Nick Bognar & Hana Chung - Indo

On this episode of The Sauce Podcast, host Lauren sits down with Nick Bognar, chef/owner of Indo, Sado, and Pavilion, and Hana Chung, Indo's new chef de cuisine and the star of our June cover story, for a lively conversation about the evolution of one of St. Louis's most beloved restaurants and the exciting new concept on the horizon.

Nick and Hana walk through the new dishes coming to Indo this summer and fall — including a jaw-dropping almost two-pound pork chop lettuce wrap with pickled daikon, salted squid, and serrano sambal pineapple relish; mussels returning with a deeply concentrated housemade curry seafood broth over shoestring tomato potatoes; and the happy-hour-only trashed gyoza that Lauren has been quietly obsessed with. Their shared philosophy: keep the hits, surprise with the new, and always cook food you actually want to eat.

Hana shares how a love of eating (and a detour from traditional college) led her to culinary school and eventually to the line, where she discovered she thrived in the chaos and team energy of restaurant kitchens. Nick reflects on how he and Hana first connected through late nights at Vista Ramen and early dinners at Nippon Table — bonded by a shared love for dining and a critical eye that makes their creative partnership so natural.

Then Nick unveils more about Khao Soi Cowboy, his upcoming Thai concept coming to Midtown St. Louis, targeting spring 2027. Rooted in his family's recipes but filtered through his life as a chef in St. Louis, Khao Soi Cowboy will be fun, casual, walk-in friendly, and open for lunch — built around Northern Thai food with khao soi as the house staple, and a tiki-inspired collaborative cocktail program that promises to be anything but expected.

In this episode:

• Hana Chung's new role as chef de cuisine at Indo

• The almost 2-pound pork chop lettuce wrap and what makes it special

• Trashed gyoza: what they are and why they're happy hour only

• Mussels returning with a housemade curry seafood broth

• Hana's path from server to culinary school to St. Louis restaurant kitchens

• Why Hana thrives on the chaos of restaurant life

• How Nick and Hana first connected through food and late-night dinners

• Favorite restaurants around St. Louis: Chuc Le and Broadway Oyster Bar

• Khao Soi Cowboy: Nick's new Thai concept coming to Midtown STL

• Why Khao Soi Cowboy won't be the Thai food you're expecting

• Northern Thai, khao soi, and a fun tiki cocktail program

• Nick's evolving role managing multiple restaurants and stepping back from the line

• Building a team and company culture people can grow with

• Nick recently got married and went to Hawaii

• Final word: support your local restaurants

Trashed gyoza, khao soi, and big pork chop energy. 🥟🤠🍜

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_04 0:00

So we fry the chiosas so they're nice and golden crispy. And um we won't tell you all the stuff that's in there, but there's some mayonnaise in there.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Makes it even more delicious.

SPEAKER_04 0:11

I'm kind of a mayonnaise.

SPEAKER_02 0:13

Yeah, we're kind of mayonnaise. We're mayonnaise slut.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

You can probably snip some side.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Yeah, you can you can do whatever you want.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

I think they can whatever. I am legitimately a mayonnaise slut, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:23

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Welcome: Nick Bognar & Hana Chung

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Hello, welcome to the Sauce Podcast. I'm your host, Lauren, and I am here with Nick Bognar. He's the chef owner at Indo, Sado and Pavilion. And I'm also here with Hannah Chung, who is the new chef de cuisine over at Indo, which was our June cover story and main feature. It looks beautiful. Thank you. My personal favorite restaurant at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Yeah, let's go.

SPEAKER_03 1:22

It's so good. I've been like five times. I noticed that. I know. I keep going. Actually, I've been a few times and I didn't even post about it. So it's even better. I'm always there.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

I do enjoy a nice restaurant visit without hitting the phone. Like I it's it becomes such a part of it, but I will say, like, I consciously do that a lot now.

Hana's New Role & the Indo Menu

SPEAKER_03 1:40

You can't do it every time. Yeah. You just want to eat and then you're coming back. It's great. So so tell us about your new role, Hannah. Oh, oh.

SPEAKER_04 1:49

We're easing into it. It's been a couple of weeks. Uh, we're trying to amp up the menu right now before we go on our little break. Yeah. Um, but it's been going pretty good. We got a pork chop on the menu right now. Um, we're working on a few other things. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

So yeah. Wait, you're taking a break?

SPEAKER_00 2:06

We do uh we take both restaurants take a week off in July. It's the greatest thing.

