Built With Intention: Remi McManus & Kris Komori on Creating KIN

This week on Nobody Knowz, we sit down with Remi McManus and Kris Komori of KIN — the Idaho restaurant redefining what food, art, and workplace culture can look like. From James Beard recognition to collaborative menus and community-centered leadership, this conversation goes far beyond the plate.

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Welcome to the Nobody Knowz podcast with Callie Zamzow Join us for conversations with local changemakers and hear the stories that don't always get told. It'll be honest, messy and beautiful. Touching and humorous. Slow down for a glass and pull up a chair. This is the Nobody Knows podcast. Welcome to Nobody Knows. I'm your host, Callie Zamzow. I'm going to start off with a bang here and just talk about the tip of the week for us. I'm excited about it because we are getting ready to hire a whole bunch of people. So this is our seasonal like time. We kind of begin to build our, team that will help us get through the spring. And, so we have some job fairs coming up. So I just wanted to share this with you and hope that you will share it with other people. If people are interested in working at Zamzows. So the job fairs are going to take place on February 27th and March 3rd from 3 - 6 pm, and they're going to take place at the Z Event Center, which is for those of you who don't know, our little event center that we have. Mostly it's a training center that we use within the company, but it's right next to the State Street store in Boise, not the State Street store in Eagle, but the one in Boise that's across from the River club. So it will take place. There will be from 3 to 6 p.m., February 27th to March 6th. This is 2026, in case you're listening, in the future. And, we we are hiring for all sorts of positions. So if you have interest, show up and, you can bring your resume and come join us and we'll meet you and talk about the job options, and, and you might walk away with the job. So, please share the word. We would appreciate that. And it is an exciting time as ourselves as we gear up for spring. As we call it. It's our Christmas time. Spring time. So it's exciting. And it does mean that spring is going to come, which is exciting, too, because sometimes we wonder at the end of February whether spring will ever come. I'm going to jump right in because I'm very excited about the two guests that I have. Yes, two guests today. I'm very excited about this. So today I am talking with Remi McManus and Kris Komori, and they are the co-owners of Kin, which is so cool. So I kind of feel like I'm in a cool kids club right now because, I feel like the whole valley knows who you two are and what you've done and this wonderful restaurant you've created and a bunch of other things you've done. So welcome into the studio and thank you for being here today. Thanks for having us. Absolutely. First, I hope that there's a chance for people to catch up on video, the look of the two of you, because you are an eclectic couple. Like, you're you're very you're very different. Like, you're kind of outdoorsy and you kind of kind of seem like, I'm less outdoorsy. I we're going to get to that. We're going to get to that for sure. Before we get started, will you do you just take a moment? Let's start with Kin and will you guys take just a moment to kind of give us a description in each of your own words of what Kin is? Oftentimes, I describe Kin as more of a community engagement center than I do a restaurant. While we serve food and drink and offer hospitality. We're more of a welcoming entity to the community. Very invested in community involvement and connection with guests and staff and and other things. We seek to showcase artists and makers and farmers and ranchers. So while we are serving food and drink, like I said, we think about it more as a space for people to engage with each other. I love that. Yeah, I would totally agree. We we're on the same page for that for sure. Yeah. Yeah, it's a space for people to connect, you know? We just happen to be good at making food and serving drinks, and that goes along with it. We we're a restaurant where a bar by traditional definition. We mainly we throw parties in. And you're located in kind of a I mean, if you're a Boise in, it's kind of an iconic area. What did it used to be back in the day? What was the Angel's Angels? That was it. It was started in 1976 by Skip and Doug Oppenheimer. Is there a place called the Main Street Bistro, though? Oh, no kidding. I guess I don't know if I knew that. That's interesting. People did. Yeah, but for those people who don't know, it's that it's the cool restaurant that's like down the hill. What is that? The corner of ninth and 19, Main and Main. So yeah, it's such a cool location. It was the original Shakespeare Festival location. It was Midsummer Night's Dream that first season. And then they. Then they took off wild. I thought the first location was on the river there. Like, you know, the prior to where they are now. Yeah. Right in the park center. Yeah. Yeah. The first space was our space. That's very cool. Oh, only one play, Midsummer Night's Dream. Okay. Oh. That's great. I love that. Okay, so let's go back to the beginning. Let's let's talk a little bit about how how did the two of you meet? Well, I had started working on a project called State and Land restaurant called State and Land. And this was roughly 13 years ago, I suppose. Jay Henry and I were partners in that. And as we were building out, just the two of us, very small restaurant on the corner of state left on State Street. The word got out that we were looking for employees and looking for chefs. And Kris actually just happened. Happened to walk in the door. We talked to him for about 45 minutes to an hour that first day, and then he came back. He came back again. And all of a sudden, a week later, he's painting walls and laying carpet with me. And that's just is just kind of meant to be, I guess. Yeah. It's like 3 or 4 weeks into it and I was like, do you guys want me to actually cook anything for you? I, they just liked it. I was like, oh, you're cool dude. Remi's the Boise native. I moved from Portland that summer of 2013. Okay. And I started actually, I kind of wanted a little break and just to acclimate to a new place. And I worked for, a farm. It was, Sweet Valley Organics. So they have a farm suite, but I was actually signed on because the guy foraged mushrooms. And as I mentioned, I'm not very outdoorsy. I thought that I was learning how to forge mushrooms, and it turns out I'm not suited to carry 100 pounds of mushrooms on my back walking up mountains. So he was like, well, why don't you work the farmers market? So it was actually the first year that the Boise Farmer's Market split off. When they were still on Grove Street. Right. And through the summer, I actually did a farm to table dinner out at the farm and a bunch of people that go to the farmer's market were there, and they were like, they came back to the market and they said, I didn't know you could cook. And then they actually a bunch of customers started saying, oh, you should go check out this restaurant that's being built called State Lint. So that's actually how I found out about it. And it was literally like rode my bike from the farmer's market over to the place one day and just walked in just pretty