The Inspired Stories Podcast
Brad Barmore on Why the Customer Isn’t Always First. And Why That’s the Secret to Great Hospitality
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🎙️ From $120K and a Pizza Oven to Three Sonoma County Restaurants: Brad Barmore’s Story at Kin Restaurant Group Brad Barmore, co-founder of Kin Restaurant Group, started with $120,000 scraped from friends, a personal loan, and two silent partners, signed a lease April 1st, and opened Kin Windsor by June 22nd of 2011. Fourteen years later, he runs three concepts across Sonoma County and owns two of the properties under them. In between: wildfires, evacuations, a global pandemic, a face plant with a fourth concept, barbecue competitions, a malfunctioning smoker on opening day, and a lesson about family he learned while his father was dying of cancer in Las Vegas. The kin brand — the idea that guests don’t visit your restaurant, they just show up at their place — turned out to be both a philosophy and a competitive advantage. ✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn: * What the early days at Johnny Garlic’s and Tex Wasabi’s taught Brad about creative possibility in a restaurant kitchen * How New York stripped away everything except the conviction that relationships are what hold a kitchen together * The $120,000 bootstrap story — signed a lease before the concept was finished, opened 12 weeks later * Why getting a full spirits license two years in changed everything — even for guests who only drink wine * How Kinsmoke went from a backyard competition to a San Francisco Chronicle front page * The opening day smoker collapse and 76-straight-day stretch that almost broke him * What COVID taught him about the loyalty of a community — and why taking care of staff first built business during lockdown * Why the customer should not come first, and what Danny Meyer’s hospitality philosophy actually means in practice * The face plant at 1910 — their best creative work, the wrong location, and a father dying in Vegas * Why owning the buildings under two of their three restaurants is the real retirement plan 🌟 Brad’s Key Mentors: * Guy Fieri & Steve Rubbers (Johnny Garlic’s / Tex Wasabi’s): Taught Brad what it looks like to empower managers like owners — and what gets lost when a company scales past that * Carl Ruiz (Food Network Personality & Kitchen Operator): The ‘assassin’ who showed Brad what surgical operational efficiency looks like and invited him to New York * Danny Meyer (Setting the Table, Union Square Hospitality Group): The philosophy that flipped Brad’s entire approach — staff first, vendors second, guests third — and it’s been the backbone of Kin ever since * JC (Business Partner): Held the restaurants together while Brad sat with his dying father — the kind of partnership that makes the word kin mean something * Logan (Chef, Kin Windsor since 2013): A prep cook from Tex Wasabi’s who has been with Brad through every opening, every close, and every hard stretch 👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it actually takes to survive in the restaurant business in one of California’s most disaster-prone counties, why the hospitality philosophy that makes guests feel at home starts with the dishwasher, and how a face plant at a fourth restaurant became the best lesson Brad ever learned. 🔗 Connect with Brad Barmore: Website: kinwindsor.com Website: kinsmoke.com Website: thepublicanwindsor.com 📎 Transcript Available: Brad Barmore on Why the Customer Isn’t Always First. And Why That’s the Secret to Great Hospitality 📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast 🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast 📎 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com
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