The Restaurant Guys

Why This Episode Matters
Kyle Knall explains why Milwaukee offers the community support to build ambitious restaurants—and a life outside them.
Jason Ryczek takes us inside Caviar Camp, from getting into tanks with sturgeon to selecting roe and serving it at Little’s Oyster Bar.
Leonard Botello IV reveals what separates exceptional brisket from disappointing barbecue, including the importance of fire management, resting and learning to listen.
These conversations celebrate the craft and hospitality behind memorable meals, all in support of Southern Smoke Foundation’s work helping food and beverage workers.
The Conversation
Back at Southern Smoke Festival in Houston, Mark and Francis welcome returning guest Kyle Knall of Milwaukee’s Birch and newly opened Cassis. Kyle describes his vision for an all-day French brasserie and the community enthusiasm that makes Milwaukee such a rewarding place to cook. They also discuss the city’s cocktail culture and its newest residents, drinks writer Robert Simonson and his wife, Mary Kate Murray.
Jason Ryczek of Little’s Oyster Bar offers a remarkably hands-on look at caviar production, including his annual visits to Caviar Camp with mentor Deborah Keane. He discusses selecting roe, using the rest of the sturgeon and developments in no-kill caviar. Back at the table, Jason explains his Southern approach to caviar service, complemented by hush puppies and potato dumplings.
Leonard Botello IV of Truth BBQ gets into the details that make great Texas barbecue: quality beef, steady fires, humidity and the crucial resting period. He describes the quiet overnight hours when the sounds of the pit tell him what needs attention, and why experience matters more than a rigid formula. Mark and Francis also share what made their visit to Truth so memorable, from the welcome their luggage received to outstanding brisket, warm hospitality and banana cake with an Old Fashioned.
The Guests
Kyle Knall — Chef and co-owner of Birch and Cassis in Milwaukee, where he and his wife and business partner, Meghan Knall, combine ambitious cooking with neighborhood hospitality.
Jason Ryczek — Chef of Little’s Oyster Bar in Houston, bringing a West Coast perspective to Gulf Coast seafood and a hands-on approach to caviar selection and service.
Leonard Botello IV — Owner and pitmaster of Truth BBQ in Brenham and Houston, known for his meticulous approach to Central Texas barbecue.
Timestamps
00:00 — Back in Houston for Southern Smoke
01:00 — Kyle Knall: Birch, Cassis and Milwaukee’s dining scene
05:00 — An all-day brasserie and the power of community support
10:00 — Jason Ryczek: Inside Caviar Camp
15:00 — Selecting roe and using the whole sturgeon
17:00 — Developments in no-kill caviar
19:00 — Caviar service with a Southern accent
20:00 — Oysters, Gulf seafood and a taste of place
25:00 — Leonard Botello IV: The welcome at Truth BBQ
30:00 — What makes Texas barbecue distinctive
32:00 — Listening to the pit and learning through experience
38:00 — Great brisket, proper resting and managing the fire

Info
Southern Smoke Foundation: https://www.southernsmoke.org/
Birch: https://www.birchonpleasant.com/
Cassis: https://www.cassismke.com/
Little’s Oyster Bar: https://littlesoysterbar.com/
Truth BBQ: https://truthbbq.com/
Stage Left events, including the Robert Simonson book signing: https://www.stageleft.com/events/

Oct 23, Friday - Winemaker Dinner w/ Neri Capponi of Villa Calcinaia Winery

Oct 26-31 - Spooky Bar

Oct 27, Tuesday - Robert Simonson book signing cocktail party
More info - https://www.stageleft.com/events/
Subscribe: Restaurant Guys' Regular
https://restaurantguysregulars.buzzsprout.com/
Magyar Bank
https://www.magbank.com/
Stage Left Wine Shop
https://www.stageleftwineshop.com/
Our Places
Stage Left Steak
https://www.stageleft.com/
Catherine Lombardi Restaurant
https://www.catherinelombardi.com/
Stage Left Wineshop
https://www.stageleftwineshop.com/
Reach Out to The Guys!
TheGuys@restaurantguyspodcast.com

