Restaurant Unstoppable with Eric Cacciatore

Iliana and Ernesto married in Mexico City and shortly after moved to Oaxaca, where Iliana had deep family roots and where she wanted to open a restaurant specializing in Oaxacan cuisine.  The restaurant flourished until 2006, when the community experienced a period of political unrest, causing Iliana and Ernesto to sell their restaurant and move to the United States. Not long after their arrival t...

Co-owners Roberto Espinosa and  Eric   Wilkerson both went to the University of Texas and met after Espinosa opened the original Tacodeli location in Austin, TX in 1999. Over the past twenty years, Tacodeli has expanded their menu while still making sure to source ingredients locally whenever possible. Founder Roberto Espinosa was born and raised in Mexico City and the menu shows these roots, from...

Jon   Alexis  is the owner of  TJ's Seafood Market  (2 locations) and  Malibu Poke (2 Dallas locations and 1 Austin location). TJ's Seafood Market is celebrating 30 years as a family-owned business. Under Alexis's vision, TJ's has expanded from a neighborhood favorite fish market to two award-winning restaurants with fish markets, plus a robust catering company.   Malibu Poke is Jon's fast-casual...

Megan  and  Dino Santonicola are owners of Partenope Ristorante located in Dallas, Texas.   They are a dynamic duo with  Dino, a master of pizza, and Megan, with her 20 years of experience in the Dallas restaurant and hospitality industry.  In 2011,  Dino  became the executive chef and master pizzaiolo of Cane Rosso  in Dallas. During his 7 years with Cane Rosso,  Dino grew the concept and brand f...

Kulsoom Klavon is the Vice President of Curation at The Food Hall Company (owned and operated by Front Burner Group )  and today we're here to tap into her unique perspective on F&B in the food hall world. Kulsoom is responsible for selecting all the food and beverage concepts that go into Food Hall Company 's locations (currently Legacy Hall in Plano, TX, and a food hall in Nashville opening this...

Terry and Jennifer Pham opened the first Fat Straws in 2002 and, despite a challenging economic climate, grew 15-20% each year. In 2007, Fat Straws launched its second store in north Dallas. Even the 2008 recession didn't slow Fat Straws' continued growth, due in part to the Pham's focus on quality control, outstanding service, community-based marketing and an emphasis on strong relationships–with...

Todd Coerver is the recently-announced CEO of the Austin, Texas, hamburger chain, P.Terry's . Prior to his current role, Todd served Larkburger as CEO and Taco Cabana as chief brand officer and Chief Operations Officer. And if we go back EVEN FURTHER... Before his role at Taco Cabana , Todd spent 14 years at Whataburger where he ended his tenure as VP of marketing and innovation. Check out P. Terr...

In 2005, after a career in advertisement and owning two pizza places, Patrick and Kathy Terry decided it was time to go all-in on burgers. With that, P.Terry's was born. The vision was to re-create the burger joint Patrick remembers as a child: simple, with a focus on quality and great customer service. 15 years later P.Terry's has scaled to 16 locations in and around Austin, TX with plans to expa...

This is Chris Shultz's 2nd time on Restaurant Unstoppable. We met over 4 years ago at the NRA show and he was on a panel I was hosting. A few months later I hosted Chris on Restaurant Unstoppable, Episode 341 ! Hands down, one of my best interviews out of 691 total episodes. It was so good, I re-published it last week. In that episode, we discuss how Chris helped Starbucks scale from 200 to 20,000...

This is a REPEAT EPISODE!! One thing I'd like to do going into the future is to build on my pre-existing relationships. Who were some of our best guests? Where are they now? Let's get them back on the show and continue learning. Chris Schultz is absolutely one of those standout guests. Today, I'm bringing to you his original interview so you can get caught up because on Thursday we're bringing him...

A Chicago native, Justin Turner got his start in fine dining serving for years as a private chef to NBA star Shane Battier. When Shane was traded to the Rockets, Justin followed to Houston, but when the baller moved on again, the chef stayed, converting a yellow school bus into one of Houston's first food trucks and naming it after his grandfather: Bernie's Burger Bus . His gourmet burgers and fri...

What if there was a way to help us find the food we're craving, in a no-bullshit, dead-simple, dependable manner recommended by people we actually trust? According to Steve Raggiani and Joe Scalo, there is a better way and it's called the 8it app . Show notes… Favorite success quote or mantra: "It's about the food." In today's episode with Steve Raggiani and Joe Scalo we will discuss: How deep and...

