Mexican spirits expert Max Reis goes beyond tequila and mezcal

Lion’s Choice has built a reputation and a steady stream of regulars for its legendary roast beef sandwiches in its hometown of St. Louis and beyond. The quick-service menu offers several choices, including the original Famous Roast Beef, the French Dip and The Remix—the last a favorite of CEO Fred Burmer.Burmer joins us on the podcast to talk about the menu and more. Lion’s Choice sources the top round cut of beef and trained beef masters at each location use a secret seasoning and technique to roast the meat and slice it to spec. The price of beef has skyrocketed in the past year or two, but Burmer explains how Lion’s Choice has built in more efficiencies to mitigate the higher costs, and menu prices have only gone up a little bit. Today’s diners are seeking protein-rich menu items and portion sizes remain generous. Customers see the value in the quality and consistency of the food and are very loyal to the brand, he says. Listen as Burmer describes how some of Lion’s Choice most popular menu ideas have come from the guests themselves, how the chain has created a rewarding team culture and loyalty program, and what his plans are for growth are for growth beyond the St. Louis area.

Nicholas Poulmentis took a remarkably straightforward approach to entering the world of food TV: He filled out an application.It was apparently a very good application because it got him a spot on the Food Network’s competition show “Chopped,” where he ended up winning, leading to other television appearances.But he also has cooked in restaurants all his life and is now preparing for his own venue in New York City. Kythira NP, named for the island where he grew up and the initials of his own name, is slated to open in the SoHo neighborhood of this June. He plans to feature dishes from throughout Greece, but he is also preparing to import culinary specialties from his home island, including a type of sea squirt called “fouskes” and unique varieties of seaweed.Poulmentis recently discussed his plans for the restaurant and also shared observations about how cooking in a restaurant is far more stressful than any food competition could ever be. 

Attorney Kevin Kelley set out to create a restaurant that would be the kind of place he could feel at home in. The result is Kitchen + Kocktails, an affordable, chef-driven restaurant with elevated Southern food, great cocktails and a warm, welcoming vibe that has grown to seven locations across the U.S.Kelley’s lifelong passion for hospitality, food and drink is powering the restaurants’ expansion from their home base in Dallas to Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Charlotte, and Boston. Although those cities are quite different, Kitchen + Kocktails seems to hit a sweet spot with diners wherever it lands. And more locations are in the works.The expansive menu offers fresh takes on Southern favorites, including Shrimp and Grits, Fried Chicken and Waffles, Southern Fried Catfish, Caribbean Jerk Lamb Chops, Candied Yams, Mac and Cheese and Seafood Gumbo—as well as a weekend special of Kelley’s mother-in-law’s Braised Oxtails. On the beverage side, signature cocktails include True Flame, a fiery mix of premium spirits, warm citrus and spice crafted tableside with a live fire presentation, a Blackberry Margarita and the frozen Peach D’usse Frose made with cognac. Listen as Kelley talks about the importance of real estate partnerships in his restaurants’ success, how Kitchen + Kocktails taps into his passions and those of his guests, and where he’s headed next with the concept.

Strickland’s is a family-owned ice cream shop that opened in Akron, Ohio, in 1936, and the original operation is still using its original equipment. It has since expanded to five locations in its home state, all franchised except for the original shop, and it recently opened a franchised location in Costa Mesa, Calif. (not its first location in that state — it previously had a franchise on the campus of the University of California at Irvine).  Strickland’s formula is straightforward: Each location has four ice cream machines, one churning out chocolate ice cream, another producing vanilla, and the other two making a rotating flavor determined at the discretion of the franchisee, with approval of the concept’s franchisors, Father-and-son team Scott and Jacob Margroff. They’ve churned out a variety of flavors, banana being a longtime favorite, but the Margroffs say the secret recipe is really their equipment, which, apart from being sturdy, freezes the ice cream quickly, resulting in tiny ice crystals and therefore a creamy mouth feel. But it churns slowly, resulting in a dense texture with minimal air.  The Margroffs recently shared their approach to operations and flavor development as well as their plans for the future.  

Chef Sungchul Shim’s dream was to have a restaurant in Times Square, and he realized that dream just about a year ago when he opened Gui Steakhouse. The Culinary Institute of America graduate set out to make his steakhouse unique by infusing Korean flavors and techniques into the menu.Steaks are dry-aged and cooked over live fire fueled by a combination of wood and Korean charcoal. Along with classic steakhouse sauces, Chef Shim offers a house-made steak sauce that’s an umami-rich blend of Korean soy sauce, seaweed and herbs. His Caesar salad also has Korean accents—the dressing includes fermented plum. Diners can choose from an array of starters and sides, but there’s also a menu section of shared noodle and rice dishes—a traditional way for Koreans to end a restaurant meal. But a martini cart with tableside service is an all-American specialty of the bar.A more recent addition is Hwaro, a 22-seat circular chef’s counter within Gui that offers a Korean fine dining experience through a multi-course tasting menu. It’s named after the traditional Korean brazier, a symbol of community. For a more wallet-friendly option, there’s a prix-fixe three-course dinner that’s well-suited for pre-theater guests.  Listen as Chef Shim talks about the culinary journey that brought him from Korea to New York and how is wowing guests at Gui Steakhouse with its inventive menu in a striking setting right in Times Square. Request one free case of the right mayonnaise for your MayoNeeds™: http://venturafoods.com/mayoneeds