Why This Episode Matters
Can restaurants offer exceptional food and hospitality while giving their employees a better life? These owners explain how they’re doing it.
Birdie’s challenges the traditional fine dining model with counter service, a serious wine program and meaningful employee benefits.
Shuai Wang shares how Top Chef helped him rediscover his inspiration through collaboration with other chefs.
Ayu Bakehouse teaches employees the business skills to pursue their own ideas—and pays them to learn.
The Conversation
Recorded at Southern Smoke Festival in Houston, these conversations explore what makes a restaurant worth working in, visiting and keeping alive. Benjy Mason discusses his journey from nonprofit founder to Houston hospitality operator, building neighborhood gathering places and earning employees’ trust. Arjav Ezekiel and Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel explain how Birdie’s in Austin combines counter service with thoughtful hospitality, seasonal tasting menus and a business model that supports both its owners and its team.
Shuai and Corrie Wang talk about weathering a pandemic, a restaurant fire and the pressures of ownership while continuing to find joy in their work. Shuai describes how Top Chef renewed his enthusiasm for cooking, and they share the inspiration behind King BBQ’s blend of Chinatown and Carolina barbecue. There’s also the amaro shakerato that stopped Mark and Francis in their tracks. Lastly they touch on Corrie’s other life as a novelist.
Samantha Weiss of New Orleans’ Ayu Bakehouse brings croissant king cakes, savory Boudin Boys and the unforgettable “challigator” to the conversation. She explains how Ayu Schoolhouse helps employees develop business plans and test their concepts through pop-ups, along with the practical reasons for using Goldbelly to ship king cakes. Throughout the episode, Southern Smoke’s mission gives these conversations a shared purpose: taking care of the people who make hospitality possible.

The Guests
Benjy Mason — Houston hospitality entrepreneur behind neighborhood destinations including Johnny’s Gold Brick, Winnie’s, Starduster Lounge and Shredders Pizza.
Arjav Ezekiel and Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel — Married co-owners of Birdie’s in Austin, combining Arjav’s wine and hospitality expertise with Tracy’s seasonal cooking.
Shuai and Corrie Wang — Married restaurateurs behind Jackrabbit Filly and King BBQ in North Charleston. Shuai is a chef and Top Chef alumnus; Corrie is also the author of The Takedown and City of Beasts.
Samantha Weiss — Co-owner of Ayu Bakehouse in New Orleans with Kelly Jacques, bringing a background in financial services and pastry to the bakery and its employee education program.

Timestamps
0:00:00 — Southern Smoke and an industry taking care of its own
0:03:00 — Benjy Mason: Neighborhood places and community
0:06:00 — From nonprofit work to restaurant kitchens
0:13:00 — Building a workplace based on trust
0:18:00 — Arjav and Tracy: Rethinking restaurants at Birdie’s
0:21:00 — Counter service, wine in line and real hospitality
0:33:00 — Seasonal menus and a different kind of tasting menu
0:38:00 — Shuai and Corrie Wang: Restaurants, resilience and shakeratos
0:41:00 — Finding fresh inspiration on Top Chef
0:45:00 — Chinatown meets Carolina barbecue at King BBQ
0:48:00 — Samantha Weiss: King cakes, Boudin Boys and challigators
0:54:00 — Ayu Schoolhouse and helping employees become entrepreneurs
0:58:00 — Shipping king cakes with Goldbelly
1:00:00 — What’s coming in Vol. 2

Info
Southern Smoke Foundation: https://www.southernsmoke.org/
Benjy Mason’s Houston restaurants: https://www.southernsmoke.org/chef/benjy-mason/
Birdie’s: https://www.birdiesaustin.com/
Jackrabbit Filly: https://www.jackrabbitfilly.com/
King BBQ: https://eatkingbbq.com/
Corrie Wang’s books: https://www.corriewang.com/
Ayu Bakehouse: https://www.ayubakehouse.com/
Oct 23, Friday - Winemaker Dinner w/ Neri Capponi of Villa Calcinaia Winery

