The Industry

In this episode of The Industry Podcast, we sit down with Christin Marvin, founder of Columbine Hospitality, author, and host of The Restaurant Leadership Podcast. Christin started as a line cook at 15, worked her way through fine dining and high-volume concepts, and eventually helped scale a Denver restaurant group from six locations to 48 before burning out. She shares the honest story of how that growth cost her — including a period of heavy drinking she eventually walked away from — and how the process of rebuilding her own life became the foundation for the company she runs today. Christin now leads Columbine Hospitality, where she and a small team of coaches help independent restaurant and bar owners build the leadership teams and systems needed to run a business that doesn't require them to be in it every hour of every day. She walks through how that work actually happens — remote coaching, digging past the surface-level complaint to the real problem, and rolling out change gradually so owners don't lose their sense of purpose in the process. She also gets into why she started writing (her first book, The Hospitality Leader's Roadmap, and her second, Multi-Unit Mastery) how self-publishing actually works, and her plan to grow her coaching team over the next decade. - Growing up in the industry and the "highlight of her career" moment that hooked her on hospitality - Scaling a restaurant group from 6 to 48 locations and what private equity changed - Burnout, losing her voice as a leader, and the drinking that came with it - Getting sober and rebuilding a life and business around her core values - How Columbine Hospitality coaches independent owners remotely - Writing and self-publishing *The Hospitality Leader's Roadmap* and *Multi-Unit Mastery* - Hosting The Restaurant Leadership Podcast and building her coaching team - Why "structure" is no longer just a corporate word for independent operators Notable Quote "There's gotta be more intention and more clarity and more systems, and systems used to be a very corporate word, but there's gotta be more structure to the business than there used to be in the past, because it's so hard to find experienced people." — Christin Marvin Connect with Christin Marvin - Columbine Hospitality - LinkedIn: Christin Marvin - Instagram: @christinlmarvin - The Restaurant Leadership Podcast — available wherever you listen to podcasts - Books: The Hospitality Leader's Roadmap and Multi-Unit Mastery A big thank you to Jean-Marc Dykes of Imbiblia. Imbiblia is a cocktail app for bartenders, restaurants and cocktail lovers alike and build by a bartender with more than a decade of experience behind the bar. Several of the features of the platform include the ability to create your own Imbiblia Recipe Cards with the Imbiblia Cocktail Builder, rapidly select ingredients, garnishes, methods and workshop recipes with a unique visual format, search by taste, using flavour profiles unique to Imbiblia, share recipes publicly plus many more....Imbiblia - check it out! Contact the host Kypp Saunders by email at [email protected] for products from Elora Distilling and Noble Estates. Links: [email protected] @sugarrunbar @the_industry_podcast email us: [email protected]

Ryan Foley, publisher of Bartender Magazine, joins the show to talk family legacy, print media, and the Bartender Hall of Fame. In this episode of The Industry Podcast, we sit down with Ryan Foley, publisher of Bartender Magazine. Ryan grew up inside the publication his father, Ray Foley, launched in 1979 — after Ray left a career as a comedy writer for Johnny Carson to chase what he loved most: bartending. As an only child, Ryan says the magazine has been "his sibling" his whole life, and he stepped in to run the business full-time after his father passed away. The conversation traces the magazine's roots as a scrappy New York/New Jersey zine to its current run of 50,000 print copies per quarter, distributed at major industry events like Tales of the Cocktail. Ryan opens up about the pressure and privilege of carrying on a family business after his father's passing — from Ray's two unbreakable rules (never change the logo, never stop printing) to the emotional weight of stepping into his dad's shoes while raising two young kids of his own. They also dig into the Bartender Hall of Fame, a program Ray started in 1985 to honor bartenders who might otherwise be overlooked — not just industry stars, but the person who tended the same bar for 60 years. Ryan also shares the story behind Bartending for Dummies, the million-copy bestseller his father wrote in 1999 that Ryan later took over rewriting, along with Running a Bar for Dummies and his own book, Non-Alcoholic Drinks for Dummies. Additional topics discussed: - How Ray Foley bought bartender.com, mixologist.com, and roughly 450 other domains in the 1990s (including budtender.com) - Balancing a growing digital presence with the cost and tradition of print - How the magazine finds and features under-the-radar bars and bartenders, not just the famous ones - The layout and editorial process behind each quarterly issue, including regular contributors like Christine Wiseman and John Jakuru - Recent Bartender Hall of Fame inductees, including Julie Reiner and Chris Hannah - Life as a family business — travel, cover shoots, and running things day-to-day with his mother Notable Quote "I hustle so hard because I care about it so much." — Ryan Foley Connect with Ryan Foley Bartender Magazine @bartendermagazine https://bartender.com A big thank you to Jean-Marc Dykes of Imbiblia. Imbiblia is a cocktail app for bartenders, restaurants and cocktail lovers alike and build by a bartender with more than a decade of experience behind the bar. Several of the features of the platform include the ability to create your own Imbiblia Recipe Cards with the Imbiblia Cocktail Builder, rapidly select ingredients, garnishes, methods and workshop recipes with a unique visual format, search by taste, using flavour profiles unique to Imbiblia, share recipes publicly plus many more....Imbiblia - check it out! Contact the host Kypp Saunders by email at [email protected] for products from Elora Distilling and Noble Estates. Links: [email protected] @sugarrunbar @the_industry_podcast email us: [email protected]

