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All In Good Taste is a podcast about the craft, culture, and people who make hospitality unforgettable. Hosted by Aidan Descourouez, it’s real conversation, the late nights, the early mornings, and the stories that remind us why this industry matters.
Congratulations. You are one of North America's 50 best bars. The impostor syndrome comes into play again because I'm sitting at a dinner in between, you know, literally the number one bar in North America and the number four bar in North America, and there's little old me. And I'm like, I don't belong here. Even as a 14 year old kid washing dishes, the energy immediately was kind of addictive.
Jake Kelly:It's a very humbling experience to live like that for a few years. I think what Lee taught me the most was the grit and the grind of it. The very cliched bartender manager trajectory of bartending, lead bartending, managing. And he said he wanted to make me his bartender. The current bartender was on his way out.
Aidan Descourouez:Which is quite a big big jump.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. Said not. I subscribed to the Keller idea of like perfect is a goal that you will never meet. We wanna completely pivot the brand. This is the name.
Jake Kelly:Can you pitch us on in forty eight hour? Friends and colleagues say like, you did that. You're the reason this happened. It's very hard for me to accept because I just see this big puzzle and I see myself as one piece of it.
Aidan Descourouez:Behind every great bar, every packed room, every seamless service, and every moment that feels effortless, there was someone holding it together. Not the chef, not the owner, but the general manager. The one reading the room before the doors even open, Balancing energy, expectations and people in real time. Making a 100 small decisions a night that guests will never see but will always feel. Today, we sit down with Jake Kelly, the GM behind Bizu, one of the North America's 50 best bars.
Aidan Descourouez:Because great hospitality doesn't happen by accident. It's built moment by moment, service by service and by people who know exactly how to make it feel effortless. Jake, welcome to All In Good Taste.
Jake Kelly:Thank you very much.
Aidan Descourouez:Thank you so much for having us in your beautiful space today. Let's kinda just jump into where are we right now?
Jake Kelly:Right now you're at BZU in Fulton Market, cocktail bar that opened about two and a half years ago.
Aidan Descourouez:I think you're underselling it by just saying a cocktail bar that opened. You are in North America's top 50 bars and you just placed number 30, correct?
Jake Kelly:We did, yeah.
Aidan Descourouez:Congratulations. When people hear GM of one of the best bars in all of North America, what do people usually expect?
Jake Kelly:They expect everything. They expect it to be seamless. Yeah. They expect great vibes without any of the effort. That's
Aidan Descourouez:fair. So I kinda wanna like roll this clock back here a little bit and kinda find what brought you into this world, the kind of journey that got you where you are today. Can you tell us about your first experiences being in the hospitality space? Sure.
Jake Kelly:My first restaurant job, I was 14. Okay. Got a job as a dishwasher in a suburban Massachusetts tavern. Love it. I guess you call it.
Jake Kelly:Kind of place with a 10 page laminated menu that never changes.
Aidan Descourouez:Fantastic.
Jake Kelly:It was a local spot. Got a lot of regulars. It was a community building place Yeah. Sure. That's what I remember the From
Aidan Descourouez:working in that experience, what do you remember most from that environment specifically? What stuck with you?
Jake Kelly:The energy mostly and the fun of it. Yeah. It did, you know, even as a 14 year old kid washing dishes, the energy immediately was kind of addictive. The regulars, even, you know, the owners, it was all just one big tight crew. It almost immediately made me feel like I was a part
Aidan Descourouez:of it. A part of it. I know when we first talked, you referred to this first restaurant as a pirate ship. Can you give me a little bit of the story or the reasoning why it felt that way to you as a 14 year old kid?
Jake Kelly:You know, everything from the grizzly old line cooks, the way up to the bartender that had been there for twenty years. Yeah. In the mid nineties, it was before the big restaurant boom. It was before it became the sexy place that everybody wanted to work at. Yeah.
Jake Kelly:Anthony Abourdain was still just a line cook.
Aidan Descourouez:Yep. Before he was traveling the world. Exactly. Probably still smoking the same amount of
Jake Kelly:100%. And a lot more.
Aidan Descourouez:And a lot more.
Jake Kelly:You know, I was 14. I couldn't even get myself to work. I remember one of the line cooks would pick me up on his Harley. Yes. Just to get to work every day.
Jake Kelly:And it was rowdy, you know? Yeah. It was fun. There was there was definitely that sort of rebellious outsider energy, especially in the kitchen. Gotcha.
Jake Kelly:That was just really fun to be around, especially as a as a kid.
Aidan Descourouez:Did that feel like intimidating to you? Or was that just like a natural fit? You're like, okay, I can I can work with this? I can do this.
Jake Kelly:Both and? Both and? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, again, you know, these A
Aidan Descourouez:bit of a rebellious kid yourself back in the day? Yeah. These
Jake Kelly:guys that had been doing it for so long and were so they just looked so tough Yeah. And, you know, weathered. But I still felt like it almost immediately it was where I felt like I belonged. Okay, cool. And I felt like they accepted me into that as well.