Oct 26-31 - Spooky Bar

Oct 27, Tuesday - Robert Simonson book signing cocktail party
More info - https://www.stageleft.com/events/
Subscribe: Restaurant Guys' Regular
https://restaurantguysregulars.buzzsprout.com/
Magyar Bank
https://www.magbank.com/
Stage Left Wine Shop
https://www.stageleftwineshop.com/
Our Places
Stage Left Steak
https://www.stageleft.com/
Catherine Lombardi Restaurant
https://www.catherinelombardi.com/
Stage Left Wineshop
https://www.stageleftwineshop.com/
Reach Out to The Guys!
TheGuys@restaurantguyspodcast.com

This is a Vintage episode from 2010.
Why This Episode Matters
Greg Boehm explains how obscure pre-Prohibition cocktail books became useful again as ingredients and serious bartending returned.
He shares how Mud Puddle Books reproduced historic cocktail books in painstaking detail — right down to the paper, binding and gold stamping.  
The conversation captures an important moment in the rise of Japanese bartending in the U.S., including Kazuo Uyeda, the Hard Shake and the English-language release of Cocktail Technique.  
Boehm also opens up his remarkable 2,800-volume cocktail collection to bartenders, writers and researchers.  

Banter
Mark and Francis make the case that if you're going to eat a doughnut or a donut, it had better be worth it.  

The Conversation
Greg Boehm joins The Restaurant Guys to discuss Mud Puddle Books and the revival of historic cocktail literature. He explains how once-obscure bartending manuals became valuable resources during the cocktail renaissance and why he began reproducing classics by Jerry Thomas and Harry Johnson.
The conversation turns to Japanese bartending traditions, from specialized bar tools to precise stirring, shaking and ice techniques. Boehm also previews the English-language release of Kazuo Uyeda’s Cocktail Technique and its potential influence on American bartenders.  

Guest Bio
Greg Boehm is a publisher, cocktail-book collector and the founder of Mud Puddle Books and Cocktail Kingdom. His collection of thousands of historic cocktail books became both the source for meticulously reproduced editions and a working research library for bartenders, writers and cocktail historians.    

Timestamps
00:00 — Donuts worth the calories
07:55 — Greg Boehm and the lost literature of cocktails
10:30 — When antique cocktail books became useful again
12:00 — Choosing which of 2,800 books to reproduce
16:00 — Japanese bar tools and Cocktail Kingdom
18:00 — Angel's Share, Kazuo Uyeda and the Hard Shake
20:35 — Preserving and sharing cocktail history

Info
Cocktail Kingdom
https://cocktailkingdom.com/
Oct 23, Friday - Winemaker Dinner w/ Neri Capponi of Villa Calcinaia Winery

Oct 26-31 - Spooky Bar

Oct 27, Tuesday - Robert Simonson book signing cocktail party
More info - https://www.stageleft.com/events/
Subscribe: Restaurant Guys' Regular
https://restaurantguysregulars.buzzsprout.com/
Magyar Bank
https://www.magbank.com/
Stage Left Wine Shop
https://www.stageleftwineshop.com/
Our Places
Stage Left Steak
https://www.stageleft.com/
Catherine Lombardi Restaurant
https://www.catherinelombardi.com/
Stage Left Wineshop
https://www.stageleftwineshop.com/
Reach Out to The Guys!
TheGuys@restaurantguyspodcast.com

Why This Episode Matters
Kenta Goto explains why the first sip of a cocktail is like a job interview: you get one chance to make the right impression, so every detail from ice and dilution to the order of operations matters. 
Noah Rothbaum makes the case that cocktail recipes have changed far less than cocktail culture itself, and that The Goto Bartender’s Guide fills in the technical information most recipes leave out. 
The conversation traces Kenta’s path from Tokyo to New York, his formative years at Pegu Club with Audrey Saunders, and the philosophy of precision and hospitality that eventually became Bar Goto. 

Banter
Fall has arrived, which means Autumn Leaves cocktails, Spooky Bar and a Robert Simonson book launch at Stage Left. Mark is also counting down to Italy; Francis is counting down to Mark being in Italy. 