SPEAKER_04 2:11

It's really great. It's so good for mental health, physical.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Like restaurants should all just I feel especially for like you guys, because you know, all the managers are, you know, there's always like a little, you know, you get texts about this and that, and you're always kind of on the clock a little bit with restaurants. So, and I mean, I'm just gonna say selfishly, also for me, like it's nice to just know everybody's off.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Uh you know, I actually I'm not gonna lie, I kind of go into the restaurant alone, which is a new thing. Yeah, I will say.

SPEAKER_03 2:35

What do you do?

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Oh, usually cook something. Like try try to get some time and just like cook something. I mess with something, like cook something that I know I'm probably gonna mess up. Okay, you know, which is nice because nowadays everybody's just what are you making? You know, and then it's like, oh, this is actually terrible. Yeah, but yeah, I think Hannah's just um we we got the last two weeks, we've just been kicking ass with the menu. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:01

Yeah, so you're at new stuff. Yeah,

The 2-Pound Pork Chop

SPEAKER_03 3:03

tell us all about it. Hmm, that pork chop. You said it's two pounds. It's almost two pounds. We weighed it.

SPEAKER_04 3:09

It's giant. It's giant. What in the world?

SPEAKER_03 3:11

Yeah, okay. It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 3:14

What do you do with it? It's like uh another form of our like lettuce wrap. So we kind of like bring it back every year, but this time it's like gigantic and like really massive.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

Give me a picture. I'm having trouble envisioning this.

SPEAKER_04 3:27

So it's on this beautiful plate. I'm actually layered with bid lettuce and pickled daikon and chives, so you could like wrap this delicious fatty pork. And then there's like a side of salted squid that gives like a nice umami flavor, and then we have a serrano sambal pineapple pickle relish. It's a lot of words. Yeah. And then you put it in, you eat it with the lettuce wrap. It's so good. But it's like pick your own adventure.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Fun interactive dish. We always want to have like one on the menu that's a little bigger that lets you kind of cook in that style of like a especially like a larger primal piece of meat like that, which is just fun. And then, you know, most of the menus small plates, so it's nice to have one thing at least that's like shared between a few different people. Yeah, but it could, I mean, if you were you could probably eat it with six friends if you wanted and get other stuff. Yeah, yeah, you probably could too. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of cool.

Trashed Gyoza: Happy Hour Only

SPEAKER_00 4:19

It's nice to have something like that on the menu.

SPEAKER_03 4:20

Yeah, I think that's super fun. Actually, you know, I was just there a couple weeks ago and I had the trashed guy for the first time. Happy hour. Is that only a happy hour? Yeah, it's why is it only happy hour? Because that means you have to come in for happy hours. Oh, okay. That's totally fair. Um, and those are fire. So I would like, I mean, they're like so crispy and crunchy.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Yeah, it's funny. I have had eaten I've eaten so many geoza over so long of a time, but usually it's when they're like messed up and they're not going to the customer. So I think I for like probably two years straight, I ate burnt only gyozas, and it was like, oh, these are still pretty good. And we still crush burnt gyozas. But then you eat one that's like correctly made and you're like, God, those are fire. Yeah. We love the I like the trash.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

Yeah, how do you trash it? What does that entail?

SPEAKER_04 5:05

It's kind of like wings. You know how you like uh trash wings? Yeah, it's kind of like that kind of vibe. But walk me through it. So we fry the gyozas, so they're nice and golden and crispy. And um, we won't tell you all the stuff that's in there, but there's some mayonnaise in there. Makes it even more delicious. I'm kind of a mayonnaise, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Yeah, we're kind of on mayonnaise. We're mayonnaise. Can I say slut?

SPEAKER_00 5:26

You can probably say slowly.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can do whatever you want.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

I think they can whatever.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

I am legitimately a mayonnaise slut, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:34

Yeah. Okay, is that your new title? We'll just put that in the that'd be good for my title.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Yeah, yeah.

New Menu Additions for Fall

SPEAKER_03 5:40

Okay, that's super fun. So I know that you're kind of working on like a menu revamp for like later in the summer or the fall.

SPEAKER_04 5:48

Yeah, we're just adding a few things, maybe taking a few things out for seasonal, um, but not too much, because sometimes change is too much for people. People are coming back with a stable. Yeah, it's true. So we're just adding a few things, we're bringing back some muscles.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Yeah, muscles will be on that's actually really good. That the um they're making like a really, really condensed, strong like seafood broth stock, uh, and then concentrating that with some of our like housemade curry and then muscles with that over like shoestring tomatoes, uh potatoes, yeah. Uh, which is really good. Really, really great. So kind of a a different way of serving muscles that I enjoy. And we we've been wanting to put muscles back on for a while. We used to have them on the phone.