  Upon graduating college Dave Hirschkop opened Burrito Madness in College Park, MD. As a way to deal with unruly drunks, Dave created a hot sauce. Before long that hot sauce became Dave's main focus, and Dave's Insanity Sauce was born. Today Dave owns a website and business called Dave's Gourmet where they sell Dave's Insanity Hot Sauce, pasta sauce, overnight oats and much more. In Today's episo...

  Jason Harris is the CEO of the award-winning creative agency Mekanism and the co-founder of the Creative Alliance . Harris works closely with brands through a blend of soul and science to create proactive campaigns that engage audiences. Today we're here to talk about his book  The Soulful Art of Persuasion: 11 Habits That Will Make Anyone a Master Influencer . Check out The Speed of Trust by St...

After over a decade of practicing law, Michael Peticolas left bailiffs and briefcases behind for barely and brews (at least that's what he thought) when he opened Peticolas Brewing Company in 2010. In the first year, Michael and wife, Melissa, were the sole brewers, sales reps, and distributors and they still managed to win gold at the Great American Beer Festival …and again in their third year. I...

Since 2003, Nir Eyal has founded two tech companies and has taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. He is the author of the bestselling book, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products  and  Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life . In addition to blogging at  NirAndFar.com , Nir's writing has been featu...

  Chef Andrew Savoie, a native New Yorker, began his culinary journey after graduating from Baltimore International College in 1997. Eager to begin his professional training under the direction of highly regarded chefs, Andrew headed to New Orlean, Virginia, California, Maine, and back again to NYC. After a move to Dallas, Andrew spent his time inspiring tomorrow's chefs as a Culinary Instructor a...

Nathan Ares is a native of Boston, MA and was raised in Tucson, AZ where he got an early starting working in some of Tucson's most well-known restaurant establishments. After a stint working at Los Vegas' SushiSamba, Ares made the move back to Tucson to partner with Brian Morris in opening Prep and Pastry . Six years later the single location has scaled into Ares Collective which consists of 3 Pre...

Aaron Chamberlin's family has been working in the restaurant industry since the 1930's, led first by his grandfather, who was a chef himself. Aaron credits his grandfather with having inspired him to become a chef at a very early age, and already had him cooking in the kitchen by the age of nine. A few years later, at the age of 14, he'd hold his first job in the industry. Aaron would go on to wor...

In the mid-'90s after being hired at Ichiban in Santa Barbara, CA, Davin Waite made the decision to drop out of college and chase his new-found passion; food. After a few years of being mentored by local legend, Chef Hiro, Waite made the move to San Diego where he weaseled his way into the kitchen of Cafe Japengo where he further refined his skills. Six years later Waite opened his first business,...

As a descendant of restaurant operators Stacey Poon-Kinney caught the restaurant bug early. After 8 years of managing a restaurant chain, Stacey and her father took over Megan's Cafe in 2007. After a successful 2 year run, Stacey decided to rebrand to The Trails Eatery and expanded the restaurant footprint to twice the size, but her success was followed by near-total failure in 2011. On the edge o...

After years of working in the world acquisitions, development, asset management, and commercial real estate investments, Anisha Blodgett decided it was time to trade in her portfolio for pizza. As an avid health and fitness enthusiast, Anisha was frustrated that she couldn't scratch her pizza itch without being unhealthy. In 2017 she set out to solve her problem by developing a healthier alternati...

Kansas City native Chef Dan Sobek is a graduate of both Kansas State University and Johnson and Wales where he studied Hotel/Restaurant Management and Culinary Arts, respectively. Sobek went on to spend most of his career at ultra-luxury hotels, including the Dorchester Hotel in London and The Waldorf Astoria in New York City. After consulting with Sysco, and taking a few stabs as an operating par...

The University of San Diego graduate, Shawn Walchef, opened Cali Comfort BBQ in 2008. Since then, the Walchef family has incorporated the Bulgarian tradition of hospitality into every facet of the Cali BBQ business, from hosting cooking competitions, to publishing podcasts, to catering events of all sizes. Yes, you heard me say publishing podcasts. On top of being recognized as one of the best pla...

Hagop Giragossian is a restaurant industry professional with 14 years of experience, predominately in the QSR and Fast Casual segments. He began his food service management career in 2000 with Boar's Java; after three years, he sold the business and opened Pasadena's first gastropub, Kings Row . In 2010 Hagop along with Quasim Riaz and Andre Vener, opened the first Dog Haus in Pasadena, California...