much. Wow. Yeah, I think I was covered in sheet rock. Yeah. And it's just it's great. So you you had this thing that you were going to create, but you didn't have some. And it was a food place, but you didn't have the person who was going to make the food yet. It was it did just kind of know that was going to happen. Well, Jay Henry, who was my partner at the time, was also also a chef. Okay. So he figured he was going to be doing okay. It turns out Kris was, more suited for it, but Jay's also a great guy. Yeah. Oh, that's what a cool. I was not I was not expecting that. That's a story. That's pretty cool. Okay. So then at what point did you. I mean, I guess how long did you stand limp thing before you decided to. So we did state limp for exactly five years. Okay. And as we started to build relationship, Kris and I, many late nights, the wives can attest to this, many conversations about what the future would look like, you know, where we would go from state, and then some of the ideas that we both shared, some of the ideas that we didn't share, but we would like to express within the culinary industry, within the hospitality industry. And everything just started to kind of blossom through that. We built an incredibly strong culture at state and land and an incredibly strong relationships, essentially family. And when we went on to work towards building Kin, essentially the entire staff came with us. Oh, wow. Okay. I didn't realize that. Yeah. I mean, we were we're sort of just looking for something maybe, like 25% bigger. You know, like, it was pretty tight in there. Like, I guess we're right up on the wall. And we had to, like, shimmy by. So it was a little it wasn't the best suited location space at least. So yeah, just grow incrementally I think. Okay. So you so at what point did you say okay we're going to develop a completely we're going to find this new space. But we're going to develop a different concept. And when did you decide like when when did you decide on kin. Well that was 2018 I think. Right. So this fall of 2018 is when we we moved out of State and Lemp. And then we were kind of nomadic for a couple years at least a year. And yeah, like Mary mentioned, most of the crew wanted to stick with us, but we were kind of like, well, you got to go find other jobs for a bit. We would do farm dinners and various things and bring everyone back together. But yeah, they had kind of dispersed. And meanwhile, we would we would all meet up and kind of brainstorm the idea together. Okay. And then we were just trying to hunt down locations and stuff like that. Okay. This is a unique partnership. Can you just for my own sake, because I love to kind of understand people's personalities. How are how are you guys the same and how are you different? We're incredibly different. I think we share a lot of similar traits as well. I'm definitely, a dreamer. Kris's as well. Kris is very studious. I'm not. So. And I'm just I'm interested in throwing parties and hosting events, and, I've been doing so ever since I was a kid in high school in my mom's basement. And Kris is kind of the glue that holds certain things together organizationally. I've learned through many years of being involved in business to do those things. But it's not my favorite. Whereas it's obvious on his face when it's not his. But Kris is incredibly good at that. So much so that he can get so involved in it that he might even put on a bunny suit to run Excel spreadsheets for days at a time. It's like it's my comfort blanket. I wish you'd have worn it today. But we're both we're both incredibly invested into the things that we talked about earlier. Community engagement. Staff involvement, ownership. So, Tim, very strong shared vision about things. And then you. And then you can each operate in your own world and respect each other for your strengths. Yeah. I mean, we're lucky that we align on the the major and why, you know, in the core beliefs of the place, we differ a little bit and little nuances here and there, but in general, like when we work really well together. Yeah. Well, you must. You've created some cool stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And, Yeah. Very cool. Okay. So before kin, like, fully existed. So did you guys, like, feel like there was something missing in the Boise scene that you were trying to fill? Or was it was it was it driven by something else? I wouldn't say not necessarily the anything was missing or that we felt like anything was missing. We just essentially wanted to grow. And part of that growth wasn't necessarily that we needed a bigger space, although we did. The idea was that we wanted to be able to provide more for our staff in a small restaurant that only has 24 seats. It's very difficult to do that when it's 24 seats is open four days a week. There's a certain price point, there's a certain amount of seating. So by growing, expanding the space to 28 to 30 seats and then also opening a bar that could capitalize on more guests, more money, we could provide more for our staff, but we could also be more invested in the community. We could be downtown. So there would be more engagement for that as well. Downtown businesses. That was kind of the emphasis on the move and the expansion. Okay. I kin to me is it's radically different though. It feels radically different. And I think it's because of your your why behind it, like your drive behind it. And, and it seems very, very people centric. Despite the fact and we'll get to this, but it has incredibly good food. I mean, award winning chef here. Right. So tell me about that. Is there did you if that's something that you both shared and, and you just kind of realized together that this is or it's just sort of evolve. I think that it was always there between us. It it definitely matured in a way. And we were able to kind of almost like, identify it and be aware of what we were doing. When you ask, like, was there niche that we were trying to fill a void in the food ecosystem? It was like, well, we were already kind of outliers in it. So we were just like, oh, well, we were lucky that we get to be weird and do something different, you know? So we were kind of already in our little place. But yeah, I mean, one of our core competencies or our one core competencies to connect. Okay. And we've said that already a couple times. So that's like us connecting with our staff. It says connecting with the community, with farmers, ranchers, other creative economy, areas and ultimately with our guests. Right. And so now that we can do all these different things, having these programs, classes, weird off site events and it's like always comes down to how do we connect with that? You guys know that's different, right? I'm not sure. So I say that is because I, you know, that I, I know of restaurants that I like going to that they are making food and people come in and eat the food and then they leave and then that's it. I'm sure you guys work with kin. That's not the case. Like, is anybody even allowed to do that? Yeah. It's funny I think when you when you're a different so you're a different person. And from the outside people might think that you're different, but you don't realize you are. So it's just something that we do. It's something that we value. It's who we are. So it's really hard for us to we do understand that we're different to a degree, but I think we're much more