SPEAKER_03 6:27

So nice. I mean anything you do that turns to gold, I think.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

Yeah, you know, I think um, you know, with Hannah coming into the new role, like her creativity really just catalyzes like what we're doing all the time, and then it just it goes back into like what Indo food is, which I think is really just surprising. And that's what I'm gonna look forward to seeing just all the surprises and fun stuff that we do. And the stuff that you and even for me too, it's like not how I would typically do things either. And I think that's where we're starting to get into this new, like you said, easing into it. It's it's good, I think it's gonna be really fun once we get rolling, and then also too, it's like I think this gets us to the point where we're gonna be changing the menu all the time. Oh, and I think that's kind of what Indo should be, like a place where every time you come back, maybe there's at least a couple things new. Yeah, you know what I mean? Especially when you say you're you know you're eating there a good amount of times to get the stuff that you always gonna have.

SPEAKER_03 7:13

So I have to keep coming every week. That's what you're telling me.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Yeah, that's what that's the idea. I think we tried we try to do that at all the restaurants, to be honest. Enough stuff so you have to come back.

SPEAKER_03 7:21

I love that. Okay. Now, Hannah, take me back to when did you know that you wanted to work in a restaurant?

SPEAKER_04 7:30

Um

Hana's Path to the Kitchen

SPEAKER_04 7:32

I don't know if I wanted to work in a restaurant.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

Really?

SPEAKER_04 7:35

Yeah, I just love eating. Yeah, and so I think that just kinda led my direction here.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

How did you end up there?

SPEAKER_04 7:44

Um, I used to be a server, I used to be bartend back in college. Um, and then real college didn't really work out, so I went to culinary school because I was like, I want to learn about more food. Yeah. Um so that it kind of just led into me having to like work in restaurants, and then I realized I was really good at it. Okay. Because um people are like, you could be good at cooking, but you could be a terrible line cook. And restaurants is like a different piece than like just doing like just cooking one dish at a time. Oh yeah. But the more I worked at restaurants, I love it. I love the service part of it. I love like being a team and like making creative dishes with people that like to eat food that you like to eat. And I love the chaos. I I feed off of it. Do you? Yeah, I love it. I love maintaining the chaos because if you're calm, everyone else is calm too. Okay, but most restaurants are kind of chaotic.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

There's a there's an undeniable, there's gonna be constant chaos you can't control. Yeah. I will say being able to deal with that is like I mean, it does feel like you've conquered something, and like I don't know, I feel like I can handle most things, you know, and it's kind of addicting to be able to just like, oh yeah, like the team, like you said, the team being able to come together, it's like that was crazy, but we did it. Yeah, you know, it's awesome, it's an awesome feeling.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

Yeah, totally. Okay. Yeah. Now, Nick, is there a moment when you knew that like Hannah had what it takes?

SPEAKER_00 9:15

I think, you know, I had known Hannah from other restaurants before that, right? And so when I realized that I really wanted to work with Hannah, it was less about like, oh, like she's a great line cooker,

How Nick & Hana Connected

SPEAKER_00 9:25

what it takes. But I think what you you said earlier is like people who like to eat, people who enjoy food. And and Hannah and I, if there's anything that we have in common, it's our our love for food, our love for dining. Something that we talk about all the time is like, where have you eaten lately? Like, what are your, you know, where'd you go in Chicago that you liked? Like, because next time she goes, she's gonna go check out the ones that we like. We're both pretty critical of restaurants, I think. Sometimes, you know, not in a way where like we're trying to bring people down, but like, this was really great. This is something that maybe I would have done differently. How could we do this? Is it such a fun idea? Like, what would we do with that idea? And that's something that her and I are just kind of always on the same level. And it's it's it was for a long time that I was just admiring Hannah from the restaurants that she worked at. I think um when I first moved back to St. Louis, you were still at Vista Ramen.

SPEAKER_04 10:11

Yeah, I remember that's something.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Yeah, and I used to I used to just go to Vista Ramen after work after me Ponte, and I was kind of I mean, nobody knew who I was at that point in time, so it's kind of like why does this call them back here?

SPEAKER_04 10:23

But I love the food.

SPEAKER_05 10:24

I love the food.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

And then through that, I would sit at the bar, I'd talk to Bork, who's a friend too, and I would talk to Hannah, and it would just be like, You guys are doing some really amazing stuff. I loved it. Okay, I love that I could just slide in there at like 9 p.m. and nobody would be. Well, I don't know if they were mad at me or not, but it was just a little bit. It was great having those. I will always remember those dinners actually a lot. And then I was in turn, I was like, Chris, Hannah, like, I'm trying to do some new stuff at Nipponte. They came and they were huge supporters of me.

