.jpg)
The Morning Brew with Chris Bennett
Ever wonder what really goes on at a small-town morning radio show?
The Morning Brew with Chris Bennett and Best Friends is your daily dose of real callers, big laughs, and unforgettable characters straight from QCountry 925 in Show Low, Arizona.
The Morning Brew with Chris Bennett
A Decade of The House Restaurant: Community, Connection & Celebration
What makes a restaurant last for a decade in a small mountain town? According to Chris Corbin of The House Restaurant, it starts with putting community first and business second.
Today, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Chris Corbin and Shanine from The House Restaurant as they prepare to celebrate their remarkable 10-year anniversary in Show Low. Their story isn't just about good food and drinks—it's about creating a genuine community space where people can disconnect from technology and reconnect with each other.
Chris, who grew up in the White Mountains before spending 15 years working in Valley restaurants, always knew he wanted to come home. "The choice to move to the community came first. The restaurant actually came second," he explains. This community-first philosophy has defined The House from day one. Unlike traditional restaurants focused on turning tables quickly, they created a space where people can relax, hang out all day, and enjoy quality time together without digital distractions—you won't find TVs on their walls.
What began as a simple restaurant has expanded over the years to include the Creamery Café, the Yard Bar, cornhole courts, and regular live music performances. But through all their growth, their mission remains unchanged: be a place where families and friends can unplug and connect.
Perhaps most telling about their success is their staff loyalty. Many team members have been with them for five years or longer, creating a family atmosphere that customers immediately feel. As Chris puts it: "I can teach you how to flip a burger, how to make a drink, how to run a POS station. I can't teach you how to care."
The House is celebrating their milestone with a community party this Saturday from 5pm to 9pm, featuring local vendors, sponsors, live music by Ryan Orr, and a toast to the town that supported them. It's their way of saying thank you to the community that embraced them for a decade.
Join us this Saturday to celebrate a local business that proves when you put people before profit, success naturally follows. After ten years, The House has become more than a restaurant—it's become home.
From the Horn Auto Center Studios, chris Bennett and the Morning Brew. I am so excited to have some in-studio guests this morning. Normally I'm all by myself, but not today. I have my friends Chris Corbin and Shanine over at the House Restaurant. They are celebrating their 10th anniversary this week and I'll be broadcasting live from 5 pm to 9 pm at the house for their anniversary party. Chris, thank you so much for joining us and congratulations on 10 years.
Speaker 2:Thanks, chris. Can you believe it's been 10 years? You've seen it grow. I mean 10 years really.
Speaker 1:Dude, I moved here full-time eight years ago, but I was coming up on the mountain and I must have just started going to the house when you opened. And it's so cool to see how you've grown, expanded, because at first you didn't have the creamery.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the creamery came about a year, year and a half into it. It's just been piece by piece.
Speaker 1:You've seen it grow, yeah so we were talking off air and you're from the White Mountains. Why did you start the house and how did you get into the restaurant life?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is home. I grew up in restaurants. We were talking off air. My first restaurant show my age, late 80s started at Charlie Clark's and then went down to the Chalet Restaurant for a few years. This is just all I've ever done. I'm not smart enough to do anything else. I love restaurants.
Speaker 1:We got sucked into it and it gets in your blood, and this is all we've ever done, right. And so you, you, you. You were in the military too. You left the mountain, you were in the military, and then you were living in the Valley, still doing restaurants.
Speaker 2:I lived in the Valley for, oh my gosh, 15, 16 years, nothing but restaurants, hotels, resorts, that kind of thing. And just wanted to come home. My wife and I decided let's move back to the mountain, let's go home, it's where we want to raise our family. Yeah, and the choice to move to the community came first. The restaurant actually came second.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:You know we knew it would be restaurants, not what exactly it would be Right. Just blessed that it ended up being what it is.
Speaker 1:It's amazing. If you have not checked out the house restaurant in Show Low, you have to check it out. They have amazing live music. They have the Yard Bar. They have the Yard, they have Cornhole. They also have the Creamery Cafe Amazing food. When you started the house 10 years, what was the original vision of the house?