Jake Kelly:Yeah, was a
Aidan Descourouez:well I kinda wanna jump into some of the other parts here too that we did talk about, about some of your other early journeys. Because I know you're with you were in hospitality for that and then you left. Mhmm. You joined Peace Corps, correct?
Jake Kelly:I did. And got out of college.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about that experience and maybe some of those moments that left some of those, like, lasting memories on
Jake Kelly:you? Sure. I studied education in college. Okay. Wanted to be a teacher.
Jake Kelly:We can get into that later.
Aidan Descourouez:Sure. Well, mean, you're doing a lot of teaching as a GM. So, know, it's full circle.
Jake Kelly:Caught the travel. I didn't travel much as as a kid. Okay. And in college, kinda caught the travel bug, and I just wanted to have an adventure. Yeah.
Jake Kelly:I had done a lot of service work through high school, and I thought this was joining the Peace Corps just felt like a natural marriage for the both of those. I could travel. I could travel on somebody else's dime Yeah. And have a crazy adventure and maybe try to do a little bit of good. So I went over to West Africa in early two thousands.
Jake Kelly:I was there for three years.
Aidan Descourouez:It's a long time.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. Absolutely loved it. I loved every minute of You know, I was in one of the literally one of the poorest countries in the world. Yeah. But the people there were so generous.
Jake Kelly:The place was beautiful. Yeah. You know, I was no running water, no electricity. My closest other American neighbor was 60 miles away.
Aidan Descourouez:Which was crazy.
Jake Kelly:But that village, that community really took me in. And, you know, a hospitality lens, you know, these people have, from our perspective, next to nothing. But I never went hungry. I got everything I needed. They took care of me.
Jake Kelly:They, you know, they fed me twice a day. Yeah. They gave me everything in their power to give.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah. That's incredible. Can you tell me, you know, how that experience you feel like might have shaped you as a leader in the hospitality space today?
Jake Kelly:Humility, first. I think it's a very humbling experience to to live like that for a few years. Sort of like I said, it's it's the it's the ability to give. Mhmm. Everybody has the ability to give something.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah.
Jake Kelly:No matter how much you have or don't have. Hospitality doesn't have to be even material. It doesn't have to be a good. It can just be an act.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah. Alright, cool. And then when you came back, I know you continued teaching. You tell us a little bit about the experience there, what that taught you, what you were doing in the teaching space before you came back to us?
Jake Kelly:Yeah. So, yep, studied education in college. I was trying to think why I did that, and it's been so long. I'm I'm I don't know. I think coming out of high school, going to college not knowing what I wanted to do, wasn't the best student, but I had some great teachers that I really looked up to and that they inspired me to maybe want to do that.
Jake Kelly:I was I've always loved learning.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah.
Jake Kelly:Not a great student, but loved learning somehow. Love learning on my own terms, guess. And I thought teaching might I might be able to bring something to teaching. So yeah, the common thread through all of this is the taking care of people. Gotcha.
Jake Kelly:You know, I thought I could do some good in the school working with kids on the South Side. Mhmm. I think I did a bit of good. Yeah. I hope.
Jake Kelly:But yeah, it was always about what I could give of myself to somebody else. Yeah.
Aidan Descourouez:And I know at a moment, you also shared that you started to get a little bit burnt out too. What what point in time did you start realizing that, you know, you needed to shift back out, but you've had all of this experience about, you know, taking care of people, educating people. When did that start popping up for you? When did you start realizing it? And what was your first thoughts on making the change or
Jake Kelly:a shift? Yeah. A couple years in, I started to feel like it just wasn't the exact right place I for had always felt like the odd man out, I would say and the the day to day grind was starting to wear me down. The point where and I had always promised myself. I had had plenty of teachers growing up that were, you know, tenured Yes.
Jake Kelly:Phoning it in, didn't care anymore, and it just wasn't fair to anybody. Yeah. And then I had started working with teachers that were like that too, and it just seemed so unfair, especially to the kids. Yeah. So I kinda made a promise to myself that if I ever started feeling that way that I needed to find something Make a change.
Jake Kelly:I gotcha. To be fair to them and fair to myself. Yeah. So a couple years in, I just started to feel really worn down. Know, it's an inner city school with all the All the fun Drama and tape you can imagine.
Jake Kelly:You know, coincidentally, this is early two thousands. This is when restaurants started to become a lot more sexy and Food Network was booming and Top Chef came out and and all that stuff. And I sort of just became reenamored with it and Yeah. Wanted got sucked back into the ideal of it, I would Yeah. Because I was still looking at it through a very naive lens of looking fun.
Jake Kelly:Yeah.