Danny Lledó is the chef and owner of Xiquet and Taller de Xiquet. The former is a Michelin-starred, tasting-menu restaurant in Washington, D.C., and the latter offers similar food in an à la carte setting downstairs. Born in the United States, Lledó  comes from a family of cooks—his father is an accomplished chef from Dénia, Spain, located between Valencia and Alicante, and he focuses on that region’s cuisine at his restaurants, particularly paella. That rice dish is the centerpiece of his tasting menu, which starts with small plates and ends with dessert and drinks outside the dining room on the restaurant’s mezzanine.Lledó is the most awarded paella chef in the United States, with six first-place honors in competitions such as the Paella Wine & Beer Festival in Los Angeles. His was named the best Valencian Paella at PaellaFest in Washington, D.C., and it won the people’s choice award at the Paella Wine & Beer Festival in California’s Orange County. He recently discussed his paella and other aspects of Valencian culture and the D.C. dining scene for this podcast. 

Our guest on this week’s Menu Talk is Ahu Hettema, chef-owner of Istanbul Hawai’i restaurant in Honolulu. Chef Hettema came to California to study art and psychology but was unable to return to her homeland of Turkey because of a string of immigration snafus. She visited Hawaii and fell in love with the culture and climate, which reminded her of Southeast Turkey.Chef Ahu Hettema and her mother run the kitchen at Istanbul Hawai'i. Cooking was a way to ease her homesickness and connect with people, and she began making Turkish food to sell at local farmers markets, alongside her mother who moved to the U.S. Soon, a catering business was born and eventually the mother-daughter team opened Istanbul Hawai’i—the only Turkish restaurant in the Islands.The restaurant’s seasonal menu reflects the food of the Ottoman Empire, modernized with chef Hettema’s artistic touches. She works with local farmers to source ingredients and infuse the cuisine with Hawaiian spirit. A shareable Sultan’s Table menu offers a spread that includes winter salata, mercimek soup, mezze spread, sourdough pide, safran pilav, pirzolas, lamb tenderloin sis, wagyu ribeye sis, Jidori chicken sis, baba’s köfte, cultured yogurt tzatziki and seasonal vegetables. At $265, there’s plenty of food for three or four diners to share. Istanbul Hawai’i has built a large following among locals and tourists for its warm hospitality and unique cuisine. Listen as Hettema shares her culinary journey and passion for food, family and culture.

Billy Dec is the owner of Sunda New Asian, a Pan-Asian concept with a heavy bent toward Dec’s own Filipino heritage. The original location in Chicago’s River North neighborhood is 17 years old, and the concept’s fifth location, in Detroit, is slated to open in a couple of weeks. There are also Sunda locations in Nashville and Tampa.The décor of the Detroit location reflects Dec’s own heritage more deeply than the other restaurants, with images from his documentary Food Roots, which is currently screening across the country as it prepares to air on PBS.In this conversation he shares a bit about the documentary as well as his own upbringing and the natural fusion that occurs when taking non-direct flights to the Philippines—stops in Hong Kong, Tokyo or Seoul are common. Dec’s own background is also Eastern European, and that wasn’t lost on him as he was growing up and his household had a cuisine all its own. He discusses how culinary curiosity has evolved in the United States, but also how food delivery has taken a bite not only out of profits, but also out of the joy of running restaurants—seeing guests enjoy their meals and embracing the hospitality that is presented to them. He also shares his opinion of Detroit, a vibrant, beautiful and welcoming city that Dec thinks other restaurateurs ought to consider for business.

Dozens of menu trend forecasts came in towards the end of 2025 from culinary and restaurant industry experts. Included in that pile were the top trends from market researcher Technomic, the sister company of Restaurant Business and Nation’s Restaurant News. Lizzy Freier, senior director of menu research & insights at Technomic, has her finger directly on the pulse of chefs and menu developers, tracking the latest in flavor, R&D and global cuisines. During the podcast, she zeroes in on the predictions she and her team made last fall to see how they’re panning out about a month into 2026. We talk about protein, GLP-1 diets, emerging flavors, limited-time offers, beverage innovation and more. Listen to find out what else is on Technomic’s radar and discover the trends that menu expert Freier finds most intriguing. 

When it comes to Mexico and spirits, most people think of tequila, which has now surged past whiskey and even vodka to become the most widely consumed alcohol in the United States. But Max Reis goes well beyond that, and not just into mezcal (now ubiquitous enough that you can get it at Applebee’s) or even lesser-known indigenous Mexican spirits such as sotol, raicilla and bacanora.At his Los Angeles bars Miraté — Spanish for “look at you” — and the new Daisy Margarita Bar, the native of California’s Napa Valley delves into Mexican gins, eaux de vie, rum and more.In this podcast, Reis discusses his approach to mixology and to operating successful bars, and discusses his upcoming bar Gilbert Perez, which will focus on rum.