Speaker 2:Originally let's give credit where credit is due A couple of people really started the house restaurant Matt McGowan, James Maloney and their families. I was an employee and working with them. I'd known Matt for years, way back to our days in the Valley, working together at resorts, and right off the start it was how do we create a family hangout joint where people want to be? We never wanted to look at another human being as a dollar sign again. Unfortunately, most restaurants you have to turn those tables right. It was give them enough room to relax, hang out all day and and encourage that. You know, and the original idea what you and I talked off air restaurants don't make sense unless you feel a need or a void. Solo neededolo needed a family hangout joint and we wanted to be that place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love how you stick to your vision too, because I've talked to you at the restaurant and you're like this is a place where I want people to unplug and spend time with your family. I've heard people be like, oh, I want TVs, and that's not what the house is about.
Speaker 2:It's not no TVs.
Speaker 1:Very few places to plug in your laptop there are a lot of business meetings that happen, but for the most part unplug from life, Spend time with grandma, the dog, the kids whatever it may be. It's so great in there. You guys have great live music at the house and just a lot of fun things to do. I'm honored to be invited to broadcast live from your 10th anniversary this Saturday.
Speaker 2:I love that you'll be there. You hang out in the yard with us quite a bit anyway, so to make you come down and do a little work while you're there, I think it's great.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you coming down. I'd be there anyways. What can people expect at the anniversary party?
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, it's going to be a party house style. We're going to have a good time. The idea behind it was everybody sees me run around like an idiot all day long. It takes so much more than me to pull it off. So we've got our, our local vendors, our local suppliers, our local sponsors that are all over this town that all the people that really make the place happen way beyond my wife and I. It's going to be a party. We're going to have vendors everywhere, sponsors everywhere, booths everywhere. You'll be there. We're going to do a drone flyover and do a toast to the sky and we're all going to toast the town. We're going to toast this community for how great it is. It should be a good time.
Speaker 1:I hope you guys can make it Mark your calendars. It's going to be this Saturday night, 5 pm to 9 pm. I'll be out front broadcasting and it's going time like it always is at the house, and they just want to thank the community for 10 years of being in business.
Speaker 2:That's exactly what this is. This is a thank you to you for allowing us to be a part of this and part of the community, and doing this for as long as we have. I mean, it's crazy to think it is. It's never in my wildest dreams that I think we would get to this point. You can dream and dream big. This is bigger than I ever dreamed.
Speaker 1:We are back with Chris Corbin from the House Restaurant and Shanine from the House Restaurant. They are celebrating their 10th anniversary this Saturday from 5 pm to 9 pm at the House in Show Low. I'll be broadcasting live. Come on out and let them say thank you to the community for a great 10 years here on the White Mountains, and it made me think of a game. Since you're celebrating your 10th anniversary, I wondered what celebrities, famous celebrity couples, have or have not made it 10 years. I'm going to name a celebrity couple and you guys have to guess if they made it longer or less than 10 years. Like the house. You guys ready, ready, all right, shanine, here we go. Shanine and Chris. First one Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley Less, definitely less. That was only two years. How about Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson? More, they are more. Yeah, 36 years. Okay. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman Less.
Speaker 2:I don't know. That's right there. It's right there.
Speaker 1:11 years, 11 years 11 years, they made it. What about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie? Less, less, yeah, they only made it. Five years. It's hard to make it 10 years. 10 years is tough. Britney Spears and her high school crush, jason Alexander Less, that was 55 hours, 55 hours. Jason Alexander, that was 55 hours, 55 hours. How about Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck? More, more, yeah, longer than people think 13 years. You are good. Shanine, holy moly. And last one, pamela Anderson and Kid Rock Less, yes, yes, it's hard to make it 10 years.
Speaker 1:Which the house has done it celebrating 10 years here on the White Mountains, bringing us great times, great food, great drinks, and you can celebrate with them. This Saturday, 5pm to 9pm, I'll be broadcasting live. Come say hi to me and enjoy everything the house has to offer, and let's say they're saying thank you to us for 10 years. But we need to say thank you to them because it is so great to have such a cool place here in the White Mountains.
Speaker 2:It really is about the community. If you're going to be a part of this town and part of this community, you better really be that way. This town has shown us so much support and love throughout the years. It really is. You say it's a thank you. It's thank you to the community. We're here because you guys actually believe in what we're doing. Whether we're doing it right or not, you come back, you let us know and you let us make it right. And this town is amazing how it's stuck by, but it sticks by all of us. You look around. You see all the charity events happening and things going on around town. You always see local businesses showing up whether it's ours or somebody else showing up to support to have their back. Um, good and bad, this town knows how to take care of itself. It's, it's cool.
Speaker 1:It's like it's so cool to be a part of it this morning we've been talking to chris corbin and shaneen over there at the house restaurant in cholo, who's celebrating their 10th anniversary this Saturday. I'll be broadcasting live from 5pm to 9pm, and Chris, off air. You talked about one of the things that has made you successful is your staff. Tell us a little bit about the key to your success and your great staff.