Aidan Descourouez:Which is not always the case once Exactly. You're actually
Jake Kelly:But, you know, the propaganda did its job and Hey, there you go. Got me right
Aidan Descourouez:Well, speaking of propaganda getting you there, entered or I should say reentered the hospitality space a little bit later in your life or a little bit later in your own personal career, right? So, what did that feel like stepping back into that world? Jumping in, what was that first new job? What did it feel like? Was it intimidating?
Aidan Descourouez:Give me a little bit of that.
Jake Kelly:Yeah, for sure. I mean, felt like an old man already coming into that environment when I was in my late twenties, early thirties. I was already sort of ten years behind the people that I would call my peers.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah.
Jake Kelly:They were faster than me. They were more eager than me. So I felt like I had to sort of push myself extra hard to keep up with that and to learn sort of to expedite my learning because I felt so behind. Yeah. And you know, the people that are my age chronologically Mhmm.
Jake Kelly:Being able to like look up to them, it was it was a hard balance to square in my head because outside of work socially, these people are my peers. Yeah. But in work, I they're my heroes. They're my idols.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah. You're watching a Yeah. Champion, Yeah. Was there a moment, you know, when that first started that you're like, okay, maybe I made a mistake here. 100%.
Aidan Descourouez:Can you tell us a Immediately. Little Immediately.
Jake Kelly:You know, I started back a house. I started as a line cook. I had some friends in the industry and conveniently enough when I left teaching, I had that whole summer where I was still getting paid. Yeah. As a teacher my salary.
Jake Kelly:So I had three months to stash in turn. I just learned. Just get experience. Yeah. Learn from people.
Jake Kelly:I had a few generous people that just let me kinda hang out a couple days a week in their kitchens, teaching me knife skills, how to cut onions. Getting me to the point where I felt like I could at least walk in, stash for a day, show people that I can work hard Yeah. And then try to get them to take a shot on me. Yeah. And one place did, but pretty quickly, I was I just realized I was in over my head because it was a it was a tiny kitchen, busy restaurant.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. And there was a lot. And I I really appreciate that the chefs took that chance on me and were like, no. We think you can do this. Do it.
Jake Kelly:It was terrifying. Yeah. Having that much pressure that quickly hit me within a few months. Yeah. And I kinda got really spooked really fast, like, what what did I do?
Jake Kelly:Yeah. But after that, I was able to move over to a baking roll, actually. And that pace, those hours definitely helped me transition into the industry Got you. A little, you know, a little more smoothly. Gotcha.
Jake Kelly:Okay. It wasn't quite so intense.
Aidan Descourouez:And when did that switch happen from being back of house to front of house? Because obviously, now you're a front of house guy throwing through, so Yeah. When did that switch occur? What was the first thing that interested you to switching over to the other side there?
Jake Kelly:Couple years later, I think I was kinda just in between things. Yeah. And I feel like as a line cook, I feel like I was always I had a little I had a few more social skills than your typical line cook did. I did enjoy people. I did enjoy the front facing thing.
Jake Kelly:I had never done much of it. I had done a lot of, you know, even with teaching working in retail and things like that. Was actually just looking for something to do. I was in between things. Just wanted a job.
Jake Kelly:I wanted as little responsibility as possible. I ended up I was friendly with the GM of u show back in the day I just asked him if I could back weight, you know, just I just want a few shifts a week. Yeah. I want to make a little bit of money and I don't want to have to be responsible for anything. That lasted a week.
Jake Kelly:Okay. And he said he wanted to make me his bartender. The current bartender was on his way out. Which is quite a big
Aidan Descourouez:big jump.
Jake Kelly:I said no. Said absolutely not. What are you talking about? It's something I had never done before.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah.
Jake Kelly:And, you by that point, I was familiar enough with restaurants. I had, you know, I looked up to these guys. Yeah. You know, Alex Bachman and Lee Zarembo were still running You Show. Yes, I'm doing.
Jake Kelly:And I thought it was absolutely asinine that this GM could think I could step into those shoes, having literally having never done it before. Yeah. And he said, don't worry about it. Yeah. We're gonna teach you.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. I got you. You know, especially at U Show, it's the added pressure of being the only bartender on a shift.
Aidan Descourouez:Oh, One it's your
Jake Kelly:It was whole responsibility. So it was it was a sink or swim experience for sure. I give Tim, the GM, credit for seeing something in me that I didn't see. Yeah. And I can't say I was a smashing success, but I survived it.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. I survived it enough to get to the next step. Yeah. Through his help and and you know, Alex's and Lee's and a lot of great mentorship Do the
Aidan Descourouez:you know what the first drink that you successfully made was? Or like the first ones that you were taught on or anything like that that jumps out to you?
Jake Kelly:I so I remember the first the first cocktail that really stands out to me was chef Matthias. Okay. Yes.