SPEAKER_04 10:49

And I think you know that meal at Nipponte is just early meals.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Yeah, it's kind of like a fun in-between of like what we do now, and especially back then, we were still doing some pretty old school Asian restaurants. It was fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 11:00

I was like, dang, this is freaking delicious.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

And so, like, you have that you just have that kind of like connection through something that doesn't require us to be like, hey, like, do I like you or whatever? It's like, no, we just start we we like the same shit and we we see eye to eye.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

Yeah, I love that. That's perfect. Okay, now Hannah, where

Favorite Restaurants Around St. Louis

SPEAKER_03 11:16

do you like to eat around town? Oh my favorite restaurant's probably Troclam.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Oh, that's such a good one.

SPEAKER_04 11:26

I don't want to say that because I don't want people to like the marketing, yeah. But like that's like it feels like you're going to eat at your auntie's house. Like it is like that. That's where like me and my girlfriends go, me and my mans go there. I bring my dad there. Like, the food's always consistent, it's been there forever. Like from the outside, it looks like a building you don't want to go to. Yeah, yeah, but it's just like there's always one person there, the lady that owns it is the only person that cooks back there, and she's just having the best time. She's watching her programs, cooking is shooting. Yeah, that is true.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

Yeah, I you know, one thing about truck lama, I feel like they're they push the like the fragrant, like the intense boldness that Vietnamese food can have. You know, it's almost like punge in in like this kind of intense way, and it's something that you get as soon as you walk in the door. Okay. Great, great pick.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

What do you get there?

SPEAKER_04 12:15

Oh, I get something different every time, but I like uh bumbo we because I love pigs feet, and they actually give you pigs feet there.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Yeah, so I think they might have like it's up there for you with the bumbo we there.

SPEAKER_04 12:27

Okay, but I I usually get something different every time. I'm a yeah, I'm a very like, I'm gonna get something different almost every time I go, or unless I'm going to that one specific restaurant to get that

Broadway Oyster Bar on a Monday

SPEAKER_04 12:39

one thing.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

What specific restaurant do you have in mind? Actually, I went to Brasserie on Monday.

SPEAKER_04 12:43

Oh, really? It was so good. Every time I go there, it gets better and better. Nice. Um, but I always get the trout, even though it's like no one really makes dishes like that. Like simple.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

It's like a commandine trout. Yeah, I love that dish.

SPEAKER_04 12:57

The green beans were so good, it's just so simple, but I always get that when I go there.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

I'm a fan of that. I haven't been to Browser in a while, so I'm gonna have to go to the house. I was like, plus, it's open on Monday.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

Exactly. Oh, they're open on Monday. That's worth a lot for you guys.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Oh, it's a big deal, I would say. Because even if I am off other days, by the time I don't really, I'm not, I mean, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not really like a Saturday night restaurant person.

SPEAKER_04 13:19

Like, I'm probably not ever eating at a restaurant on a Saturday night.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Yeah, it's got it's a thing, it's a totally different vibe. You're like, you really feel like a guest. Really that everyone's because you're busy. Yeah, they're busy, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:30

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

On Monday, everybody has time. They're like, oh, yeah, of course you're here. It's industry.

SPEAKER_04 13:34

You're so right. I only eat at restaurants on Monday. It's funny, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

I think in that mental space to be able to go to a restaurant, and that's like, okay, it's been enough time, I can go on like a Monday night or something.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

I have restaurant meals every single day this week. Oh, that's that's great. It's fun, but I'm taking next week off.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

Yeah, too much of a good thing, maybe.

SPEAKER_04 13:51

Do you like to cook or anything?

SPEAKER_03 13:53

Or just you know, I'm at the point now where I just like am exclusively eating at restaurants. I don't know. I'm just like, I don't know. It's it's I love it, but I'm like, I'm full. I'm still full from yesterday. It's kind of fun, though. I'm eating a lot. Um worry, I'll

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SPEAKER_00 14:50

Yeah, my list is piling up.

SPEAKER_03 14:52

It's too long.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

And I want to try all the places in the new neighborhood, too, like uh over on Midtown.

SPEAKER_03 14:57

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, Scouts is great.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Scouts, I want to try really bad.

SPEAKER_03 15:00

Oh, yeah, we've been a scout.

SPEAKER_04 15:02

It looks gorgeous in there. It looks like some wrench grammar.