In this episode of The Industry Podcast, we sit down with Michelle Freed, a bartender currently behind the stick at The Mermaid in Downtown LA's Little Tokyo. Michelle traces her hospitality career back to age 15, working at Polly's Pies, through a stint as a general manager at Panera Bread, and into her first cocktail bar job in LA roughly a decade ago. She credits the Long Beach cocktail scene — and a mentor she met there — with pushing her to take craft cocktails seriously and start entering competitions. The conversation centers on Michelle's run in Diageo's World Class, where she advanced from an initial field into the Top 15 this year. She walks through the multi-round format — a pantry-list cocktail, a free-choice Diageo-portfolio cocktail, a classic, and eventually a six-cocktail themed menu and live presentations in front of judges. Michelle also opens up about how the competition experience previously outpaced the support she got from her former bar, and how that contributed to her decision to move on to a new role. Dan and Kypp dig into the bigger picture too: why competition culture matters for the wider bartending community, how the industry has shifted from secrecy to openness around recipes and technique, and Michelle's evolving plans to eventually open her own bar — including a scaled-down mobile/pop-up concept as a lower-risk way to build an audience before committing to a full build-out. Also discussed: - Michelle's move from El Segundo's neighborhood-bar scene to Downtown LA - Her Speed Rack Fast Track experience - The pantry-list and prompt-based rounds of World Class judging - Foraging local ingredients (loquat syrup) for her competition menu - The disconnect between "global" bartender-community recognition and local bar culture - Using scotch as a base spirit in tiki-style drinks - Social media strategy for an eventual bar or pop-up launch Connect with Michelle Freed @m.f__ck A big thank you to Jean-Marc Dykes of Imbiblia. Imbiblia is a cocktail app for bartenders, restaurants and cocktail lovers alike and build by a bartender with more than a decade of experience behind the bar. Several of the features of the platform include the ability to create your own Imbiblia Recipe Cards with the Imbiblia Cocktail Builder, rapidly select ingredients, garnishes, methods and workshop recipes with a unique visual format, search by taste, using flavour profiles unique to Imbiblia, share recipes publicly plus many more....Imbiblia - check it out! Contact the host Kypp Saunders by email at [email protected] for products from Elora Distilling and Noble Estates. Links: [email protected] @sugarrunbar @the_industry_podcast email us: [email protected]