Aidan Descourouez:Owner of
Jake Kelly:U Show would come in and sit at the bar whenever a new bartender started, just by himself, you know, very quiet, poised, reserved man, and would just say, make me a dealer's choice. I had never made a dealer's choice before. I panicked. I didn't know what to do. Yeah.
Jake Kelly:I ran over to Tim and I said
Aidan Descourouez:What am I doing?
Jake Kelly:What do I do? Yeah. This is Matthias Merge's. Like, I'm not gonna embarrass myself in front of him. Yes.
Jake Kelly:Or I am.
Aidan Descourouez:Or I am, you know, forever.
Jake Kelly:He just fed me a cocktail. He basically said make a Bijou. Mhmm. But instead of green Charcotis, you're gonna sub in cinnturbe. And I said, okay, fine.
Aidan Descourouez:Great.
Jake Kelly:Here's the ratio. Go make it. And I I at least knew how to stir a cocktail by that point that I could follow a recipe and make it cold. Yeah. And I put it in front of Matthias.
Jake Kelly:He said, what did you make me? I explained it and he said, oh, that's interesting. Why did you choose cinnturve? And I said, I have no idea. Yeah.
Jake Kelly:That's not the right thing to say to chef. Yes. I saw an eye roll.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah.
Jake Kelly:And then I saw him go over and talk to Tim. And Tim said, why did you say that? Yeah. He let me come back another day. Yeah.
Jake Kelly:And then the day after that and then The day after that. After that, and I started to learn my classics and learn why you could sub Shin Turepe for short shoes and just kept building little by little from there.
Aidan Descourouez:Speaking about those great mentors that you've mentioned a few times, is there any like specific notes or learning pieces that, you know, Lee gave you or Alex gave you that has kind of stuck with you throughout your whole career?
Jake Kelly:You know, I think what Lee taught me the most was sort of the the grit and the grind of it. Mhmm. Put your head down and work hard Yeah. And it'll come. I think he was good at giving me just enough to keep me going, but he didn't he didn't coddle me at all.
Jake Kelly:He had just he he just kind of kept stringing me along.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah.
Jake Kelly:I mean, that in a
Aidan Descourouez:good In a good way. In a good way.
Jake Kelly:I would say the probably the best mentor I've ever had was Kyle Davidson Okay. At Elska. And when I started at Elska, he that's where I feel like I really made the
Aidan Descourouez:leap. Gotcha.
Jake Kelly:From being a everyday sort of technician, I can get the job done. Yeah. Kind of bartender to a fully rounded creative person, a fully rounded human. Kyle is one of the most human people I've ever met. And as a GM there, he was so kind and so generous, still with incredibly high expectations Yeah.
Jake Kelly:But never raised his voice. And he taught me how to bring, like, the humanity into into what I do. And I still look up to him in a lot of ways. We've gotten to actually, being in this neighborhood is nice because we've kinda come full circle, we're neighbors now.
Aidan Descourouez:Which is great.
Jake Kelly:But I still look up to him. Yeah. And I still hope that I'm doing him justice. Yeah. I like to say, like, I try to do everything I do the way he did it, but that's almost a disservice to him because I don't think I'm doing it as good as he did.
Aidan Descourouez:Well, that's very kind of each other. Apparently you're doing something right because you have a very successful bar here. In that case, then the last piece I kind of want to just cover on here, what was the switch, you know, from being somebody, being a bartender, somebody who's working on the bar program, doing all sorts of things to deciding to take a leadership role and switch over to management and then becoming like a general manager. What are the biggest differences there from bartending to leading?
Jake Kelly:Yeah. Honestly, part of it was probably my age. Okay. Being sort of older than everybody around me, I felt like, okay, I'm on the clock here. Like, don't have as much time to screw around as Those elbows.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. I need some sort of trajectory. Yeah. So I started maneuvering for managing positions relatively quickly. I've I've been told early on that I have some like natural leadership qualities even though I didn't necessarily see it myself, but I did kind of always find myself ending up in leadership roles whether So I wanted them or it felt like sort of the next natural, smartest thing to do.
Jake Kelly:The very cliched bartender manager Mhmm. Trajectory of sort of bartending, lead bartending, managing That's
Aidan Descourouez:a team.
Jake Kelly:Lead bartending, managing Or trying
Aidan Descourouez:to jump off to real estate,
Jake Kelly:you know. Real estate or Yeah.
Aidan Descourouez:One of those.
Jake Kelly:Disappear for a few years, Yeah. Go back, So I did that a few times, and, you know, each I would say, you know, there was a lot of zigzags, but it was still a general Yeah.
Aidan Descourouez:Moving in that trajectory. Alright. Cool. Well, now I wanna spend some real time here about the space that we're in and what you've built here with your team. I know I had you very briefly introduce Issa at the start of this, but can you give us like a full spiel?