SPEAKER_03 15:05

Well, I think that I can break the news maybe now. Um, they are gonna be on our next cover. So I oh fun. Yeah, they're gonna be I'm excited for them. They're gonna be jazzed. Yeah, hell yeah, that's awesome. So, oh, that's so fun. You're gonna love it.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Yeah, and shout out to the new neighborhood where you got a bunch of cool stuff going on there too. But like I will say, I'm I'm excited to have it like scouts and all these other cool

Introducing Khao Soi Cowboy

SPEAKER_00 15:28

places that are.

SPEAKER_03 15:29

Yeah, so tell us about your new concept, Nick. Yeah, because it's a Midtown.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Exactly. I promise I wasn't trying to segue it. I actually do this when I try Scouts. Uh no, Calsoy Cowboy. Yes. Um, and I, you know, a lot of people are asking me, like, what's who's the cowboy? What's that all about? And I my the concept is Thai food, but how you've not really had it before. Yeah, and I think that's the main thing. I don't want people to go in and be like, oh, this is what I think Thai shoes should be, or this is what I've had with Thai food. Um for me, it's like, okay, now because of the name, because of the concept and maybe the brand or whatever, when you go in, you know it's going to be something new and you should just enjoy it in the present. And uh, I don't really necessarily want to be held to your past experiences with uh what you expect from Thai food. So fun, cool uh plays on traditional Thai food recipes from my family, um, which is what it's rooted in. Um, but also just my life experience as a chef in St. Louis and what people want here too. And and I think sometimes people think too seriously about authenticity. And uh that is important, I think, and if you are gonna go that route, but at the same time, I want people to just be able to have fun while they eat. Yeah, you know. So it's time for my new fun restaurant, and I'm excited about that too. Yeah.

The Vision, Space & Tiki Cocktails

SPEAKER_03 16:38

Okay. Are we still targeting spring 2027?

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Yeah. Yeah, I feel good about that actually. So every time now when you open a restaurant, I've learned that you just add a bunch of time to it. Yeah, exactly. So that's that's all we're gonna do. Yeah, it takes a long time. It's hard. Okay. But this will probably be the coolest opening, like the space is pretty much ready. You know, it's it's it's um what did it used to be? It's it's a it was a restaurant, right? It was called Turn. Uh it's a breakfast restaurant, right? Yeah, so so it still has the bones that we need, and it it's a lot of a small, it's a it's a much smaller project than Sato by probably like 300%. So that's pretty great.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

We can Sado. Sado was a big and you're gonna have tiki cocktails.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

So, you know, we have this incredibly amazing like our bartending team at both restaurants is just incredible.

SPEAKER_05 17:23

Oh yeah, like we have such a great.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

We have every single bartender is taking part in the creation and the research and development of all these different drinks and stuff. And I'm hoping to bring the collaborative spirit to the menu here. Yeah, um, and you know, just trying to define the voice of that bartending program or cocktail program and making it like super quirky and fun and probably more nostalgic and more fun and more create like I don't know if what creative is the word, but just you know, I think fun's probably the word, yeah, like less serious. Yeah, you know, because we do some pretty high-end nice cocktails at both restaurants, and I think you know, this could be a place where, you know, I don't know. I I to be honest, I don't even want to speak for them because they always come up with like the they surprise me constantly with how amazing the drinks are.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

So I I totally agree. And I'm a cocktail connoisseur, and you guys always have like really interesting, unique stuff that also tastes really amazing.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, playing into that tiki culture, whatever you want to call like tiki cocktail programs, it's really more of a saying, like, this is gonna be fun, you know. I guess everybody, you know, where they serve stuff in like bathtubs and stuff now. I don't I don't know, like we could do something like that. Go for it. But I'm excited, I don't want to put like a lid on it because I love whoever ends up being in charge or the team who ends up doing Calsoy Cowboy to just take it as far as they can.

SPEAKER_03 18:35

I'm super pumped for this. Me too. Now, what's the vibe gonna be like over there?

SPEAKER_00 18:40

So we want it to be as approachable as we can. You know, everybody can come in and and hopefully you can walk in. I I you know, we'll probably leave a larger section for walk-ins than at both restaurants. Okay. And we'll we'll we'll have reservations too. Um, but I, you know, I'm thinking it's like it'd be great for for any age, any family, and and any amount

Walk-In, Lunch & Low-Stakes Fun

SPEAKER_00 18:56

of people, hopefully, too. Um, because both restaurants, you know, they they take a little extra work to get into um because we're a much more reservation kind of based place. Um, and then being open for lunch is is huge, you know. I've been wanting to get something going for lunch. It reminds me a little bit of when we did lunch at Indo. It was fun, but you know, our problem is we always used to cram like three concepts into one. I know because we only had one restaurant and you have all this stuff you want to do, and it's like, this is hard, you know, this is very hard. Yeah, we used to get there in the morning, and then I'd be prepping and cooking, and then yeah, you'd show up, you'd be like, You don't know what you're walking into. Yeah, that was the time.

