Take-Away with Sam Oches

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Pike Howard, the co-owner of Felipe’s Taqueria, a six-unit fast-casual concept out of New Orleans that has prioritized its systems and business model in its nearly 20 years in business as it slowly grows across the South. Pike was a finance guy when his father-in-law pulled him into the Felipe’s business, and that mindset has be...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Christine Barone, CEO of Dutch Bros. This is the third edition in our Signature Series, which are conversations with some of the biggest CEOs in the restaurant industry. And there are few companies bigger right now than Dutch Bros, which is turning heads all across the U.S. as it races across the country and redefines the coffee...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with the director of culinary at Chili’s, Brian Paquette, as well as the director of culinary innovation at Wendy’s, Becky Davis. Chili’s and Wendy’s were each winners at NRN’s 2025 MenuMasters Awards, which were hosted in partnership with Ventura Foods and presented during a special gala at the National Restaurant Association S...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Larry Ryback, the CEO of Jim ’N Nick’s Community Bar-B-Q, a chain of more than 50 locations across the South that is celebrating 40 years in business with a new store design that is helping to drive double-digit sales growth. The new store prototype takes into account its big growth in off-premises sales and shifts away from a f...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Shauna Smith, the CEO of Savory Management, the operational arm of the Salt Lake City based private equity group Savory Fund. Savory invests in emerging restaurant concepts like Swig, Via 313, PINCHO, and Mo’Bettahs, and Shauna oversees the operations of these concepts, which includes a team of 65 in-house specialists who support the...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Curtis Duffy, the James Beard award-winning chef and owner at the Michelin-starred Chicago restaurant Ever — a restaurant that features prominently in the FX show “The Bear.” Curtis has consulted with and cooked for the show, which is starting its fourth season this week. But long before “The Bear,” he was a renowned chef who tr...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Seth Berkowitz, the founder and CEO of Insomnia Cookies, the cookie delivery concept that has been around now for 22 years and grown to more than 300 locations in the U.S., helping to carve out an early niche in the so-called “indulgence” category that has been booming the past few years. Insomnia announced that two investors had ste...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Maggie Farrell and Victor Chow, the VP of marketing and VP of operations for KPOT, the fast-growing Korean barbecue and hot pot chain with a unique, do-it-yourself experience at its core. According to this year’s Technomic Top 500, KPOT grew its location count by 72% in 2024, and its sales by 34%. Already in 2025 it’s opened more tha...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Jim Metevier, CEO of Mountain Mike’s Pizza, a California-based brand with more than 300 locations in 10 states. Pizza as a category had a pretty rough year in 2024, with the major players mostly seeing flat or negative traffic over the prior year. Mountain Mike’s, meanwhile, enjoyed year-over-year sales growth of 5% and unit growth o...

In part 2 of Sam's interview with Kelli Valade, CEO of Denny’s and Keke’s Breakfast Cafe, he talks with her about the business of Denny’s, its status as “America’s diner,” the potential she saw in the brand when she took the CEO reins in 2022, and her vision for the company going forward. They also talk about Keke’s Breakfast Cafe, the emerging fast-casual brand that Denny’s acquired right about t...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Kelli Valade, CEO of Denny’s and Keke’s Breakfast Cafe. This is the second edition in NRN’s new Signature Series, which are conversations with some of the biggest CEOs in the restaurant industry, powered by The Coca-Cola Company. This interview is rolling out in two parts, and in this episode Kelli talks about her career, her le...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Dave Paul, cofounder of Pluckers Wing Bar, a beloved sports bar concept in Texas with 32 locations in the Lone Star State. Pluckers is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and has seen plenty of change in the chicken category as competitors like Raising Cane’s, Chick-fil-A, and Wingstop have come to dominate the space...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Darren Spicer, cofounder and CEO of Clutch Coffee, a drive-thru coffee shop that has grown to 15 locations across the Carolinas since debuting in 2018. Darren grew up in Oregon and worked as a broista at Dutch Bros before going into medical device sales, and while he travelled the country for that job, he realized there were par...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Heather Neary, CEO of Taco John’s, in-person at the Restaurant Leadership Conference in Phoenix. Heather took the reins at Taco John’s a little over a year ago, shortly after the brand experienced the bright spotlight of the Taco Tuesday trademark battle with Taco Bell. Her strategy at the chain has been to tap into Taco John’s...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Shannon Allen and Zach Cohen, the founder and CFO of the Miami-based fast-casual concept Grown. Shannon opened this concept with her husband, NBA Hall of Famer Ray Allen, in 2016, driven by the fact that their son Walker was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was a toddler and Shannon struggled to find healthy foods served f...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Dan DiZio, cofounder and CEO of Philly Pretzel Factory, a Philadelphia-based snack concept with more than 170 locations primarily in the East Coast. Philly Pretzel Factory has achieved broad appeal with its paperclip shaped pretzels and wide variety of dips, and it’s especially found success with its Party Trays, which have been...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Nathan Louer, chief brand officer at Jamba, the legacy smoothie bowl concept that is one of seven brands in the GoTo Foods portfolio. Nathan declares that Jamba is on the comeback trail, and a big part of that comeback is the just-announced new store prototype called Hello Sunshine, which updates the Jamba aesthetic but also the...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Mohammad Faraj, cofounder and chief marketing officer for Talkin’ Tacos, a fast-casual taco joint out of South Florida that has grown to 22 locations in less than five years in operation. Mohammad and his childhood friend Omar Al-Massalkhi opened Talkin’ Tacos as a food truck in the early days of the pandemic, one of the first c...

In this special episode of Take-Away — guest-hosted by Restaurant Business editor-in-chief and A Deeper Dive host Jonathan Maze — Bob Vergidis, the founder of pointofsale.cloud, joins to talk about the future of restaurants and restaurant technology and equipment. We wanted to talk with Bob simply about the future of restaurant technology and how restaurants can take the next s...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Edmond Barseghian and Brian Simowitz, the founder and president, respectively, of Houston TX Hot Chicken, aka HHC. This brand has opened 24 locations in less than four years, and a big reason why is Edmond and his massive social media following. From the jump Edmond had big plans for the brand, and with strategic executive hires...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Mohaimina “Mina” Haque, the CEO of Tony Roma’s, a legacy casual dining chain specializing in ribs that once had hundreds of locations, but which is now is in rebuild mode with a few dozen open locations, only 6 of which are in the U.S. Mina is a lawyer by trade, and she was brought on by Equity Investors of New England when it b...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Wendy’s president and CEO Kirk Tanner as part of a brand new series at NRN called Signature: A CEO Series with Sam Oches, powered by The Coca-Cola Company. We’re hosting 6 Signature episodes throughout 2025, and they’re designed to introduce you to the leaders of some of the nation’s biggest restaurant companies — what has...

Happy Mardi Gras! In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with James Vitrano, the CEO of Sucré, a French patisserie concept out of New Orleans that has eight locations across the Southeast. James and his pastry chef wife Abney Harper bought Sucré in 2023, looking to scale the luxury patisserie concept that specializes in macrons, gelato, and a range of handm...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks Joe and John Lanni, the brother cofounders of Thunderdome Restaurant Group, a Cincinnati-based outfit that is among the 10 largest restaurant groups in the U.S., and which counts the 23-unit fast casual Currito among its portfolio. Currito is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and the Lanni brothers are looking to rapidly ex...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks Randy Sharpe, CEO of Wahlburgers, the upscale burger chain founded by renowned actor Mark Wahlberg and his family. Wahlburgers has roughly 30 units around the U.S. alongside a handful of international locations, with plans to continue growing globally with a flexible format that includes both limited-service and full-service models. Randy...