Aidan Descourouez:What is the program here? What do we like to do here? What services like? What drinks are we serving? What group are you a part of?
Aidan Descourouez:You know, give me give me the whole run. Give me the whole spiel.
Jake Kelly:Alright. So we're part of Footman Hospitality. Yeah. There are bars like Spilt Milk, Little Victories, Bangers and Lace, Quality Time, all part of that group. Also, Sparrow is a part of that group.
Jake Kelly:Loves that. Run by Peter Vastinos. Yeah. Peter was ready to give Sparrow his sister. Sparrow was almost 10 years old by that point.
Aidan Descourouez:Which is great. I mean, bars and restaurants, they don't usually make it past that 10 Yeah. Year
Jake Kelly:And I'm and you know, Sparrow has become a staple for the city, especially for those who know. Yeah. You know? It was my personal favorite bar.
Aidan Descourouez:I've spent many a night drinking at Sparrow myself.
Jake Kelly:So when I heard he was looking, I heard he was looking to open a new spot Mhmm. And that he was looking for a manager. I we were connected through a mutual friend. Yeah. I had never met him before.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. But I came in, just interviewed cold for it and we kind of clicked right away. We're both Boston guys.
Aidan Descourouez:That's
Jake Kelly:right. And I think we sort of clicked on that pretty immediately because we're started being wry and sarcastic with each other pretty So much I just got the job. The concept was pretty well formed at that time. Yeah. He wanted to do nineteen sixties Parisian inspired cocktail bar.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. What does that mean? I No. The way Peter likes to design his faces is nothing is ever too on the nose or too literal. You know, he wants his faces to be transportative without being literal.
Jake Kelly:Gotcha. We're not gonna wear berets and Yes. Black and white striped shirts.
Aidan Descourouez:Yes.
Jake Kelly:It's gonna be more just the subtle things that maybe you aren't even realizing that you're absorbing. Yeah. And it's everything from the music selections to the lighting Mhmm. To the design choices Yep. And then down to the drinks.
Jake Kelly:We are a cocktail and wine bar. We do place, you know, most of our eminence is clearly is is on the cocktails. I think they make up 85% of our sales. Yeah. We are a martini bar.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. We have a full page of martinis. I think there's a martini out there for everybody even if you think you're not a
Aidan Descourouez:martini. I'm not a martini guy but I love your tuxedo, right? Tuxedo, too. The tuxedo was delicious From on your all that too, kinda wanna ask about, obviously you got the job, you started. What did it feel like the first time you walked into this space?
Jake Kelly:First time I walked in here it was pretty raw. It was, I would say 80% of the way there. Okay. Build out wise. Yeah.
Jake Kelly:But there was still a lot of exposed concrete. There was no bar top. There was no furniture. Yeah. It was and that to me, was really exhilarating Yeah.
Jake Kelly:To see a space be so raw and be invited into it and help. You know, I came on for sort of the home stretch and helped sort of shape the final look of the place.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah. At that moment, what did you think this place would become at that time?
Jake Kelly:I didn't have any sort of defined expectations of it. I just knew of Peter and I knew of his reputation and I knew it would be good. Gotcha. I was really confident that it would be good. Yeah.
Jake Kelly:And as we got to know each other slower conversation, you know, very slowly through conversation, he was really good at piecemealing the ideas to me and also piecemealing the tasks and the work that needed to be done.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah.
Jake Kelly:I thought he was great at sort of ramping me up.
Aidan Descourouez:Burying you.
Jake Kelly:Burying Dumping you around. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So, like, sort of just through conversations, sort of fleshing out this idea of, like, what does it feel like?
Jake Kelly:What what did Paris in the sixties feel like, and how can we convey that? Other than that, you know, know, the furniture came in and I was like, oh, yeah. Cool. Yeah. That makes sense.
Jake Kelly:I like that. Know? And I feel like, you know, they did let me have a voice a little bit at the beginning to say, you know, I don't think that looks quite right or what if we do this instead or can we move the furniture?
Aidan Descourouez:Well, mean, I think what you're saying right there leads into something really cool too. You also shared with me that, what was it, a week before or two weeks before, you completely reworked the whole branding and everything for this.
Jake Kelly:Very different. Can you
Aidan Descourouez:tell us about that? Like where Sure. I mean, that's an insane lift to be able to completely change your identity. Yeah.
Jake Kelly:Had a very clear idea of who we were Yeah. From a design perspective, from a menu perspective, from a service perspective. Yeah. We were working with a marketing company
Aidan Descourouez:Mhmm.
Jake Kelly:That didn't quite get it. They had come up with, you know, logos, design work, menus, and a name Yeah. That we shall never speak again
Aidan Descourouez:Great.
Jake Kelly:That just wasn't landing with And, you know, we would go back and forth and say, that's not quite right. Can you try something like this? They would come back and it would be even further off base. It just didn't sit. It wasn't matching what we knew we were.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. So two weeks before, it was actually this,
Aidan Descourouez:That specific one right there?
