Restaurant Owners Uncorked

Some thoughts from Wil about how much meaning and value independent restaurants add to their communities.

Wil had a fun conversation with Lisa Carvey, owner of The Braeburn in Langley, WA on Whidby Island on the Puget Sound. They spoke for an hour and covered lots of actionable and philosophical ground. A fun conversation. Tons of respect for Lisa and her crew! Enjoy....

Every now and then Wil shares some observations he's made from interviewing successful restaurant people. Here's one of them...

This is a deep, powerful conversation between Wil and Van, owner or Bida Manda and Brewery Bhavana in Raleigh, N.C. They have become friends over the last few years so they got into a meaningful conversation about not just the story of Brewery Bhavana, but also about about life and philosophy and how we treat and build relationships with the people we work with and the people we serve. Enjoy!

Angela and Marshall are opening Ex-Voto at the Durham Food Hall this Fall. We have tremendous respect for Angela and Marshall, and Wil had a great time chatting with them about their new project. They are so incredibly welcoming, honest, authentic, humble, passionate, and dedicated to lifting up the people around them and providing warm, memorable experiences to their customers. *Wil got the conversation sidetracked for about 30 minutes talking about Mezcal, so be forewarned. Enjoy...

Some thoughts Wil wanted to share about restaurants and Instagram.

This may be our best podcast ever. We have no words to describe it, just listen and enjoy...

Bret Oliverio owns Sup Dogs, and he's one of the best human beings we've come across in our years of serving restaurants. The story of Sup Dogs is so powerful that we made a film about it a few years go. It's here: https://vimeo.com/223895178. Bret was also featured in Restaurant Owners Uncorked part II. Wil asked Bret to hang out and catch up over a podcast, and the result was nearly two hours of conversation about everything from Sup Dogs being named the best college bar in America by Barstool Sports, to the pros and cons of growing to more location (there are two locations now), to family, business philosophy, a You Tube celebrity who has left both $10,000 in cash and a piece of pure gold as a tip, to anything else that came across our minds. This was fun, real, and could have gone on for a few more hours if we had let it. Bret and his team are all amazing people, and we are very fortunate at Schedulefly to have the chance to serve them. Enjoy!

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 (Greenville and Spartanburg, SC and FR8yard (Spartanburg) is killing it with it's unique location and incredibly fun vibe. Kenneth and I drank some beer and sat on the upstaris deck at FR8yard after a southern summer storm and enjoyed a great conversation about hospitality and the things he and his team do to make memorable experiences for their guests. Enjoy...