SPEAKER_04 19:30

The lunch menu was awesome. Yeah, yeah. I know. So that's kind of now. You could get it at Cowboy. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

So we're gonna pull a little bit of that, and then um I I really want to bring a lot of like northern Thai food into it, something that's a maybe it'll get a little less love. Yeah, you know, and I see people doing amazing stuff at all these Thai restaurants, you know. Um, but I just I'm trying to find a little bit out of the ordinary, you know what I mean? And just fun. And then cal soy being the mainstay of the restaurant and something that you can get a lot, like you could. I want the restaurant to feel like you know, sit at the bar, eat a bowl of cow soy by yourself, come in with six people, everybody get their own thing. So it's a lot less of this, you know, I guess, uh intense dining situation, just super low stakes in a way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:11

Fun casual.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Fun casual, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:13

It's gonna be so exciting.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Yeah, I'm excited, man. And we'll have to go there, which is something.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 20:18

I want to make a, you know, I want to make a cowboy hat out of wontons and wear that around.

SPEAKER_03 20:23

Okay. I think we can do something.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

I've thought about it already.

SPEAKER_03 20:27

If you make a wonton cowboy, that's yeah. Instead of chef's hats, everyone's wearing cowboy.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Yeah, I've I actually think that's doable.

SPEAKER_03 20:34

I think that would be very fun.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Maybe at least one person will wear a cow.

SPEAKER_03 20:37

One person.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Amazing. If it makes my staff laugh at me, I'll wear a cowboy hat. Like I'm happy to be the comedic release or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 20:44

No, we should just make them for it.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Could be cool.

SPEAKER_03 20:47

Yeah. Um, okay. Well, Nick, I know you just got married. Congratulations. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

How's the life? Oh, yeah. Actually, I think our how's it feel? It might have been our anniversary like yesterday, our month-long our month anniversary. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sounds so cool. Yeah, I should probably like maybe I should do something. Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Do you live together?

Nick's Wedding & What's Next for Indo

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Yeah, no, we yeah, it was a month ago, almost exactly. So yeah, that's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_03 21:11

And you went to Hawaii.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Hawaii, yeah. I've been having a great I've been having the best like last couple of months ever, dude. Like, yeah, I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

Amazing. That's so cool. Okay. So, um, what's next on the horizon?

SPEAKER_00 21:26

I will say I think um, you know, we're slowly kind of releasing all these changes to Indo. And you know, something, you know, it's easy to get hyped up about the brand new shiny restaurant, and I think that's fun. I'm not really too worried about people being excited for that because it is a whole new thing. I think I'm actually very excited for what Indo becomes uh under Hannah's leadership in the menu, especially, and what she has to say with all the food. And I'm just I'm excited to see that because I get excited just to go to like the place and be able to collaborate on it. And it's it's honestly it's just like the best situation for me. Selfishly, it's like, oh yeah, I like this, or we can work on this, and it's it's fun, it's a really fun job. My job's been pretty it's it's pretty cool. I'm not, you know, I think this is what I've always kind of wanted to do is be able to have like creative control over multiple things and it's just fun, man. Uh so I'm excited to see what you do with the menu. I really am.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

I'm very excited as well. Anna, any thoughts?

SPEAKER_04 22:19

No, I'm also excited. I'm a very like collaborative person, so I always have an idea where I want to go, but sometimes that's not how things go. Yeah, totally so I like being open and fluid to see what everyone else wants to cook too. Because I think that's important.

Hana on Collaboration

SPEAKER_04 22:36

When everyone else wants to do it, it always tastes better. Yeah, the outcome is always just better. Um like when you actually want to make it, yeah, kind of like listening to the cooks too, because I want to know what they want to cook. So there's like an idea of what we want to do, but I want to listen to everyone else too, so we can make the restaurant a little bit more whole for everybody.

SPEAKER_03 22:56

Yeah, how long does it take to, you know, RD a dish? It really depends. Like sometimes maybe a week.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Yeah, I think you know, back in the that's but going back to like how we used to work too. We used to be able to just be like, let's make this, but and then Hannah would crank it and we could do it in like a day. Which back that was more small.