Jake Kelly:Yeah. This this artwork right here, the the design team, Siren Betty had come in. We were that far along that they were actually hanging artwork. So Siren Betty was here and they put up this, print Yeah. The lips with the bee zoo and Peter, one day after a long day working here Yeah.
Jake Kelly:Was walking out the door and kind of stopped and looked at it and said, That's it? That's it. We found it. So we let that marketing team go. Yeah.
Jake Kelly:We pitched it. We basically asked our current social media management team, Just Coast. We said, we want to completely pivot the brand. This is the name. Can you pitch us on Yeah.
Jake Kelly:It in forty eight hours? You have two days.
Aidan Descourouez:You have two days to do.
Jake Kelly:Pitch us on the brand. And they nailed it. They crushed it. Everything from, you know, the logo to the lips Mhmm. To the menu design, all that stuff was just honestly perfect on the first try.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. And it was exhilarating that happened. It was terrifying to have to sort of like go back to the printers and have everything redone and just make sure it was all ready
Aidan Descourouez:Ready to go.
Jake Kelly:Two weeks. But we did it, and I think like, you know, one thing Peter likes to say about sort of building a new space is that it's almost like a star forming, where it starts as all these loose gases out in space, and then gravity very slowly starts to pull them together, and then, you know, there's, it's never linear. Yeah. And it's not even zig zaggy, it's circular. Know, it's coming from all directions in and then it consolidates and all of sudden it's a star.
Jake Kelly:And that happened, you know, I think we got our logos and everything printed the day before Friends and Family.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah. Which I know you guys also did like a very quiet opening too, right? You didn't push any PR, you didn't do any of those sorts of moves. What did those first couple of weeks feel like?
Jake Kelly:They felt really exciting. We are fortunate to be in a very busy neighborhood. Yeah. Lots of amazing restaurants are our neighbors.
Aidan Descourouez:Got some good friends.
Jake Kelly:Rosemary, we've got Swift and Sons, we've got Next. The exposure was there for us. Their foot traffic was there. People, you know, for months before we even opened were Trying to peek through the window. Everyone knows what's happening.
Jake Kelly:We didn't open with a bang Yeah. Because we didn't do any press. There was no hype, very intentionally. You know, we wanted to build it organically through things like foot traffic and word-of-mouth. I think one of the things that a lot of bars and restaurants do that does them a disservice, I feel like they really shoot themselves in the foot by over hyping themselves at the beginning Yeah.
Jake Kelly:Because people come in with really high and you're just not there yet. And I really like the way that we did it. I that's if I ever open any more places, that is absolutely the way that I wanna go. Yeah. And just we can build our systems and make our mistakes early on
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah.
Jake Kelly:With smaller crowds and then just grow and build from there. It happened very organically over that first year going from nights where, you know, it's only 20 or 30 people to nights where we did 400.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah. When did you start seeing that traction, really? I mean, like, did you start when did you get your first line outside the door?
Jake Kelly:I was trying to remember that. It was it was within a few weeks. I think, again, because of the neighborhood and because of our capacity Yeah. We fill up pretty quickly. And I but I remember the first time we had two people waiting outside and I texted Peter and Jason and was like, got a line.
Jake Kelly:We have a line. We are at capacity. But yeah, I think it was probably a Saturday night, you know, three or four weeks in. Yeah.
Aidan Descourouez:Once that recognition kind of started, right, I mean, how long did it really take for you to consistently see, like, that line outside? When did you start realizing, okay, we really do have something special here?
Jake Kelly:Yeah. Probably that fall. We opened in January 2024. I would say by that fall, we were consistently doing really good business. Gotcha.
Jake Kelly:The beginning of the next year, beginning of twenty twenty five, a lot of the year end lists start to come out and a lot of the award nominations start to come out. We were very fortunate to get nominated for a lot of things and win a few things and make number one on a few lists. Yeah. And So that had a spike in starting some in of January, exploded. It jumped it to an entirely new level, which is funny because, you know, coming out of December, we expected to go into a slow Oh, a dip.
Jake Kelly:And you're like, okay, can relax and we'll do We reduced staff a little bit. We reduced shifts. Yeah. Some massive mistake because we just got killed. We had to staff right back up.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. By March, we were just humming. Yeah. And then, April '25 was the first year of fifty Best, and since then, it's just been.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about fifty Best? Because I know, me and you've talked about it, but not maybe all of our viewers or listeners know really how that works. How when you get invited to fifty Best, how do you know where you're placed? Do you know any of that?
Aidan Descourouez:What is what is the surprise? What is can you give us
Jake Kelly:I have no idea how it works.
Aidan Descourouez:Gotcha. No insider trading here?