Speaker 2:It genuinely is. I mean, the staff is the heart of the whole thing. We're really lucky, our core group some of them have been here. You've seen them grow up, chris. They've been with us eight years now. We've got several kids. Probably a third of the staff's been here five years or longer, right, and we embrace that. We enjoy it.
Speaker 2:We have these young kids coming in high school, working summers, weekends, and then you see them. They go off to college and they work with you three or four years through high school, go off to college, come back every summer and you watch them grow up like your own kids, right, and then eventually they stop those summers because they they moved on with life and then they come back a couple of years later. They've got their own kids now. They've got their own careers now. They're all grown up and while it does your heart, it makes you feel so good because they are like your own kids. It's how do I replace that guy Right, that young lady, and start all over again? And we've been lucky to have quite a few stick with us for years through that. And then we got the core group, who are just wacky enough in the head, like I am to think this is cool for life, right, and want to stick around.
Speaker 2:And that core group right now. They just truly understand that if they take care of each other, that naturally just lends itself to taking care of the customer, right? You know the guest. You don't have to try and take care of the guest If you don't have to try and take care of the guest. If you're happy where you're at welcome home, come on in, let's hang out. You know that whole vibe of start. It sounds selfish, but start with us. You guys will feel it, you'll know it when you walk in the door.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, you could definitely tell everyone that works at the house cares. You could tell they're taken care of and they're happy, and everyone seems to go out of their way to make sure that us, the customer, has a great experience.
Speaker 2:It sounds simple, but it's really hard to pull off. And I probably shouldn't say this on air, but I tell them all the time I can teach you how to flip a burger, how to make a drink, how to run a POS station. I can't teach you how to care Right. If you genuinely care, you're going to thrive here. You're going to kill it.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:And some do, some don't, but those who buy into it. It's amazing. Our staff is why we are who we are.
Speaker 1:It's been 10 years of caring. 10 years of caring. Your staff at the house has done an amazing job and the house wants to invite everyone in the community to come on out and celebrate 10 years. And maybe you've worked at the house in the past I 10 years and maybe you've worked at the house in the past.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm sure you'd love to see all the the old faces and everyone from the community. That's a great point. Yeah, come on, say hi, that'll be cool it's gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:It is the 10th anniversary at the house this saturday, 5 pm to 9 pm. Come hang out with us.
Speaker 2:Woo, that's my blood, because Paul from Beaumont said so.
Speaker 1:Yee-yee, yee-yee, holy moly, it's everyone's favorite redneck from Beaumont, texas. Paul from Beaumont and Paul, when we had you come down to Show Loat to visit for the first time, we capped off your trip at the house restaurant. Do you remember that?
Speaker 2:I did absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, that was so much fun. I actually have Chris Corbin, the owner of the house, and I have Shanine, who's with events and marketing with the house. They're celebrating their 10th anniversary here in the White Mountains, Paul.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you what I can see. Why, man?
Speaker 1:because the food's good, the drinks are cold. Yeah, and I was telling them him. It's one of those places when I have people from out of town coming in and I want to take them somewhere special, somewhere fun, I always take them to the house. And you and I went to the house on their ABBA cover night and you and I I did. That was a crazy night man. I think I met the former governor of Arizona, yeah, yeah, which which I forget her name.
Speaker 2:I forget.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it was, it was Brewer, it was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, jamber, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, you met. Yeah, yeah, I caught.
Speaker 1:Nanu in a drunken state of mind and let her talk to the governor. That was a great time. It's always a great time at the house. I wish you could be here this Saturday because I'm going to be broadcasting live from 5 pm to 9 pm for their anniversary party. It's going to be a lot of fun. And it would be a lot more fun if you were here. Paul, I know man, I wish I was. Man. I miss show love, man, I miss my fire pit table too. Bro, that's right. It is now time for Are you Smarter Than a Redneck? And today, paul from Beaumont, you have a tough opponent. It's Chris Corbin, owner of the House Restaurant, who is celebrating their 10th anniversary this Saturday from 5 pm to 9 pm. Come join me for that. And today is a TV dinner day, and you don't get no TV dinners at the house. You just get the freshest, most delicious food. But I thought we would do some TV trivia to find out who's smarter. If you know the answer, say your name. That's your buzzer. Are you two ready?
Speaker 2:Ready.