A former touring musician and lifelong bartender turned brand director and bar owner, Sean Goodchild joins the show to talk beer, bands, and bringing a century-old Kitchener landmark back to life.* In this episode of The Industry Podcast, we sit down with Sean Goodchild, co-owner and program director of The Boathouse DTK in Victoria Park, and director of brand development for Farm League Brewing in Galt. Sean traces his path from bartending and touring in a band across 15 years in London, Ontario, to a graphic design role at Waterloo Brewing. in 2020, a partnership manager position through the Carlsberg acquisition, and eventually a jump to Farm League — the "blue collar craft" brewery known for collaborations with acts like Greta Van Fleet and Mount Joy, and for running the Meadows and Fest2Fall music festivals. The conversation digs into the two-year process of transforming The Boathouse — a heritage-designated building on city-owned land dating back to 1896 — into a modern bar and venue, including how the ownership group became the first in the city to win unanimous Heritage Committee approval to expand the patio. Sean and the guys also get into the state of the live music industry post-pandemic, why charging a cover matters for musicians and venues alike, and why supporting independent bars and restaurants is more important than ever. - The sales lessons Sean picked up moving from bartending into corporate sales at Waterloo Brewing - What changes when a craft brewery gets bought by an international giant like Carlsberg - Why a good lager is harder to brew than a hoppy IPA - Building The Boathouse ownership group and navigating city bureaucracy on a heritage property - Balancing a touring musician's life with running two hospitality businesses - The economics of live music venues and why cover charges protect musicians - Why the pandemic permanently changed drinking and spending habits Connect with Sean Goodchild - The Boathouse DTK boathousedtk.com @boathousedtk - Farm League Brewing farmleaguebrewing.com @farmleaguebrewing - Meadows Music Festival meadowsfest.ca @meadowsfergus - Fest2Fall Music Festival fest2fall.com @fest2fall A big thank you to Jean-Marc Dykes of Imbiblia. Imbiblia is a cocktail app for bartenders, restaurants and cocktail lovers alike and built by a bartender with more than a decade of experience behind the bar. Several of the features includes the ability to create your own Imbiblia Recipe Cards with the Imbiblia Cocktail Builder, rapidly select ingredients, garnishes, methods and workshop recipes with a unique visual format, search by taste, using flavour profiles unique to Imbiblia, share recipes publicly plus many more......Imbiblia - check it out! Contact the host Kypp Saunders by email at [email protected] for products from Elora Distilling and Noble Estates. Links: [email protected] @sugarrunbar @the_industry_podcast email us: [email protected]

A conversation with Guinness World Record holder Patrick McMurray on merroir, the art of the perfect shuck, and building a career around one ingredient.* In this episode of The Industry Podcast, we sit down with Patrick McMurray, a Toronto-based oyster sommelier, restaurateur, and two-time record holder — 2002 World Oyster Shucking Champion and current Guinness World Record holder at 39 oysters shucked in a minute. Patrick got his start as a teenage butcher's apprentice before working the front and back of house at some of Toronto's top restaurants in the late '80s and '90s, eventually opening his own spots, Starfish and Ceili Cottage. Patrick walks through the concept of merroir — how oyster flavour shifts based on species, region, and season, in a direct parallel to terroir in wine — and breaks down North America's five oyster species along with French affinage, the process of "finishing" oysters in high-tide clear pools. He also shares the story behind his namesake oyster knife, now carried by Zyliss and *The Oyster Companion*, his book on oyster tasting and technique. The conversation covers his Guinness World Record training, including the head-to-head challenge against Gordon Ramsay on Ramsay's show, and the proper technique for eating an oyster — no sauce, a two-bite chew, and retronasal breathing to pull out the full range of flavour. Patrick also discusses: - The Oyster Master Guild, the sommelier-style learning platform he co-founded with Julie Chu - Toronto's lack of local oysters, and how that pushed him to become an expert in importing and logistics - Growing regions in Baja Mexico and Dubai, and how climate and depth change flavor - Pairing oysters with wine, beer, and whiskey — including his oyster shell whiskey pairing method - Finding "your ingredient" — the mindset he teaches his students at Centennial College Notable Quote "It's the first 50,000 oysters that are tough — after that you either get good or you become a pillow stuffer." — Patrick McMurray Connect with Patrick McMurray Website: shuckerpaddy.ca Instagram: @shuckerpatty ShuckerPaddy Oyster Shucking knife: zyliss.com/products/oyster-knife-shucker-paddy Book: The Oyster Companion A big thank you to Jean-Marc Dykes of Imbiblia. Imbiblia is a cocktail app for bartenders, restaurants and cocktail lovers alike and built by a bartender with more than a decade of experience behind the bar. Several of the features includes the ability to create your own Imbiblia Recipe Cards with the Imbiblia Cocktail Builder, rapidly select ingredients, garnishes, methods and workshop recipes with a unique visual format, search by taste, using flavour profiles unique to Imbiblia, share recipes publicly plus many more......Imbiblia - check it out! Contact the host Kypp Saunders by email at [email protected] for products from Elora Distilling and Noble Estates. Links [email protected] @sugarrunbar @the_industry_podcast email us: [email protected]