different to an outsider than we are to ourselves. That makes sense. Yeah. Even if it's a another chef friend or a restaurateur and they say you guys are different. I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. You know what? I'm what I'm picking up. Just in the brief time that we've spoken here is, the authenticity of both of you. Just this, you have this vision, you're going to do it, and there's not, You don't know. You don't have a lot of, like, flowery language around it or anything that you're trying to, like, sell me on. It's just is what it is, which I love. It's there's something very appealing about people who are incredibly authentic. And that's what I'm getting from both of you right now, that you just you live your lives authentically. And when an idea comes up and then you're going to try the idea in a way, you go and you don't really have that litmus test of whether the public cares or not, because you're going to create it from your heart. And the people who are meant to be attracted to you will come. Does that sound fair? Yeah, we're actually doing an artist menu right now, featuring John Morse. And the very beginning of the menu. We speak about authenticity. And because it's one of the things that he expressed to us in his art and making sure that the art that he produces and the way that he feels about it, that he's remaining authentic to his his creative ideas and his life. So and it definitely resonates with us as well. You know, making sure that we're authentic and taking a look at ourselves and what we do and making sure that all the things that we do are honest and intentional and authentic. Yeah. To a fault. We have conversations all the time where we're not necessarily business men. Right? Like, so we have conversations where we're like, why are we? Why are we doing this? Like, why are we always swimming upstream? It's like exhausting, but we can't help it, I guess. Yeah. Embrace it. Yeah, I feel that. I definitely feel that being a part of a, you know, the fourth generation of our family business, I sometimes I'm like, why? But then I can't help it either. It's like it's in our blood. It's like, are you going to do absolutely. Okay. So, Remi, can we talk to you a little bit about before kin? And I understand that you were a cycling coach, and then you, you were part of it. You create a movie of some sort. Did you bicycle? Not a coach. I was a professional cyclist. Okay. For years, and then went on to create three different films, with a friend of mine, Justin Balog, called Shared territory where we traversed, the center of Iceland. And then we also did the U.S. border in a film called Borderlands, and then also Peru, which is a film called Shared Territory. I wasn't going to. So what was, in that part of your life? Like, what was why did you decide to do those things? Oh, I mean, it's still part of my life. Oh, okay. I wasn't going to a Peruvian trip was, just weeks before we opened the the tasting room at Cannes. It was during. It was during Kin's lifetime. Actually, conversations, at 17,000ft with Kris over the phone, over things that were happening at the restaurant. So, I mean, it's still definitely part of my life in my mind. Not as much, part of my life in reality, you know, as work just, you know, takes more, more emphasis. But it's something that I strive to still be involved with, whether it be, you know, cycling or skiing or outdoors with with my family, whatever it might be. What is it about that? Because I, like, take the Iceland. But you Roger bicycle with another person. Right? Okay. Tell me, like what? Well, because. Because this is not in me. I'm just going to be honest. You wake up one day, you're like, I know what. I will ride across Iceland and we'll. We'll go ahead and, we'll both video it. Yeah. Well, Justin's a professional filmmaker. Okay. He and I had met, years previous on a project called sport for adventurer, which was essentially a project where we worked with a company called support for and Castelli to, essentially market their, their brand via storytelling. So once a quarter, a group of us would go and adventure into certain areas of the country, certain areas of the world, and just spend 4 or 5 days together riding bikes, telling stories, you know, narrating, all a part of brand marketing, but through storytelling. Okay. And in through that, Justin and I want to expand upon that, and do essentially what Kin does. Connect more with community. Connect more with people around the world. And that's how shared territory came about. And the idea of shared territory was essentially that to tell the story of these wonderful territories that we all share as you know, as a people who, you know, and one incredibly interesting story that came about when we were in Iceland, we were the third day on the road and we were staying in this, you know, shared house. And we were sitting down to dinner and there was another family in there. The dad came in and he was he was speaking with us a little bit. And he had, he had a guitar pedal shirt on. And Justin is a good guitar pedal enthusiast collector. So they started talking about it, and found out that they share the same love. Well, come to find out, he lived in Portland. He had recently come to Boise for a writers convention. And then he started looking at me, and all of a sudden he said, you're the guy. And I didn't know quite what he was talking about. And I said, I went to a restaurant in Boise, and it was the most incredible experience, and you were the guy that worked there. So we were all the way across the world near the Arctic Circle, and a gentleman recognized me from our tiny little restaurant in Boise, Idaho, and spoke about the experience that he had in our restaurant that seats 24 guests while we're in Iceland. And I think that that just resonated with me and the connection that you can have with people in a tiny little restaurant, but you can share it all the way across the world. And learning the stories about these, these people and these cultures and being able to share them with the world. It was it was really, really great for me. Do you think you'll do something like that again? I hope so. We've been talking about Scotland for a number of years. Oh, nice. So you. I there's my father's this way. Where? And it's a wonder. I'm curious if maybe you are the same way where like, there's there's really. No, he doesn't he doesn't have any like, boundaries is not the right word. That sounds bad, but like, he doesn't see, you know, there's. So you can bicycle across this, but you can start a, you can start a restaurant, you can invent something over here. You can. There's not you don't fit into a box. Do you see that? Probably not. Yeah. And he probably not for it. That's not necessarily a good thing. My mom might agree with you on that one. It was my wife. It's, I think it's a unique characteristic, and it's. And it's pretty cool. It's kind of what it's fun to watch from the outside. Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Moving over to you. So, Kris tell me a little bit about what I can hear about your background as far as, how you. Because it's been quite a journey getting to the point where you are now world renowned, a world renowned, recognized chef. So can you discuss can you kind of share with us, like where you started and kind of your trajectory there? Yeah, I mean it. I as a kid, it wasn't like dreaming of owning a restaurant and being a chef. That's for sure. I never really knew what I wanted to do, and it was just a little bit of, like, trying stuff out. And, my mom always said that I was like a gazelle because instead of going in one straight direction, I was always zig zag bounding back and forth. But she said, like, eventually you'll get to where you're headed, you know? And it never really made sense for a long time. I went to the College of Idaho for undergrad, and I was studying biology and chemistry. And I just try all the things every summer was like a different internship, and it I enjoyed it, but I never really felt like it fit. The whole time I had been working in a restaurant, started as a dishwasher when I was like a 17 year old freshman, and then just stayed in that restaurant. So that's how I was paying for school, and it was essentially working full time. But I was more, in the front of house serving and managing and things like that. I was had actually in amongst the academic side, I was finally like, well, I don't know what else to do with this biology degree. So I decided that, oh, maybe I'll like apply to med school. So I was a little bit behind, but I was going through the process and I was in the interviews and I realized, you know, like, I'm, I'm making all this up, I'm lying to them and I'm lying to myself. And so I basically like, told my family, which is a hard thing to be like, I'm not going to go to med school, you know, what are you going to do as well? I'm going to apply to culinary school. And they were very excited, which was maybe not a surprise, but food. Food has always been like very integrated into my family, grandmothers and stuff like that. And so yeah, pretty much like the next month I moved out to Vermont to go to culinary school, and it wasn't it didn't have an end goal, right? It was just like, I wanted to learn the craft. I had been in restaurants, and I loved the pace and the camaraderie and all that stuff, but I wanted to learn the craft of actually cooking. And, there was a time in, in one specific class where, everyone was going around saying like, what is your five year plan? What is your ten year plan? You know, and every single person said, I'm going to own a restaurant. And I was the last one. And I was like, there's no way I'm going to owner it. I just want to learn how to cook. And now I think I'm the only one that owns a restaurant now that grew. Wow. Yeah. That's incredible. Interesting. So then. So from there, you graduate and then just start working at restaurants. How did you. Yeah, it was a little bit of bouncing around. I was in Seattle for a little bit and worked at a restaurant called cannolis. And mostly I kind of got my chops in Portland. That was like in my mid 20s. And, and it was a great time to be in Portland, where, like, a lot of chef owned small farm to table, seasonally driven restaurants, you know, you know, butchering house and things like that. And I, I ended up working at one place for a number of years and then kind of bouncing around, we my wife and I, we knew that we there was the potential that we were going to move from Portland. We didn't know exactly to where, but we we knew there was a chance. So the the last year that we were in Portland, I, I left the restaurant I was working at, and then I called in all the favors of everyone I knew. And that was like doing butchery, working at a cheese shop. I owned a pickle business, so we sold that farmer's market. It was like wine. It was front of house. It was all this stuff. And when I moved to Boise, I had 12 w-2s. Oh, wow. And it was this, like, fun, you know, it was like working with friends and their, their ventures and things like that. But, like, looking back, it was like, whoa, that was it was a crash course. It was well rounded in the whole food world, from retail to farming to all the stuff. And so, I try to recommend it to our cooks, but it's like a very weird path to go down. But now it's like, you know, having personal experience with all of those things really helps a lot. Yeah. You you both have weird paths, like as far as far as, like, I maybe I should just say unusual. I don't know whether you guys are. It's like, weird, is it? That's why we are I love weird, so, very, very unusual. Do you ever just stop for a moment ago? Holy shit. How how did, like, the perfect storm happen where you walked in the door and the whole, like. Do you have moments like that where you're just momentarily, like, kind of in awe of the situation that you've, that you've sort of happened to find yourselves in, two degree? I think there's a lot of things that have to happen, and there's a lot of risks that have to be taKin on individuals and to create success and whatever success looks like, whether it's monetary success or whether it's emotional success or business success or success that people imagined from the outside, I think there's a perfect storm definitely has to happen. But I think you make your own luck for sure. Yeah, I think you're I think you're right about I, I was also going to say I think you there's a perspective probably from both of yours, especially the way that you were describing kind of your journey. As you look backwards, you're like, oh, it's perfect. But when you were in it, it was kind of like, oh, and you probably feel the same way. Oh, you know, I'm doing what I'm doing right now and then I'm going to do something else. But then you look backwards and you're like, oh, everything happened. Exactly. It was supposed to happen to lead to where we are now and to have the knowledge that you have and the abilities that you have and the resources maybe that you have those sorts of things that do stop for a moment sometimes and think about that perfect storm. Not very often, I would say. I think that's probably part of why we just kind of head in a direction, is we don't necessarily analyze it too much. I, I think, again, like being almost to a fault or being a little bit naive. It's like, for me personally at least, it's like, it's not that I'm a risk taker. It's, it's, it's more that like, I'm not worried about screwing something up or failing because in hindsight, you learn from it. And it's been when I was younger, there was that. And it has like as I've gotten older, it's like becomes less and less because you just go through things, you make mistakes and you learn. It's something that we try to impart in our in our staff as well. It's like, don't be afraid to make mistakes. Cooking is all about making mistakes so long as you actually are intentionally learning from it, right? You know? And so just as for a business, for just life in general, it's like you don't have to be trepidatious about taking the wrong step, because it might be the wrong step in the moment, but later on it'll get you in the right direction. So there's a lot of trust in, I'm just going to say, the universe, like there's a lot of trust in that. And for me anyway, it didn't come until later in life. I was I when I was younger, it was like, oh, I've got to do this and I must do this, and I am I doing this right? And now I feel much more able to relax a little bit and say, well, that's odd. I wonder what I'm going to learn from that or whatever. And, do you think that's an age thing? Is that something that we get as we kind of mature a little bit? Is that for some people and some people, just how do you think you've always had it? I mean, I, I've always been a risk taker my whole life. Yeah. And I also did things outside the box my whole life. You know, while certain individuals were worried about doing homework and turning that in on time, I certainly was not. Yeah. And it shows, you know, I think, I think everybody has a different personality and a different risk assessment. I think as I've gotten older, I'm actually more risk averse, not necessarily for myself, but other for other people. Oh, sure. I raised my kids totally. I wouldn't say totally sheltered, but more sheltered than than I was, for sure. And I look back on it now, and I wish that potentially I was. You mean like not letting them do backflips off over bogie space and ruin? