the boys crack open a few cold ones with Dan Abel, Co-Founder and CEO of Pilot Project, a brewery incubator based out of Chicago. Fittingly, it's the first episode to feature actual drinking, and it's complemented by incredible insight into the type of creativity, market savvy, and attention to detail th...

This week, we're lucky enough to have D'Andre Carter sidle up to the booth. D'Andre is the creative force and culinary talent behind a number of celebrated projects, like Feast & Imbibe and Soul & Smoke : two Chicagoland mainstays that put the chef's attention to detail and panache front and center.  We talk about what characterizes Chicago-style BBQ, how Olive Garden is low-key a masterclass in c...

This week, we're yelling "fore!" with Soo Ahn , executive chef of Adalina , and (to Danny's fanatical delight) fantastic golfer . He tells us about his unconventional journey to the world of hospitality, the invaluable education provided by failure, and how to nail your tasting interview for a world-class restaurant. 

This week, we welcome Emma Janzen , the celebrated writer responsible for such lauded collaborations as The Way of the Cocktail and The Bartender's Manifesto , as well as her own fantastic tome on Mezcal, called Mezcal: The History, Craft & Cocktails of the World's Ultimate Artisanal Spirit. She is a certified expert on cocktails and a fantastic writer to boot, and this is a fun conversation that...

For lucky episode #13, renowned Urbanbelly chef, Cornerstone partner, and all around Chicago gem Bill Kim slides into the booth. He talks to us about how he ran with the chances he was given early on, the hectic coordination that characterized the salad days of farm-to-table, and what it means when you're told to "throw down or go down." 

This week, we're with our friend Wade McElroy , a man who has kind of done it all in hospitality. From working as a server, to helping open The Standard Hotel in New York, to designing bars with his creative partner Jeff Donahue, Wade has a diverse range of experience to draw from, and he's kind enough to share what he's learned along the way. We talk about making people comfortable with design, s...

Our guest this week is Amy Cavanaugh, a food writer whose held positions at Plate Magazine, Time Out Chicago, and elsewhere. She currently works at Chicago Magazine as their dining editor and her knowledge of Chicagoland cuisine runs deep (and she has the Google Doc to prove it.) Our conversation runs the gamut, from the ideal Chicago hot dog and the fluctuating price of lobster rolls, to the ethi...

This week, the table is crashed by none other than Chef Jonathan Zaragoza , the intrepid Goatboy of Birrieria Zaragoza . He walks us through the process of making birria (turns out it's good to start with a goat that's no longer alive), kitchen mishaps, and his family's less-than-legal culinary origin story. Listen to hear tips about the best Mexican spots in and around Chicago, the importance of...

This week, we have the pleasure of speaking with Lily Wang , who along with her partner Joe opened up Nine Bar , an exciting new cocktail bar located in Chinatown. Nine Bar opened up in the back end of her family's restaurant, Moon Palace, which has been around for quite some time, and continues to serve its expansive menu to go.  Lily takes us through the process of growing the concept from a pop...

A good soup takes time. It's intuition and breadth of knowledge that brought this week's joiner, Ethan Lim, to his current station as the chef-owner of the renowned Hermosa Restaraunt, a one-of-a-kind dining experience built around intimacy, connection, and a profound seriousness. This week's conversation runs the gamut -- from Ethan's time selling cars for Mini and Tesla to his experience making...

This week, the two-top is crashed by Ronnie Kaplan, business-owner, writer, and contributor to the great LTH Forum, a beloved resource for Chicago food enthusiasts and insiders seeking the best neighborhood restaurants and bars throughout Chicagoland. A formative interaction with the late Anthony Bourdain helped him find his place in the hospitality landscape -- and from this one-of-a-kind perspec...

This week, we're joined by John Manion, fire-breathing chef and raconteur. He takes us on a journey through his formative years as a Hemingway-inspired youth seeking connection in Brazil, to his salad days navigating kitchens across the US, and how it all lead him his current station: chef-owner of the renowned El Che Steakhouse.

This week we have Charles Joly, one of Chicago's most celebrated bartenders who has in many ways done it all. His skills have literally taken him around the world, and now he has a line of ready to drink craft cocktails, called Crafthouse Cocktails. Join us as we discuss Charles ascent from humble barback to World Champion Bartender. 

This week, we talk to the dynamic Zoe Schor of Split-Rail, a Boston native who cut her culinary teeth in the country's three biggest markets. In addition to telling us a bit about her new venture, Dorothy Downstairs, a neighborhood lesbian bar, she explains the difference between competing on Chopped and being in the weeds at a restaurant on a particularly busy night, and details the relationships...

This week we're joined by Nicole Alexander of Siren Betty design. She has designed several beautiful concepts across commercial and residential spaces in Chicago and throughout the country. She tells us about her path, studying art and fashion in college, and finally finding herself in interior design.

This week we talk to owner and operator David Posey , who could have become a florist, but instead decided to pursue the culinary arts. David attended the Culinary Institute of America before working in some of Chicago's best kitchens. After meeting his future wife and culinary partner Anna, he opened the award-winning, Michelin-starred Elske , a gem in the hospitality landscape. Join us for a del...

For the inaugural episode of Joiners, we take a peek under the proverbial hood of the creative side of marketing and PR with Jenna Liberman . Jenna cut her teeth with beloved Chicago restaurant group One Off Hospitality as their first in-house marketing and PR person. After that, she moved on to a full service agency called Skoog , where she managed several clients. She eventually spun off of that...