The Conversation
Kenta Goto and Noah Rothbaum join The Guys on the release day of The Goto Bartender’s Guide. The collaboration grew out of years of friendship that began at Pegu Club and later included traveling together to teach seminars on omotenashi, or Japanese hospitality. Noah says what intrigued him was Kenta’s habit of questioning assumptions bartenders have accepted for generations: not just inventing new drinks, but reconsidering how cocktails are actually made. 
Kenta traces his unlikely route into bartending from moving from Japan to New York, studying fashion, drifting through jobs and finally recognizing how much he had loved helping in his mother’s restaurant. A visit to Pegu Club changed his trajectory, and an anonymous Craigslist ad eventually led to an interview with Audrey Saunders. Her second interview was a surprise visit to watch him work, followed by an on-the-spot request for a gin sour along with a question he couldn’t answer: which gin did he use, and why? 
From there, the discussion gets deeply practical. Kenta and Noah explain why shaker size, ice type, proof, dilution, stirring time and even the order ingredients enter a mixing glass can change a drink. The book translates those instincts into usable numbers, including different shake and stir counts for different ice and proof levels, while still treating them as guidelines rather than absolutes. They also explain why specifying a spirit brand matters, why teaspoons can sometimes be more useful than jiggers, and how they chose the book’s 100 recipes from classics to Kenta’s own greatest hits.  

Guest Bios
Kenta Goto is the Tokyo-born bartender and owner of Bar Goto in Manhattan and Bar Goto Niban in Brooklyn. After seven years at the influential Pegu Club, he opened Bar Goto in 2015. He has been named U.S. Bartender of the Year at Tales of the Cocktail and is known for combining exacting cocktail technique with Japanese hospitality. 
Noah Rothbaum is a James Beard Award-winning drinks writer, author of The Whiskey Bible: The Art of American Whiskey, and an editor of The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails. He and Goto are co-authors of The Goto Bartender’s Guide. 

Timestamps
00:00 — Fall cocktails, Spooky Bar and Mark’s Italy escape
06:30 — Kenta Goto & Noah Rothbaum: Why another cocktail book?
11:30 — Kenta’s path from Tokyo to New York bartending
15:30 — Pegu Club, Audrey Saunders and the interview that changed Kenta’s career
20:00 — Noah on Kenta’s approach and what cocktail recipes have been missing
25:00 — Precision in practice: ice, dilution, shake counts and consistency
31:30 — Noah on jiggers, teaspoons and making precision accessible at home
34:00 — Proof, brand specificity and why substitutions change a drink
38:30 — Noah & Kenta on choosing the book’s 100 cocktails
Info
The Goto Bartender’s Guide
by Kenta Goto and Noah Rothbaum
Oct 23, Friday - Winemaker Dinner w/ Neri Capponi of Villa Calcinaia Winery

Oct 26-31 - Spooky Bar

Oct 27, Tuesday - Robert Simonson book signing cocktail party
More info - https://www.stageleft.com/events/
Subscribe: Restaurant Guys' Regular
https://restaurantguysregulars.buzzsprout.com/
Magyar Bank
https://www.magbank.com/
Stage Left Wine Shop
https://www.stageleftwineshop.com/
Our Places
Stage Left Steak
https://www.stageleft.com/
Catherine Lombardi Restaurant
https://www.catherinelombardi.com/
Stage Left Wineshop
https://www.stageleftwineshop.com/
Reach Out to The Guys!
TheGuys@restaurantguyspodcast.com

