Restaurant Owners Uncorked - By Schedulefly

Marilyn Schlossbach owns restaurants in Asbury Park, NJ. She is a self-taught chef, a passionate woman who devotes herself fully to her family, her business, and her community, and a creative person who works hard and inspires everybody around her. Here's her story. Don't miss this one...

Travis Todd's grandparents started a small crab factory in 1947 to produce some of the finest Blue Crab meet on the eastern shore. Nearly 70 years later, the business has evolved into a beloved destination restaurant run by third generation family members. Travis Todd grew up around the family business and has been a part of it for most of his life. My opinion from listening to Travis talk about a lifetime spent in the business is that he's a down-to-earth, hard worker who is a great leader for his team and has a genuine passion for his family's business. This interview was both fun and inspiring for me. I hope you'll take time to enjoy it...

Jess Killeen and her husband Ed own Grassburger, with locations in Durango, CO, and Albuquerque, NM. What started as a transition to grass fed beef for they family of five led to the the couple opening the first restaurant they had ever opened. This is an inspiring story about opening a restaurant with no experience in the business, as well as a very educational discussion of the health benefits of grass fed beef.

Scott owns Hog & Rocks, a highly successful restaurant in San Francisco. He's also opening Loma Brewing Company in Los Gatos, CA in just a few weeks. He took time to speak with us about his nearly 20 years in the business, and discussed everything from culinary school, to raising money for a restaurant, to business partners, to finding and keeping good talent, to staying focused on the things you can control. Scott is very good at communicating and articulating his thoughts on the business. Don't miss this interview if you are considering getting into the restaurant business.

Angela Salamanca came to the U.S. from Colombia, South America in 1993 as a 17-year-old rent high school graduate. She went to work for her uncle, who owned a popular Mexican restaurant in Raleigh, N.C. By 2007, she was planning the opening of a new restaurant with that same uncle, when he suddenly left the country to get married. He told Angela, who had a young child and a baby on the way, "You don't need me, I know you can do it on your own." Angela now calls his unplanned departure the biggest gift he could have given her. Rather than crumble under the stress and pressure, she rose to the occasion and used the situation to her advantage. With necessity, her creativity thrived and Angela wound up building the restaurant of her dreams while bucking conventional wisdom and trusting her vision and her instincts. This is a highly inspiring interview with a wonderful person. Enjoy...

Meherwan Irani got an MBA and spent 15 years in corporate America, working for other people. He was not unhappy, but never jumped out of bed in the morning excited to head to work. So in 2009 as the economy was collapsing, he and his wife Molly took a leap of faith and decided to start a restaurant. Meherwan was a self-taught chef with a 150-page business plan and in need of $70,000 to get started. All the banks turned the Irani's down for a loan, as did the SBA. But they raised the money, convinced the landlord of a prime location in downtown Asheville, NC to lease them his space, and opened Chai Pani on day one with customers lined up around the block while having spent $0 on advertising and having only $250 in the cash register (and $0 in the bank), knowing they needed to sell a lot of food in the first three days or they'd have nothing left. But they were so busy the first day they had to close at 2pm because they ran out of food. Just five years later (2014), Meherwan was nominated for a James Beard awar

Cris Eddings co-owns Chuck's Fish (two locations) and Five Restaurant (five locations). He and his team follow their own compasses and don't pay attention to conventional wisdom when it doesn't align with what they believe. So they do things like raising the minimum wage for non-tipped employees to $10.25/hour well before the idea became a national topic, opening a concept (Five) with only five of each category on the menu (five entrees, five appetizers, etc.), forsaking advertising and instead investing into higher wages for staff and funding their non-profit organization, which sends food trucks out several days per week to feed homeless people where they are. This is a very refreshing and inspiring interview. Enjoy...