Jake Kelly:No insider details? At all. If there is, I'm not a part of it. We got an email Yeah. I think in March of last year that said congratulations.
Jake Kelly:You are one of North America's 50 best bars. I think I screenshot it and sent it to Peter right away and said, is this a scam? Is this
Aidan Descourouez:a real
Jake Kelly:What do we do? Yeah. Yeah. So you you get the email. You don't know where you place.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. They just congratulate you on being the top 50. They say, come to the ceremony, you'll find out where you are. Yeah. You know, since then, people one of the most common questions I get asked is, how did you do that?
Jake Kelly:Like, what did you do to get that? Yeah. My my honest answer is we just we were ourselves. Yeah. We were the best version of ourselves and we just committed to what we do.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. In a very sincere earnest way and kept refining that and the only thing that all of these 50 bars have in common is that it's that clarity of concept and like dedication to vision. Yeah. Because when you look at, even there's bars in Chicago, you look at Kumiko and Best Intentions and Us, like, we are wildly different Oh,
Aidan Descourouez:totally different bars, yeah.
Jake Kelly:Couldn't be more different, but we're all on that list. But what do we all have in common is that we know exactly who we are. Yeah. We're committed to refining who we are and everything from the, like, tiny little details Yeah. To the systems we have behind the bar to the larger vibes of the space are all committed to that concept.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah. You also did share with me briefly that, you know, when all these sorts of things started happening, you didn't necessarily see it in your own self. How did you deal with that almost borderline impostor syndrome? How did you work through that? How did you figure that out?
Aidan Descourouez:Can you tell us a
Jake Kelly:little bit? Oh, haven't. Well, still figuring that So, yeah. I think that's a whole other podcast and we can bring my therapist in to Perfect. Explain that because I'm still working through it.
Jake Kelly:When I see all it takes to make something like this happen Yeah. It's a it's a big machine, and we all have a part to play. You know? Our morning prep people, our cleaning crew Yeah. The bartenders, me, the owner.
Jake Kelly:So, I think friends and colleagues say, like, you did that. You're the reason this happened. It's very hard for me to accept because I just see this big puzzle and I see myself as one piece of it.
Aidan Descourouez:Gotcha.
Jake Kelly:I might be I don't know. I might be a corner piece. Might Yeah. Be
Aidan Descourouez:might be, yeah.
Jake Kelly:One of the important ones, but I think they're all important. Yeah. So, it's hard for me to sort of take that credit without immediately sort of Oh, yeah.
Aidan Descourouez:Sharing and trying Absolutely. To
Jake Kelly:deferring it to the people. You know, it's one of the tough things about, I think a lot of people misunderstand the general manager role in general, even myself to a certain extent, because I see the bartenders and the barbacks doing all of this hard labor every day, like working their butts off. And I see my bosses and the owners with this concept and this vision and I'm this like guy in the middle that's just trying to like connect pieces together. Make all those things happen, right? In a lot of ways, the GM role, I feel like, can get lost in there a little bit.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah. What does the emotional side of that role look like or feel like to you? Because I know you're dealing with emotions, right? I mean you have a bartender having a good day, have a bartender having a bad day, you have a guest having a good day, you have a guest having a bad day. How do you manage all of that for yourself personally and also still be front facing?
Jake Kelly:That is the hardest part of the job for me. Yeah. I am much more naturally suited to sort of operations and admin tasks. Know, give me a spreadsheet.
Aidan Descourouez:Go knock it up.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. Give me a give me a problem that needs to be solved. Give me a system that needs to be developed. The soft skills are where I've had to learn and grow the most because it is the most also the most taxing emotionally. That is I feel like one of the biggest roles for the GM is being sort of an emotional sponge and being that bridge between everybody.
Jake Kelly:Know, you're like you said, you're dealing with lots of egos every day, lots of emotions every day, and lots of ups and downs and you kind of have to be that steady hand through it Yeah, throw them through. And that goes for the guests as well. You're absorbing all of their emotions as well. Whatever kind of day that they're having that they're bringing in here and trying to bridge all of those gaps is exhausting. No, I can And only it's the emotional labor is probably the most taxing part of the job for me.
Jake Kelly:Gotcha. How do I deal with it? Lots of rests, lots of therapy, And I do try to keep myself fulfilled outside of work so that I can bring in that Yeah. Energy
Aidan Descourouez:I do have two last questions here on Bizu specifically. One, what does the perfect night look like and feel like here? And then number two, this is literally a week ago, you just became the number 30 in North America. What did that feel like? Who did you bring with you?
Aidan Descourouez:So I know it's a two part, but like, what do both of those sorts of things feel and look like for you?
Jake Kelly:You know, I subscribe to the Keller idea of like perfect is a is a goal Yeah. That you will never
Aidan Descourouez:reach. Yeah.