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I wish that they would do that. Yeah, I look at I look at my son, you know, growing up and I'm like, I wish you were jumping off bridges into the Boise River. I wish that you were hitting rope swings. I wish you were jumping booger space and road. But you're 16 years old. And at the same time, I wish he was it right. So, that's just how it is, you know? Yeah, I think that I don't look back on things and say, oh, I would change this or I would change that. I think I'm happy with where I'm at and just go, just keep going. Like Kris said. Yeah, don't look back. Just keep going. Yeah. I'm just I'm just trying to distill. I have a daughter who just left for college and and I also I raised for differently than I was raised, but the outcome was actually she's more like you than like I was as far as, like, I was a little bit more, contained, and I was less willing to take risks. And, you know, here she is. She's like, yeah, I'm going to New York. I'm going to, you know, and, so I wonder if that's part of it. Like, we live our lives a certain way and then when we're raising our kids, maybe we use part of that, and that's part of why they turn out maybe a little bit differently than we do. And it's probably a good thing, I suppose. Nick, it has something to do with your spouse as well. Yeah. That's true. I was definitely more risk averse than I. Yeah, I could, I can, I can I feel that I feel that okay. So, so you you started can you. It's it's something that's completely different. Can you describe for somebody who has not been to can could you describe of some of the things that make it different or in your case, I guess just describe it since you guys don't think it's that different. So the kin side is a prefix dining experience essentially. So the guests would be greeted at the door, we would walk them back, open the door for them. Upon arrival, they are greeted with, low ABV or, nonalcoholic cocktail, and asked to browse the gallery. We rotate our artwork every 15 weeks, so we can showcase a lot of really incredible local artists. When guests finally sit down after browsing the gallery, all of the guests sit side by side. They have their own table, which is very close. And we serve 7 to 8 courses throughout the course of the night. The menu is story based. We always have a theme for the menu, whether it's based on stories from our staff, the environment, local non-profits. One of the artists being featured, and one of the staff members gets up and speaks about every single course. Excuse me. Whether it's, we'll start the evening off, tell them what to expect throughout the course of the night with an amuse bouche. And then as we progress through the night, each course is described, the story behind it, as well as the techniques that go into it and the ingredients, and then the audience begins to eat, and because guests are sharing the exact same experience as the person right next to them, and we offer certain things that essentially instigate conversation, the whole room becomes like this one dinner party, you know, every once in a while, there's a party of two. That's not necessarily all that interested in speaking with other guests, and they kind of stick to themselves. But for the most part, you know, you have a variety of people that are sharing the experience and it becomes like the coolest Thanksgiving dinner you've ever had with strangers. And then as, as the night, you know, finishes up, you find people lingering and sitting at the table and sharing stories and sharing phone numbers and pictures of kids and pictures of dogs and whatever it might be. But some of the most, compelling things that happen are at a dinner table with your family. Some of the most interesting things that happen with us are when guests meet each other and they trade phone numbers, and they end up going somewhere else a week later. And we have a number of people who've met at the four that I'm speaking of Met Estate. The first time that I've been there, they sat next to each other. They came in a couple of weeks later together, and now they travel the world together. Wow. Just from a happenstance conversation, sitting in a restaurant. That's really cool. So that's the experience. So if you want to make new friends. Come to good, I like that. So before you actually arrived here, there was, another person that was kind of talking about having. So so there's that is it two seatings? Okay. So one the first one starts. So, during the weekdays we start at 7 p.m. there's one seating on Fridays and Saturdays we have two seatings. One's at six and one's at nine. Okay. Then the 9 p.m. seating is called Supper Club. It's an unpublished menu. You're kind of at our whim. The style is very, very similar. It's a little bit looser. Potentially. We might swear here and there. Do we just show our personality slightly, a little bit more? But it's it's a fantastic experience. At a lower price point. It opens up the door to people who potentially have been saving up and really want to try it and want that type of an experience. But then it also is full of people who just prefer to dine at 9:00, which I don't understand anymore now that I'm 50. I can't that would destroy my sleep, but I love it. And this was a young person that was talking about it, out in the hallway. But also mentioning that that the vibe is a little different in the evening

and the 9: 38:05

00 setting. So they were talking about how kind of cool it is. And, anyway, it maybe got wistful of days when I could eat at nine. Yeah, it was cool. It skews a little bit younger, but it also not necessarily all the time. I mean, it's people that are are interested in what we're doing and interested in food and beverage and things like that. So sometimes it has a slightly different atmosphere, but I don't know. They're pretty consistent. Yeah. It's it's cool. Why did you decided to do it that way or how did that come about that you decided to to have these meetings and have may I, I think I already know the answer to why you have people within close proximity of each other and all of that, but how did the whole the, the, the doing, the, the prefix and all of that fun stuff? How did how did that come about? Well, I mean, that was the idea that, I had been doing those dinners in Portland with friends, not necessarily like an established restaurant where that was the routine all the time. But they're I mean, they're really fun, right? Like, even from the, the functional side, the the creativity of, you know, building a menu as opposed to an all a carte menu where you, you don't know what