Restaurant Owners Uncorked

Drew Moore runs three successful establishments in Carrboro, NC. He also closed his fourth establishment two months ago, so we had a lot of meaningful things to discuss. Drew has poured his heart and energy and money and passion and sweat into the restaurant business for many years, and he is very open and transparent with his story. Really, really great guy. We had fun hanging out. Enjoy!

The first night I met Kenneth 5-6 years ago I watched him demonstrate the servant leadership he and his partners have built into the culture, and I was very impressed. We are lucky to serve many restaurant owners who I not only learn from and admire, but who I would be very happy to have my kids work for one day. Kenneth is absolutely one of them. Willy Taco has two incredibly successful locations...

I can't say enough good things about Emily Blount. Humble, authentic, successful, generous, and full of passion and energy for the restaurant business. In three years since opening, her restaurant has twice been a semi-finalist for a James Beard award. Check out her inspiring story here. Enjoy!

Kevin owns Dram & Draught in Raleigh and Greensboro, NC with business partner Drew Schenck. This place is like heaven if you like whiskey! Kevin and I spent half of this episode talking about the amazing nectar of the gods, and the other half talking about hospitality. We did this while sipping on Nikka Taketsura, Booker's 30th Anniversary Special Edition, and a bottle of Old Grand-Dad bottled...

When Johno Morisano bought the former Greyhound bus terminal building that had been built in 1938, he intended to hold it as a real estate investment. But upon closing on the property, he immediately decided he wanted to open a restaurant in it. Nearly five years into the business, The Grey has won Eater's Restaurant of the Year, been named as one of Time Magazine's 100 Greatest Places on Earth, a...

Bond Brothers was named the best new brewery in the nation by USA Today in 2016. Here's the story of how brothers Jay & Jeremy Bond and their two business partners had so much success so quickly they threw out their 5-year plan after just 6 months, since they were growing exponentially faster than they had anticipated. With no significant hospitality experience between the four of them, the gu...

Brandon has been in the business over twenty years, and earned seven consecutive Michelin stars as Executive Chef of Solbar in Napa Valley from the years 2010-2016. He returned to Chapel Hill, NC in 2016 and opened Hawthorne & Wood on April 6 of this year. Brandon and I covered a wide range of topics, from his education over the years about flavor combinations from around the world, the decisi...

Trey owns Treylor Park (Savannah, GA and Ponte Vedra Beach, FL) and Hitch (Savannah). We discussed a wide range of topics, from attention to detail, to, what he learned not to do, keeping things simple, quality over quantity, branding, being a leader vs. a boss, and much more. Tons and tons of respect for Trey, a genuinely great dude who works his tail and off and loves what he does. Enjoy...

Chris owns the very popular, award-winning Corner Taco in Jacksonville, FL and Burrito Royale in Savannah, GA. He's opening Squirrel's Pizza in Savannah soon. And he's a BADASS! In this episode we cover his back story, why having investors would have forced him to make/do things he wasn't proud of, the importance of great systems, the "dance" you have to do with customers, nudging vs. shoving, the...

Fran has owned iconic Fran's Filling Station in Charlotte, NC for ten years, but she's been an owner off and on since 1994. Fran and her team's mission is to fill up her guests bodies and spirits, hence the restaurant name. We talked about a wide range of topics, from why she only wants one location, to managing people being an ongoing work-in-progress, to learning from her brother about coaching,...

Vince is the executive chef of Zeppelin in Charlotte, NC. This place has quickly developed a great reputation and when you listen to Vince you'll understand why. Driven, creative, thoughtful, sharp, and focused, Vince shares the ethos of Zeppelin, the hurdles of the first year of a restaurant, chefs thriving under pressure of having other great chefs around, why he focuses on collaboration vs. com...

Sean owns three Chronic Tacos locations in N.C. and is planning more. He had a short run in hospitality before diving into this opportunity, but he went after it full speed ahead and is having lots of success. There's a 100% chance you'll learn something meaningful from Sean and be inspired. And you'll laugh a few times as well! He is high energy, sharp, confident, fun to hang out with, and a mast...