Recorded on location at the Martini Expo in Chicago.
Why This Episode Matters
Colin Asare-Appiah takes The Guys inside Ajabu, the cocktail and spirits festival connecting bartenders across Africa and the wider cocktail world, and discusses Black Mixcellence and the Black voices too often missing from cocktail history.
François Monti explains why vermouth deserves far more respect than the neglected bottle at the back of the bar and how Madrid’s cocktail culture changed the way he thought about both vermouth and the martini.
Ryan Maybee traces the unlikely revival of J. Rieger & Co., from a pre-Prohibition Kansas City whiskey brand to a modern distillery and hospitality destination, and explains why their American gin deliberately looks to classic London dry tradition.
The Conversation
Colin Asare-Appiah talks about co-founding Ajabu, created to spotlight the ingredients, bartenders and rapidly developing cocktail cultures across the African continent. The conversation turns to his book Black Mixcellence, the importance of recovering Black contributions to cocktail history, the enduring legacy of Tom Bullock and the Pornstar Martini created by his late friend Douglas Ankrah. Colin also explains why he sees the martini as a timeless drink—and why his choice between gin and vodka depends on what’s on the table.
Belgian-born, Madrid-based writer François Monti joins The Guys for a deep dive into vermouth. He explains Spain’s culture of drinking vermouth on its own, his journey from Belgian beer to cocktails, and Madrid’s long history of serious cocktail bars. The conversation eventually becomes unexpectedly personal when Mark explains why he disliked his early martinis: old vermouth or virtually no vermouth at all, and the fresh bottle that finally convinced him that vermouth could be delicious.
Ryan Maybee tells the story of discovering the forgotten J. Rieger & Co. whiskey brand while researching the history of a Kansas City hotel and ultimately helping bring it back to life. He recalls the visit to Milk & Honey that changed his career, describes the easygoing Midwestern hospitality he brought to Manifesto, and explains the historical use of sherry in Kansas City whiskey. The Guys taste Rieger Gin before Ryan discusses the freedom of American gin, why his own version deliberately embraces London dry tradition, and the classic martini experience that showed him just how much presentation matters.

Guest Bios
Colin Asare-Appiah is a Ghana-born, London-raised bartender, drinks industry veteran and co-founder of the Ajabu Cocktail and Spirits Festival in South Africa. He is co-author of Black Mixcellence: A Comprehensive Guide to Black Mixology.
François Monti is a Belgian-born spirits and cocktail writer based in Madrid. His work has appeared in publications including Punch, and he is the author of 101 Cocktails to Try Before You Die.
Ryan Maybee is a bartender, restaurateur and co-founder of J. Rieger & Co. in Kansas City. He previously opened Manifesto and has played a significant role in the development of Kansas City’s modern cocktail culture.

Timestamps
00:00 — Back at the Martini Expo: three more conversations from Chicago
02:30 — Colin Asare-Appiah and the Ajabu cocktail experience
09:30 — Black Mixcellence, Tom Bullock and recovering Black cocktail history
17:00 — The Pornstar Martini, the cocktail canon and Colin’s martini philosophy
22:30 — François Monti: from Belgian beer to Madrid cocktail culture
28:30 — Why vermouth is more than a martini ingredient
34:00 — François’ martini revelation—and Mark’s problem with bad vermouth
39:00 — Ryan Maybee: resurrecting J. Rieger & Co.
50:30 — American gin, London dry tradition and Ryan’s martini moment

Info
Martini Expo
Colin Asare-Appiah — Ajabu Cocktail and Spirits Festival
Book: Black Mixcellence: A Comprehensive Guide to Black Mixology
François Monti — 101 Cocktails to Try Before You Die
Writing: Bottoms Up
Ryan Maybee — J. Rieger & Co., Kansas City, MO

Oct 23, Friday - Winemaker Dinner w/ Neri Capponi of Villa Calcinaia Winery

Oct 26-31 - Spooky Bar

Oct 27, Tuesday - Robert Simonson book signing cocktail party
More info - https://www.stageleft.com/events/
Subscribe: Restaurant Guys' Regular
https://restaurantguysregulars.buzzsprout.com/
Magyar Bank
https://www.magbank.com/
Stage Left Wine Shop
https://www.stageleftwineshop.com/
Our Places
Stage Left Steak
https://www.stageleft.com/
Catherine Lombardi Restaurant
https://www.catherinelombardi.com/
Stage Left Wineshop
https://www.stageleftwineshop.com/
Reach Out to The Guys!
TheGuys@restaurantguyspodcast.com