people are going to order, how it's going to go. From a, from a kitchen perspective, the menu is it's just, you know, it's creating an album instead of just like single songs. Right, right. So there's there's a lot more, room to be creative with that. And then the one seating, I mean, we've, we talked back in when we're like, so when we, we tried to open in March of 20, 20. Oh. And I didn't realize that it was a full, what, like the summer of 21 when we finally were bringing people in and we were talking about, oh, what do we do? We have individual tables, right? And we waited and we waited and we waited because we said, no, it's going to be this one communal style because that is the connection, right? That is like letting your guard down and being with other people and having this shared experience. So yeah, so we we stubbornly held on for as long as we could finally got people tour. But yeah. Know what do you think? I mean, yeah, exactly what you said. It's that was the intention behind State Lent. And it really just took off. And, you know, we found that we were able to build those connections and we wanted to expand upon that. And like Kris said, and in 2020, it was very obvious to us that that was not going to be the case. And so instead of changing who we are or what our mission was or our abilities to share stories and connect with guests, we decided that we would wait for a very long time. Yeah. But we were able to do interesting different things within that. When everyone else started offering pick up food or delivery food, whatever it might be, we took, a fair bit of time to analyze what that would mean to us because there is no connection when someone picks up your food or rides, whatever it might be. So we came up with the idea of doing kin at home. And that started as delivering a 4 to 5 course meal to people that was 80% prepared, packaged up. And then a friend of ours, Guy hand, would come in and he would film essentially, 26 minute television show with us. And I would introduce the theme. One of our staff members would introduce the mixers to the cocktail. One of our staff members would introduce the wine pairings, and then Kris and Michelle would prepare the food, and then Kris, as studiously as he would prepare a four page, you know, direction to how to prepare yourselves. And that way we were able to get the connection to the guests. They could see us, they could hear our stories, and then they would start sharing it on social media and what have you. And we were actually able to do 17 menus. Yeah, I think 17 menus. And throughout that process, some of the companies around the state were actually ordering their Christmas party that way, and we would live stream it. So we would live stream the whole the whole interaction of us telling the stories and cooking the food while they were doing the same thing. And some of these, we were delivering food actually, to New York and to Chicago overnight. So all of the people in the company that were based here, but some of them were working in other places, could could engage and have their Christmas party together on zoom. It was amazing. So that was the way that Keenan actually started the dining and cultural experiences. That's so great. It was pretty cool. I do I again, I feel I feel like I'm going to know the answer to this, but do you ever stop and just kind of marvel at the creativity that is your partnership? Like, it's really something and it seems to be ongoing. You're not you don't seem to run out of steam with your creativity. It's not like you're getting bored. It doesn't look like it. If you are, let us know. That'd be an interesting topic to talk about. Well, I the timing of opening in a pandemic was interesting, right? Like, okay, creativity is one way, but we we were sort of forced into the situation. But we were fortunate in the sense that we didn't have a model going yet. It was like we had hired people and then we furloughed them. After two weeks. That was like how close we were to getting open. But but it allowed us to kind of be more adaptable. And we we've always known that we're adaptable. We're we're a small team and we are highly skilled in certain aspects. And so we were pretty loose about it too. So we adapting and changing is part of our strength. And create creatively. It's like we, it's like a, it's a muscle. Right. It's like a habit that we, we've just been training all this time. And so when all that happened, it was like, well, no problem, let's just do something else. So we did Kin at home. We did the picnic. So we mentioned that, we got that amazing hillside, that had Shakespeare first. So, we were talking about that and how to engage the space outdoors, right. Spaced out and safely. And we also knew that, like the art community, the musicians and things, all the tours start, they their income that fell out. And so we were able to develop a series where we would host artists, whether it be like led in dance or different bands from around town. And we would, people would buy tickets, we would space them on the hill or on our patio. We'd have a little meal for each person in these three tiered metal tiffins. They'd have cocktail and they would just show up and we'd be like, pick a spot. And everyone is spaced out. And I think it was maybe like the first one. I mean, it was it was amazing. People were like crying because they didn't realize how badly they needed, like theater and performance and to be in a space while safely distanced, but like to be in a space together. Yeah. So that was, that was really, really special. It was not very efficient and it didn't make any money. But nothing we do makes money. It builds community. It was it was a really, it was a really impactful, thing. And it really cemented our, our standing with the arts community. I think, we hosted 60 shows over the course of the next two years. And like Kris said, it was with LED. It was with Boise Contemporary Theater. It was with traveling bands. It was with, you know, working with tree for working Eric Gilbert, working with all these different organizations, Ballet Idaho and Opera Idaho, all of these different organizations that we've now built relationships with. It's it was really impactful for us as well as the community. Yeah. Life changing. Absolutely. Yeah. Kris I want to take a moment, to just congratulate you on the James Beard Award. Can you share with us I guess, first of all, if some somebody listening doesn't know what the James Beard Award, could you kind of describe that first and foremost? And then could you, could you share with us the experience? Yeah. So the James Beard Award, it's a foundation, built after James Beard, who actually, lived in Portland, became, food like one of the first food celebrities, shows with Julia Child and things like that. And was giving back through that to the community a lot. And so when he passed away, they started a foundation, based in his home that he had in New York. And now they do a bunch of scholarships and trainings and things like that for industry people. But the main thing they're known for is the awards. And so I don't know when it started, but, essentially people kind of compare it to the Oscars for restaurants. So there are individual chef categories based on region. We are in the Mountain West or in the mountain region. And there's, there's also national ones for, for restaurants, for