SPEAKER_04 23:12

We were all there together, but now we're all separate.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

So we're almost kind of learning, I think, and that's kind of the easing into it, right? We're learning how we work as a bigger team. You know, I'm only available so much. Uh, you know, Hannah goes in and she's got a lot of other stuff to do as well. So I think a week is probably if we can do a dish in a week, I'm I think that's pretty awesome. Okay, you know, because then a month goes by and you have four or five new dishes, it's amazing, right? And that's awesome. And that's pretty much a menu change for us, you know. Seven years old Indo, people do still expect to see the hits, you know. Yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_04 23:39

Yeah, they're coming back with the hits because I'm always like, why do you go to that restaurant to get that one dish? That's true.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

And I I think you do a great job, actually, of like people really want this. We can kind of change it, we can do fun things with it, but at the same time, like, you know, you it's still a restaurant. You you don't want to just feel like, oh, all the stuff that I loved is not here anymore.

SPEAKER_03 23:57

I know.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

We used to be happy too a little we used to be a little menu change, happy. I think. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:02

But I I learned that because like the when I go to restaurants, sometimes even though I like want different things, you're going back to get that one dish that you're like, Yeah, I want that.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

And if it's gone, it makes you mad.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_03 24:14

That happened to me last week, and I'm not gonna name names, but it wasn't Indo.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

I was about to say it was probably us. No, no, you guys still had the a lot of people hit me up about stuff like, oh, and actually, a lot of people are hitting me up because they love the old lettuce wrap dish with the pork too, so they're stoked that that's back. And it's good that we bring it all back.

SPEAKER_04 24:31

Yeah, it's same, same, but dipted.

SPEAKER_03 24:33

It's a same same, but dip to the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

We say that a lot.

SPEAKER_03 24:36

Yeah, it's what is it from? Same, same, but different.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

It was from something.

SPEAKER_03 24:40

It's from I got it because Bo used to say that all the time.

SPEAKER_04 24:44

But it's like from something, yeah, isn't it? It's probably a show or something too. Yeah, okay. No one knows the original. But that's what I say because it reminds me of my my friends. So it's just like it's very sweet. But yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 24:55

Well, Nick, how are you dividing your time?

SPEAKER_00 24:58

I've uh I go back and forth basically, and some a lot of times I'll go in the same day. It's nice not being too far away from each

How Nick Divides His Time

SPEAKER_00 25:04

other. Yeah. Um, but you know, my job lately is meetings, like meet with Hannah, meet with Mark, try to get, you know, talk about stuff, give them input, and also just try to make sure they have what they need. Um, you know, I'm not gonna lie, I feel like I'm still kind of learning how my new role is too. I was really good at being in a restaurant, cooking the dishes, you know, and just implementing them right away. And that was like, that's like, I still think that's kind of my main skill, right? Um, so getting able, being able to really get that a point, like get that to them and say, like, hey, like this is how I would do it, but also they need to be able to do it in their own way too. So it's hard. So a lot of meetings, a lot of talking with everyone about our ideas and sketching it out. And then, you know, Hannah's great at making a dish, you know? And so that's great to see um when you meet with people and then you're able to just let it kind of come to fruition without doing it yourself. That is uh, but it's equally as hard. Yeah, because I will say it's like I even told them the other day I was like, I'm really coming here to talk to you about this dish for myself, less for you guys. Like, I trust that it's gonna be delicious. Uh-huh. But yeah, I mean, I still want to be involved and I still want to be part of the creation process, especially. And I still want to be part of the process where, like, hey, we're making sure things are really great. Um, but it really comes down to like it's a new, it's a new time for us. And yeah, go go meet with the chefs at Sato, go meet with the chefs at Indo, talk to the GMs, talk to the managers. It's it really is it really is a quite different schedule for me than it used to be. And then still trying to figure out too how I can be involved during service, like a little bit. But you know, one thing funny, it's Indo's tiny, man.

SPEAKER_03 26:31

I know.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

I will say physically, it's I'm I am the person in the way when it comes. Yeah, it does happen.

SPEAKER_04 26:37

I'm big, he's big, he's big. Because like everyone at Indo is like kind of petite.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Just like well, there's so there's days where there's like you know, and then now because we have a few different people working and some different managers, that those used to be where I used to stand, you know, or that's where I used to work, and now that's filled by another person. And it's like I don't think I'm in the way, but I am I I think it's just it's just harder to be, you know. I mean, so not in the way, and also too, you can't micromanage everyone. I think you gotta let let things happen. And if you know, you can give constructive criticism. And if something goes wrong, it's not the end of the world. No, it's like, hey, like, let's do this better, let's work on it. And and I, you know, the place is doing awesome.