Speaker 1:All right, these are multiple choice, but you don't have to wait for multiple choice In I Love Lucy. What was Ricky Ricardo's job? Was it taxi driver? Band leader, restaurant owner? Paul Paul Band leader. It is band leader. He's up 1-0. It's the first one to three correct answers. Which city is the setting for Cheers? Is it Chris?
Speaker 2:Chris Paul.
Speaker 1:Chris, go ahead. Boston, it is Boston, is it chris, chris? Chris, go ahead, boston. It is boston, where everyone knows your name, which you know. The house is a lot like that. Everyone knows your name when I go to the house. Uh, all right, here we go in the office. What is michael scott's famous catchphrase? Is it? You got it, boss? Dunder rules that's what she said or world's best boss, chris chris world's best boss, chris, chris, world's best boss. No, chris, you don't watch the Office, I don't.
Speaker 2:Gosh dang it, he's too busy working.
Speaker 1:What about you, Paul, Is it? You got it, boss. That's what she said. Or done to rules. I'm going to say the rules. Oh my gosh, you guys are so disappointing. It's that's what she said. Alright, In Seinfeld, Kramer's first name is George, Cosmo, Frank or Kenny.
Speaker 2:Paul Paul.
Speaker 1:George. No you guys are disappointing me Cosmo. It is Cosmo. Okay, you guys are tied up. We're not even going to three this time, we're going to two. Whoever gets this next answer right is the winner. Which TV theme song begins with? So no one told you life was gonna be this way. So no one told you life was gonna be this way, is it? Friends, chris, chris, friends, friends, chris, corbin? At the house, you?
Speaker 2:are smarter than a redneck.
Speaker 1:Not bad for a redneck. Yay, yay, yay, Paul. Sorry buddy, he swept the floor with you.
Speaker 2:He cleaned my clock.
Speaker 1:He cleaned your plate, which is what I do every time I'm at the house. Nicely done. I have nothing to ride to do, buddy, she loves them. Shrimps and hamburgers oh, the bonfire shrimp, their hamburgers. It's all delicious, paul Wolfe, to have you out here again and take you to the house, and we'll talk to you soon, buddy, have a great day, you too, I might have to take you on stage when I go there next time.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1:All right, buddy, we love you. All right, y'all have a great day. Thanks. It has been so much fun this morning hanging out with Chris Corbin, owner of the House Restaurant, and Shanine, the marketing and event expert, over there at the House Restaurant, and you guys have a big event this weekend. It is the 10th anniversary at the House in Show Low. Join us from 5 pm to 9 pm. And what final things would you like to say to the community before you head out?
Speaker 2:you know one thing we we should really mention because it just happened a huge, another huge thank you to this community. The independence best of the best awards just came out and talk about humbling oh my gosh, I think seven awards this year and and just to see your name next to all these really cool, amazing businesses all over town and to see that stack next to all these really cool, amazing businesses all over town and to see that stack of plaques walk in the door, you almost feel like you don't deserve it. Right, it's like there's no way, but it huge. Thank you to the town independent for putting it on and to the town for supporting it and supporting us. And it's kind of cool, you know, for the first couple of years we didn't even know that thing existed and all of a sudden these plaques are up. Right, right, right.
Speaker 1:It's a really cool thing and just real quick. We should say thank you Genuinely, absolutely, absolutely, and they're going to be saying thank you to the whole community that shows up Saturday 5 pm to 9 pm. It's party, baby, and make sure you, if you haven't already, follow the House on Facebook so you could keep track of all their great events. They have some amazing bands coming through, like Ashley Westcott, who we have on our show.
Speaker 2:Amazing.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Yeah, and the Arizona Peaches her band. It's so great Ryan Orr will be playing Saturday yeah, ryan, david Orr. Oh, from 5 to 9? From that night, ryan Orr will be playing.
Speaker 2:Saturday yeah, ryan, david Orr, oh, from 5 to 9? From that night? Oh heck. Yes, the RDO band Ryan will be on stage. Yeah, it's so much fun.
Speaker 1:And his band was just named Battle of the Bands winner.
Speaker 2:They were Battle of the Bands. Yeah, brighter Still, heck. Yeah, that's a great band, great vibe.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for bringing the house to the, providing a place for us to come and spend time with our family, and we are excited, uh, to be broadcasting live. Join me, it's an honor 5 pm to 9 pm on saturday at the house for their anniversary party.
Speaker 2:We love you guys thanks, chris, we love you guys appreciate it.