service, for wine program, for bar and all sorts of different categories. So it was it's the summer of 23, and it was out in Chicago and we we had been nominated semifinalists. I think this was our first time, spread amongst the two restaurants. And we got into the finals and I had some friends from different areas that had been in the finals before, and they said, we got to the finals, we didn't win, and then we were not nominated again. And so we were like, well, this might be our one shot at, this might be the last time, right? So we decided to bring our whole staff. Wow. We were like 22 probably with us. We got so cool. We did get one free ticket for me. Very generous of them. So we, I mean, it was it was insane. It was, again, just one of those decisions where, like, why are we doing this? But it there was like, no way we weren't going to do it. So we had to, like, fundraise for this trip, which was also funny experience. But eventually, you know, we got everyone out there, and it was really special. You know, there was like a, it was a red carpet thing, you know, everyone on our crew, all ages, all in like, gowns and suits, and it was one of those like, well, man, we can clean up. It's, luckily our category was at the beginning of the of the whole thing, because I wouldn't have wanted to sit there the whole time not knowing we. I think we were like the second category and, I don't know, like it it was helpful to have our whole crew there because when they name the nominees, you know, like we're the loudest group. And, I pretty much just blacked out from there. I don't remember the moment that they said your name. I didn't even hear my name. Because I think, like, it popped up on the screen first. And our crew, just like, erupted. Right? So I was like, well, I mean, I'm assuming that that was it. And as I was walking down, you know, we're in the back. So I'm walking down the Lyric Opera House and it's full and it's a beautiful theater. Right. And I'm walking down and on the screen it's a tarp. Was just a camera on me, but I was like, I didn't actually hear my name, and now I don't see it and I don't. Is this potentially the most embarrassing moment of my life? So that's pretty much like what I'm thinking. And then it's like, okay, no one else is up. So I guess so I guess this is it. Yeah. So I don't know, it was it was a really surreal experience. And it's it's awkward for me even still because it's like it's my name. You know, obviously Randy put in just as much as I didn't, so did the rest of the team. So it's like, how do I how do I get this spotlight as one individual when it is like a team effort and has been for a decade, you know, so to try to express that to everyone and it's like, I don't know if it's received in such a way, but there's almost like it's not like a guilt, but like it feels weird, you know? And then it was like it probably took a full year afterwards for me to be like, oh, it's okay. I don't have to, like, be guarded about winning this award. And part of it was like when we got back, I mean, the response was incredible. You know, it's like people from all over just being, like, so happy, other chefs, other restaurants where you would maybe think maybe there's a little jealousy. But for the most part, everyone that reached out was like, this is great for us. This is great for like, rising tide, like that kind of thing. There was a woman that said she was like, you know, I'm not a sports fan, and I've never understood why people would cheer for a team until we watched. You guys went, And she was like, I felt like we weren't. And so that was that was really cool. And then to be able to sort of deflect the spotlight a little bit and to share it with the arts community with nonprofits like we do a ton with all sorts of nonprofits, and we can kind of use our, you know, like the the name and the brand and being identified in the community. And we can share it, right. We can kind of spread it out now. So yeah, I it's interesting the whole time that you were talking about about it, I was in my mind thinking, did I screw this up because I thought, he's the one who got it. But the whole time you're saying we this we that we our. And so it was just at the very end here that I realized, oh no, it really was awarded to you, but it really wasn't because it was your whole team and you made it about your whole team. And it's always been about the team, like, and that's that's, that's wonderful leadership. Like, I don't even do it on purpose. Okay. That's that's even better leadership. That's like the best leadership of. All right. There like I so that was my going to be my question to you next is to both of you. If somebody is and I would say it's a young person, maybe it's not. Maybe it's somebody like me who wants to start a restaurant or wants to thinking about doing something different. And it's creative and it's but it's a little out there, maybe, and maybe not what other people are doing. What advice would you give that person? Don't be risk averse. You know, I Kris was talking about, talking about the team I grew up in. I grew up in team sports. I spent many years as, as a cyclist. I owned a professional cycling team. I think the leadership comes from, mutual respect and camaraderie and an understanding. I think if you were going to start your own business, whether it's going to be sole proprietor or a partnership or a community, I think having an open mind, being able to respect one another, understand one another, engage with one another, I think that is the, the basis to a successful business. And I don't say success with monetary value. I just say success for yourself and success for those around you. Really? Yeah. And if it's a restaurant specific, pardon me, would be like, don't do it right. All okay. But I don't know. It's like it's that way. You know the you win an award and there is like we walk around town and people know us and like that seems glamorous and whatnot. But it is not right. It is like, especially a small business restaurant. It's like we're doing dishes, peeling onions. We're doing spreadsheets all day. It's like there's it's not as sexy and fancy as you would think. And so you got to be able to understand that it's a lot of hard work. It's a lot of doing things, repetitious things that you don't want to do. And you got to you have to embrace and you actually have to kind of enjoy it. Right. And so if if you believe in why you would create such a restaurant, you know, that is what will push you through. And then, as you mentioned before, that is what people will connect to that because it's it's the person. Right? Right. It's not necessarily the food and the drink. It's like they want they're there to support that place. And the, the vibe and the atmosphere that it is. So to figure out why they love to be in restaurants, why they love to, you know, serve guests the hospitality side of it, you know, and then once if they truly believe that, then I would say, yeah. Now let's talk about the finances. But if they don't feel it at that time, then it might be like it's it'll it'll grind you down if you don't really, truly believe in it. And so great advice from both of you. Thank you for that. I'm going to take a quick moment to thank our sponsors and those. This episode of Nobody Knows is brought to you by Sam SOS, your local source for garden, pet and planet friendly products. At