SPEAKER_03 27:13

So yeah, you guys are killing it.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

That's great.

SPEAKER_03 27:16

Well, great job. So, are you still doing all the pavilion dinners though?

SPEAKER_00 27:19

I am not doing all the pavilion dinners, I'm managing that as well, too. So we actually um Reed, Reed, Chef

Pavilion, Chef Reed & Growing the Team

SPEAKER_00 27:25

Reed. I don't know if you've met him. He he's our head sushi chef now, and he actually has a new role as well. He's kind of he he does a lot of the uh if I can't be there to train sushi or work on sushi stuff, he's like the sushi guy now. Oh, okay, yeah. So you're just like and I mean he's killing it, man. Yeah, as much, you know, and I like I said, I like to get involved, but I'm gonna I'm gonna work with food more. I want to. Are you?

SPEAKER_03 27:47

Yeah, you still riding that motorcycle around?

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:50

Oh my god, I gotta get rid of it. No, it's too hot to get in a car, man. That's fair. You need the wind.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

Yeah, I want to. Um, I think with Calsoid Calpia'll be a great outlet for any, you know, maybe lack of working with my hands, getting back in the kitchen. So that'll be cool. Nice. But um, you know, it's it's awesome to see everybody who's worked for me for so long. I mean, Indo's seven years old, gonna be eight years old. Um I think that's the only way that we can feel good about where we're at if people are progressing and we have a company that people can grow with and we can make sure that they can have a good life with that as well. And so I think it's more my responsibility, like, let's make sure we grow so that I don't, you know, I would hate to like lose Hannah to like a more adult job or something like that, or however you want to define that. But it's like, if I can make a place for Hannah to continue her career and feel good about that and feel engaged, then we're gonna continue growing. And I think that's also to say for like Reed and all the guys at Sado. We have so many more people doing things that honestly a lot of them really surprised me uh with how well they've progressed when you kind of show them hey, I think you could do this and stuff like that. So that that's been my new role.

SPEAKER_03 28:54

I love it. Now, so are you really like overseeing all of the menu development at the next one?

SPEAKER_00 28:58

I that I would say I try to do most of that. I think uh for Calsoy Cowboy, I'm probably gonna be the main menu guy for sure. Yeah. And then Mark, our chef, who was the chef of Indo, um, he's gonna be the leader of the kitchen there. Um, and you know, same with me and Hannah. You know, we see eye to eye on most of the food. And I think, you know, where Mark shines to is I think he's really great at executing the food that I come up with, especially. And like we just, you know, it's that him, Mark, Hannah, and I, we're just good at being like, This is the dish. It's almost like we took that for granted for a long time and we're trying to work out.

SPEAKER_04 29:29

Because now I I try to do the with I can't do it, you can't do it with other people. Mark and I would look at each other and we'd be like, I got you. Yeah, you don't even have to say anything. That's fun.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

And I mean, that was a we worked together for a long time in the same kitchen. The most we were the most in Indo together at the same time. And and we would, I mean, there were days where we would put two, three dishes on the menu just because we were feeling it.

SPEAKER_05 29:50

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

So that was cool. That was a good time. Yeah, and now how do we replicate that feeling? But current situation doesn't necessarily allow us to do three or four dishes, maybe one every once in a while, and then we make sure it's still awesome.

SPEAKER_04 30:02

Yeah, that's what's so fun though. Endo has changed. I feel like every year it's yeah, you know, kind of like a new restaurant every year because we've just gone through so many different changes with COVID and then the takeout, yeah, the hand rolls, and our new patio.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

Yeah, the patio's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 30:18

Yeah, and the the sunroom? Sunroom is so fun.

SPEAKER_00 30:22

Well, because it's like it's so hot outside.

SPEAKER_03 30:25

It is hot, yeah. It is hot. I think it's kind of nice.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

So it's nice when well, yeah, it's kind of nice right now. I'm just saying, St. Louis gets so hot, and I'm like, okay, I I don't even want to go on the patio sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 30:35

So I know. Well, I know that's perfect.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:39

Well, love everything you guys are doing. Anything else you'd like people to know?

Support Your Local Restaurants

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Hopefully we can get this new restaurant open.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

Yeah, let's go eat at local restaurants.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

Yeah, actually, that's a that is a great thing to say. Eat at local restaurants, support your local restaurants. Yeah, you know, too often I feel like people, you know, we're doing really great and we're super blessed for that. But you know, a lot of places that you love, remember to go, man. Remember to go. And I I gotta do better about that too, but I think we all can.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Okay. Well, thanks for stopping by. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.