Restaurant Owners Uncorked

This was supposed to be posted yesterday but we had other items to attend to. Apoligies! Stay tuned, more coming daily.

In the coming weeks we'll be sharing tips and creative ideas we are learning from restaurants all around the country. Here's the first one!

Karen is the first person to be on this podcast three times. When we last talked over the summer we agreed we had more topics to cover, and clearly we did. Let's get right to it... ENJOY!

Hunter opened Session Bar in Tuscaloosa, AL five months ago and his place is CRUSHING it. Hunter is thirty years old, and this is the first place he has owned, but he's been in the business since he was a teenager. Hunter has very good business acumen, high energy, and humility. A great combination! Enjoy...

Wow. This episode is tremendous. No spoilers, just listen. Enjoy!

Sean and Wil caught up to discuss a wide range of topics, from the book "Traction" and it's impact on Sean's business, the Communal Table podcast, Ben's Friends, where the craft beer industry is (possibly) heading, mental health, and more. Sean's a great dude, this was a fun conversation. Enjoy!

A heads up on the episodes we'll be recording this week.

Jerry Lachman, aka Jerry Allen, is a very humble, low key legend in the Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, NC area. This was so much fun to record, and you will absolutely enjoy listening to Jerry share his story and his philosophies on how to run a successful establishment. Enjoy!

On a sunny, 70 degree February on the N.C. coast, we sat down with co-owners Martin de Jongh and Ole Pederson and learned how the two programmers-by-day launched a successful brewery eighteen months ago while keeping their day jobs. Enjoy!

Aviator Brewing opened in 2008 with Mark brewing beer out of an airplane hangar (there's a very cool story about why he was there) and driving his kegs to nearby restaurants and selling them out of the back of his truck. Eleven years later and Aviator has outgrown their 23,000 sq ft facility and is building a 65,000 sq ft facility to move into. This is a great story and Mark spent the whole hour w...

Scott Crawford and Steve Palmer discuss addiction and sobriety issues in the hospitality industry, as well as the organization Ben's Friends in a conversation hosted at Crawford and Son. This is a very honest, raw discussion about an issue that has so negatively impacted the restaurant industry for decades. Steve (sober 18 years) and Scott (sober 15 years) lost a very close friend, Ben Murray, sha...

We've known Woody and Chris for a long time, and we're thankful for that. These are two incredibly genuine guys who've built a great business that is very well respected in their footprint. We had a great time hanging out with them, learned a lot about the craft beer business, and even cracked open a couple of cans of their iconic "Trophy Wife" beers. Enjoy...

Rick owns Deeluxe Chicken in Durham, NC and has been in the business a long time. We got pretty deep into substance abuse, sobriety, relapsing, mental health, physical health, and more. All the stuff nobody wanted to talk about until fairly recently. This is raw and real and awesome. Enjoy...

This is so good, and so relevant. We've had each of these guys on the podcast in the past. We got together to talk about concerns they share about current industry trends. This is a must-listen if you enjoy our podcast...

Wow, this is an AMAZING conversation with James Beard Award nominee Oscar Diaz, Executive Chef for Cortez Seafood + Cocktail and Jose and Sons in Raleigh, NC. We spent nearly two hours talking to Oscar, learning his story, why he grew up bouncing back and forth between acting Mexican and acting American, coming to terms with being proud of both heritages, his career growth, and why he got past loo...

Karen joined us in March, 2018 and shared her story. In this episode we caught up with her and talked about the round of capital she just raised, and whole lot more. This is a pretty deep conversation about some very important issues involving women in hospitality, and it's a must-listen. Enjoy...