Zamzows. We believe the places where we work, gather and grow together matter. Whether it's cultivating a healthy garden or building a workplace rooted in care and collaboration. Visit Zamzows..com or stop by one of our 12 Treasure Valley locations. Nobody knows like Zamzows.. Okay, we're switching gears. This is a part we call sharing is caring. Kind of a rapid fire. Questions. So will throw them out there. Either one of you can answer as you desire. Both of you can, if you like. If you're feeling up to it. Let's kind of see how this goes. How about a creative idea that surprised you recently? It's funny because I feel like in the in the conversation, realize that nothing really surprises us. I mean, that's I look I looked at that question earlier today and I thought the same thing. Yeah, I was I was really racking my brain. I was like, I don't know. It's the whole process for us. Yeah. I have been surprised by just the way that you guys like your demeanor, the way you take things on your thought processes. I so maybe that's that when you just live in the surprise, everything is just normal. Yeah. We see surprises every day. Yeah, it sounds like it. It's cool. I feel cool being in the room with you. Did I ever mention that, like, we feel cool being here? It's great. It's wonderful. Okay, how about a local artist, farmer or maker that you admire? I thought about that question a little bit, before we came over here. The trick is, is that we work with so many local, local farms, local ranches, local artists, as I mentioned, we rotate our artwork every 15 weeks, so we get to engage with so many different artists and with the picnic series that we did. Honestly, I just admire any of those individuals who have taken the step to really dive in and make it a profession. And pour their heart into it and learn through that process. Especially the ones that have become professional. And I don't mean professional by making a living at it, but I mean the way that they approach it, as a business and understanding the concepts. And like John Moore said, remaining authentic to the things that you're doing and your mission. Yeah, those those are the ones that inspire me the most, not necessarily any individual artist. Maybe Kelly. For you, as for me, for farms, farmers, it's it's Janie Burns. She, she she owns a a very small farm out in Tampa. It's called Meadowlark Farm. And, lamb, it's just like. It's like a self-sustaining farm. But what is so inspiring of her is she. She's getting towards the end of her farming career, but she invested so much into young farmers, into different, like, even getting, like, more, you know, like government wise, like of, like, protecting farmland and things like that. And she's just like, it's been a whole career of this vision of, like, what it could be and sacrificing for other people. She's a huge, mover in the farmers market itself, and it has exploded. And it's this huge thing now. And she's she's been a huge part of that. And so it's just like just small conversations about how she knows my kids and is watching them grow and then like, but just what she has done for the the whole food community is it's really cool. Great answers. All right. How about something outside the restaurant that refuels each of you? Oh, the mountains for me, for sure. I mean, spending time in the mountains or on a trail on my bike in the middle of nowhere. The idea that I can be the exact amount of time away from my house is it will take me to get back from my house. For years and years and years, the very space was in Lowman, Idaho. If I rode my bike from Boise all the way around what we call the big loop, it was 152 miles, and Lowman was the exact halfway point. Wow. So I would be halfway from home, but it was a real long way. So I could either come back one way or loop around. I just get refueled. Being in nature. Yeah. You know, the silence of it, but also how it empowers you. I think that being in nature is great. I also live right on the river. So just going to sit by the river on a Monday morning all by myself, even if I'm making phone calls to guests that are potentially coming in, it's still, a refueling for me. I like that. How about you? For me, right now, it's like I'm trying to. I'm actually trying to get out the restaurant a little bit more here and there and and balance of. Because I have two kids, six and ten. Okay. So for me, it's like it's engaging and spending time with them, you know, and making that a little bit more habit. It's, you know, like young kids. It's it's fun to watch how their brains work, right. Like how they just like, it's the best worry about things or how they bounce back from things, how they soak things up like sponges. And and it is a little bit like, you know, can I still do that? Yeah. You know, and so thinking about that and so it's just it's fun to like draw inspiration from the mind of a child, I think. Yeah. Well, spoiler alert, you're going to feel that way when they're 18 to me. I'm still in. And I'm like, I yeah, I'm just awe I and sometimes I want like this child came like through me. She's of me like how did who who is this person like it's amazing. It's really being a parent is pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. My kids are, 20 and 16, so. Okay. A little bit further along. But, also very interesting to watch. Yeah. See them grow. Yeah. It's a it's a wonderful gift to give ourselves. I think. Okay. This is the last question we ask this of all of our guests. There are no rules, and somebody can know it. So here's the question. What is something that nobody knows? Well, is that I, my 20 year plan is to have a koi pond in my backyard. However, the 20 year plan restarts every year. Plans like that. Nobody really knew because I didn't want to be held accountable to, to actually starting the timer on that 20 year plan, because currently we just have, like, a beta. All right. There's a little growth there. You got to start somewhere, right? Well, we're here for you. Let us know when you're ready. Yeah. Yeah. I want to have a clip on in my backyard in ten years. I. I don't know. I mean, one thing that, the a few people know, but I'm actually blind in my right eye. I was hit by a baseball in high school. Wow. So there are very, purposeful reasons for the way that I do certain things at the restaurant. But, yeah, not many people are aware. Even a lot of employees are are shocked when they find a wild. That's interesting. Yeah. Great answers. You too. Love that. And all the way around. What a wonderful conversation I feel. You know, my mother used to talk about, like, sometimes you'll be in the presence of people that will change you just in spending time with them. And I feel that way about being here in this room with you. I feel inspired, I feel like I could definitely be a little more creative. Maybe a little more authentic. Maybe I can, you know, do some things that I wasn't sure I could now. So I. I appreciate the time with you. And you're very inspiring. Well. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Yeah, absolutely. You're a gift to the community. And thank you for your wonderful restaurant. We certainly appreciate that. Yeah, absolutely. If you enjoyed today's episode, please follow the podcast and leave a review. Next week, we'll hear from another incredible voice shaping the Treasure Valley. And until then, thanks for listening.