Zena is awesome. She has been in hospitality for 16 years, and grew up with a family background at Disney. She's been at the very popular Wooden Robot Brewery in Charlotte, NC since day one, four years ago. Owners Dan and Josh needed somebody with hospitality experience when they started, an Zena stepped up and has clearly done a tremendous job. We talked about the team's core values, how they sta...

3-time James Beard award nominee (2017, 2018, 2019) Cheetie Kumar, chef/owner of Garland, Neptune's Parlour, and Kings in Raleigh, NC was recently profiled in the New York Times and was named as one of the 25 Southerners of the Year by Southern Living Magazine in 2018. She's as humble as she is brilliant at her craft, and was so kind to sit down with us. We talked about everything from "imposter s...

We were lucky to have a chance to sit down with both Ray Burns (co-owner) and Alexa Pavloski (Events Director) to learn the story of Prohibition, which has very successful, popular locations in Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA. We talked about everything from the New York bar scene (where Ray got his start), the many costs of running a bar, the importance of empowering your staff, why Alexa applied...

Like so many successful restaurant owners, Chad Biel grew up cooking and started working in restaurants at age 16 as a dishwasher. Since then he's had years of corporate experience with Carrabba's and Chick-fil-A where he learned about having great systems and organization, but also learned he wanted to be a part of something with less bureaucracy. He had been the GM at Bohemian Bull Tavern &...

Josh Lambert co-owns Vicious Biscuit, which has been extremely successful right out of the gate in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. and has very aggressive growth plans. We had a great interview with Josh, and discussed everything from the initial idea, research, planning, timing, biscuits being the new burgers in the U.S., farm-to-table fresh products, employees coming first, leading by example, social media/P...

Nick Barr, chef and kitchen manager at Buxton Hall Barbecue in Asheville, NC, is a thoughtful, passionate person who cares deeply about hospitality. He's been in the industry since he started working at age 15, and has a great story to tell of learning about himself and what matters to him while working at a large chain for a decade, and how he came to appreciate the importance of local ingredient...

It's hard to put into words how much respect I have for Meherwan Irani. The 3x James Beard Award nominee has been so generous with his time with us over the years, including being featured in our second Restaurant Owners Uncorked book. We caught up with him this week after interviewing a few of the team members Chai Pani recently sent to India for twelve days, to learn at a deep, intimate level ab...

Chai Pani Restaurant Group recently sent five team members to India for twelve days, to get a true, deep understanding of the inspiration for Chai Pani, Indian street food. Three of the team members, Isaac, Andy and Gavin sat down with me to share why they went, what they learned, and how the trip impacted each of them both professionally and personally. In over a decade of serving restaurants, th...

Wow, this was fun! I sat down with Ben at Lewis Barbecue and we talked about everything from what he learned about hiring staff when he as a delivery boy at a Chinese restaurant as a teenager, to what he loves most about hospitality, to Detroit-style pizza. Ben is engaging, thoughtful, sincere, humble, hard-working, and has built an incredible culture at Lewis. Ben is the kind of guy I'd want my k...

Patrick is helps run the very highly regarded HK Hospitality, with eight locations in the NYC metro area. We talked extensively about the benefits and challenges of running successful restaurants in New York City. There are 20,000 restaurants in the five boroughs, with hundreds opening all the time. If you own or plan to own a restaurants in New York, this is an excellent episode to tune into. Pat...

Elle is awesome. Let's start with that. She began as a server as age 16 and has grown into a very polished, thoughtful, caring, genuinely hospitable team member at Kitchen No. 324, where she's been the last four years. I am always inspired listening to people who "get it," and Elle does. Listen to Elle talk about the philosophy of "Extreme Hospitality" that's part of the culture in her awesome res...

Martha is so fun to speak with, and that makes sense because she's part of a very fun organization. Bull City Burger and Brewery and Pompieri Pizza in Durham, NC are known for taking a stand on issues they care about (all ingredients, except ketchup, are made in house) and doing things in a fun, memorable way (you'll find out in this episode what you can do for a 26% discount). We've had owner Set...