Mic Heynekamp of Eddyline Brewery was in our book, Restaurant Owners Uncorked, and told me one of the most interesting stories I've ever heard about opening a restaurant. He and his wife, Molley, drew up a $1,000,000 business plan to open their first restaurant. It included new equipment, a build-out, and everything conventional wisdom says you need to do to get started. After getting declined for the financing they needed, they began to whittle away at the plan, learning that creativity and common sense helped more than a big pile of money. They wound up opening for $70,000, just 7% of what they had originally anticipated they needed. In this interview, Mic tells how they did it, as well as how they built their second location for $750,000 when an architect had told them it would cost $5,000,000. This interview offers tons of practical, repeatable pieces of advice on getting started with your first restaurant, why small towns are a great place to operate, and how you can run your business with trust and del

Kimberly Shingledecker started Pies & Pints along with partner David Bailey in Fayetteville, WV in 2003 in the basement of a house. By 2005 they had two-hour waits and needed to buy a building with more space. The growth hasn't slowed down much since, and today there are eight locations with a ninth opening soon. Kimberly and I talked about consistency being critical, never closing earlier than the time posted on your door, the challenge of educating your market - and your staff - when you are doing something new, the importance of finding a way to say "yes" to customers, being kid-friendly, and the most important question to ask people interviewing for jobs. Enjoy...

Rob Ward and his three business partners started Cantina 76 in Columbia, S.C. in November, 2009. They had no experience owning restaurants, and not much experience in the restaurant business at all. They now have two locations and recently opened Za's Brickoven Pizza. Their restaurants are successful and well-liked in Columbia, and it was fun learning how Rob approached owning and running restaurant when he had never even managed one. Tune in to hear an inspiring story of how Rob learned on the job, made some mistakes, drew in crowds without a marketing budget, and benefited from a lack of experience.

Dave Query started Big Red F Restaurant Group in 1993 and has turned it into a highly successful business with five concepts and soon-to-be thirteen total locations. In the five years I've been interviewing restaurant owners, Dave has always been one of my favorites. He's transparent, honest, wise, and able to articulate his beliefs and philosophies as well as anybody I've come across in the business. In this interview, Dave and I discussed everything from choosing the right types of investors, to growth, to humility, to competition. Enjoy...

Rayme Rossello is a very positive and inspiring person, who first co-owned a restaurant in 1999. That restaurant was very successful and grew to 5 locations, but Rayme sold her share of the business to her partner to try something different. After an unsuccessful partnership in a french bistro, she questioned herself and what was next, even considering going back to waiting tables. Tune in to hear her inspiring story of starting Comida with her pink taco truck in Boulder in 2010 and growing that to two successful restaurant locations and a third on the way.

Van Nolintha began applying for jobs at the height of the recession after finishing both undergraduate school and graduate school. After being turned down nearly 300 times, he and his younger sister, Vanvisa, returned to his home country, Laos, to reconnect with their roots. Much of his early life centered around food, so when he returned to the U.S. to Raleigh, N.C., he decided to start a restaurant. He bought a copy of "How to Open a Restaurant for Dummies" and sent heartfelt emails to several of the most highly regarded restaurant owners in Raleigh, asking for advice and mentoring. They all agreed to help. In 2012, with little capital and lots of sweat, donations, and help from friends, Van and Vanvisa opened Bida Manda, and today it's one of the most loved restaurants in Raleigh. Of all of the stories I've heard from 5 years of interviewing restaurant owners, this is the most memorable...

Brent Bushong and his partners recently opened The Velveteen Habit, a quaint farmhouse on four acres of land, tucked into a small clearing in the woods two miles from the Maine coastline. This is not your typical restaurant. The group has a Head Gardener, and plans to source most of its produce from the one-acre garden. They may eventually have their own livestock. They have a bee hive. They are very committed to providing the freshest, local food prepare simply, with a modern interpretation of the food you'd have eaten in the same farm house in 1765. Added to that, after his time as a Marine, Brent has spent the majority of his working career in restaurants, working nearly every position and learning tons of wisdom along the way. We talked about the need to marry both passion and a strong work ethic, summoning significant self confidence in the face of obstacles and doubters, the value of humility, and the importance of taking the time to make all of the mistakes you can make before you are ready to truly su

Aaron Siegel opened the first Fiery Ron's Home Team BBQ in Charleston, SC in 2006. He opened the second location in 2009. Now, six years later, Aaron and his team are opening their third location. Aaron and I talked about everything from the national exposure Fiery Ron's has received (Esquire, The Food Network, etc.) from effective use of Instagram and other social media tools, to being forced out of his comfort zone when he went from chef to owner, to the romanticization of the restaurant business, to bridging the divide between FOH and BOH, to using mistakes made by staff as training moments. Aaron is a humble guy who has built a highly popular and successful business over the last six years, and he's worth paying attention to if you plan to start your own restaurant one day...

Seth Gross has been in the restaurant business for 27 years. He currently owns Bull City Burgers & Brewery as well as Pompieri Pizza, both in Durham, NC. One thing that's clear when you speak to Seth: he believes in standing for something. For instance, he only uses grass-fed beef for his burgers, and has vowed that if he ever has to resort to corn-fed beef, he will close his restaurant. He also won't use tomatoes on his burgers or pizzas during the winter months, because he can't get fresh, local tomatoes then. More examples abound in this really fun, inspiring conversation. And you'll also learn how he's been able to get customers to tattoo themselves with his logo. Enjoy....

Daniel Holzman co-owns The Meatball Shop in New York. Five years in, he and partner Michael Chernow have built a wildly successful 6-location business. Daniel has been featured on ountless broadcast segments including ABC’s Good Morning America, NBC’s TODAY Show, Chelsea Lately, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and VH1’s Big Morning Buzz. Additionally, he has been featured in an array of widely reaching local and national publications such as The New York Times, Food & Wine, Saveur, People, Food Network Magazine and GQ. But after all of that, one of the issues Daniel wanted to discuss was the difference between getting a customer to walk in your door because they have heard about you, and keeping that customer for life. We talked about all sorts of topics, but I focused a lot on the challenges of growth, remaining authentic as you expand, and why Daniel and Michael recently decided to devote 80% of their time to operations. Growth is great, but you have to solidify your foundation along the way to make that

Sean Degnan co-owns the very popular restaurant bu•ku in Raleigh, N.C. Five years into it, and Sean and his team are still paying close attention to their customers and flexibly making changes as they go. We discussed a wide variety of topics from finding the right business partner to finding the right landlord, but what really sticks out is Sean's humility and focus on learning from others. He has the right mindset to succeed long term in the tough restaurant business, and while he's only been an owner for five years, the wisdom he conveys is similar to what I often hear from owners who've been at it for decades. Enjoy...

Kristian Cosentino is opening Dirty Water, a highly anticipated restaurant in San Francisco. For the first time in the Restaurant Owners Uncorked podcast series, we spoke to an owner who hasn't opened his doors yet. But if you are interested in what it takes to start a restaurant, don't miss this conversation. Kristian has been planning Dirty Water for two years, and we discussed everything from overcoming doubters (and self-doubt), to why he decided to stop fulfilling other people's dreams and focus on fulfilling his own dreams, to finding the right type of landlord, to finding the right type of investors, to refining your business plan, to why it's always important to listen to your gut. This is a highly educational, fun conversation...

What do a rock band member, a bar owner, a music venue owner, and a restaurant owner have in common? Cheetie Kumar, that's what. Cheetie balances all of those things, and somehow does a great job all the way around. We spoke specifically about Garland, her restaurant, and also her newest venture. She's learned a ton in a little over a year since it opened, and we talked about everything from the difference between being a food lover (and cook) to being a restaurant owner, to the importance of good lease negotiation, to why it's crucial to be observant and anticipate problems before the arise. Cheetie is a very inspiring person, and you can't help but be inspired by her. Enjoy...