Jake Kelly:You're always striving for it, but it'll never be there. There will never be an absolutely perfect night, but we're always reaching for it. Yeah. But there is there are those nights that just the pacing comes together. Mhmm.
Jake Kelly:Bartenders are locked in. I feel like they're a great night. Time slows down. Yeah. And you can kind of see everything.
Jake Kelly:And it also the volume comes down. It's quiet. Yeah. And it's not that we're not communicating with each other because we constantly are, but everybody is locked into what they're doing, plays off of each other with like minimal management, you know? Yeah.
Jake Kelly:Perfect night for me honestly is when I'm hands off the steering wheel and I can go stand in my, like, general manager corner spot Yes. And just watch. Yeah. That's when I know that they're locked in. You don't know what's gonna come through the door.
Jake Kelly:We don't take reservations. We're walk in only. We don't even know how busy we're gonna be on any given night. So you just have to be ready for anything.
Aidan Descourouez:Who did you bring with you? How was that moment? Like, what does it feel like? Because it's in Toronto, correct? Vancouver.
Aidan Descourouez:Yeah.
Jake Kelly:Well, it was.
Aidan Descourouez:All they do. Okay. That's the
Jake Kelly:They do it. So it was in Vancouver the past two years. Okay. I think they'll move to a new city next year. Gotcha.
Jake Kelly:Peter, owner, John, our lead bartender, and I went this year. And we also brought two of our bartenders. Mhmm. It was really important to me starting this year that we start bringing the staff into more of these kinds of things. I think it, you know, I think it's pretty unfair with all these awards ceremonies and all these gals and all these dinners and all these sponsored events when it's always just the owner and the GM Yeah.
Jake Kelly:And whoever. They get to go and get all the flowers and get all the fun attention. You know? Guys work so hard. They bring this place to life.
Jake Kelly:So it's important that they get to feel some of that shine as well. Yeah. So it was really important for me to bring a few of them with just to see it and and have that experience. It's a whirlwind free days of events, of dinners, but you're rubbing elbows with your heroes in the industry. You know, one of our bartenders was just, like, starstruck by every person he got to meet because he's been looking up Looking up to them forever.
Jake Kelly:Right? In years. Yeah. And, you know, I think the impostor syndrome comes into play again Yeah. Because I'm sitting at a dinner in between, you know, literally the number one bar in North America and the number four bar in North America, there's little old me, and I'm like, I I don't belong here.
Jake Kelly:Like, you guys are you guys are my heroes.
Aidan Descourouez:But, you do belong there.
Jake Kelly:Oh, I do. You do. I'm slowly trying to figure out, trying to Yeah. Absorb that. Yeah.
Jake Kelly:Through a lot of pestering from my friends.
Aidan Descourouez:Yes. Well, you know, sometimes it's good to have your friends pester you and Thank push you so much for sharing all that here with us. Now we're gonna switch over just to our last little bit that we referred to, our tasting menu. It's, you know, a quick set of questions that kind of focus all around hospitality and your experience and we ask everybody who's on with us. So, starting with the first one, our Amuz Bhuj.
Aidan Descourouez:What is the smallest gesture of hospitality that's had the largest impact on you?
Jake Kelly:I can't pick just one. That's like a that's like a question What for I love about Chicago especially and the bar restaurant community in Chicago is how tight it is and how much we all root for each other and support each other. Yeah. And, you know, with things like the 50 Vest Awards and stuff, you know, all of our friends from all of our the other bars and the brands and stuff, all come in, you know, they're bringing flowers by, they're bringing cookies by, you know, those little gestures of the way that we all kinda take care of each other and root for each other are what I kinda like the most about working in Chicago. That's I I think we have that over pretty much any other city that Yeah.
Jake Kelly:We
Aidan Descourouez:For our appetizer, what dish, drink, or moment first made you fall in love with this industry?
Jake Kelly:The the dish that stands out to me the most that, you know, I was already I would say I was already falling in love with this industry, but this experience sealed the deal, was actually right across the street at Next. Okay. It was right when they opened. It was their very first menu. It was the Escoffier Paris menu.
Jake Kelly:I was still teaching at the time. Yeah. And it was impossible to get in there.
Aidan Descourouez:Oh, yeah.
Jake Kelly:You basically had to win a lottery. And that's I did. I I won one of those, like, day
Aidan Descourouez:of That they do their lottery tickets. Yeah.
Jake Kelly:You know? And that's how it felt, you know? Every single moment of that experience was so well thought out and so elegant, and, you know, a few of those dishes, like, you know, they brought back the duck press. Yes. And I remember there was a chicken dish that had dill on it, and, like, I will always be able to taste that dish, and I will always be able to taste that dill specifically.
Jake Kelly:Was, the most perfect sprig of dill Yeah. I've ever had, and I can still taste it, and that's like it's like the platonic ideal of what dill
Aidan Descourouez:Should be. Yeah. I love it. Okay. Into our entree, what is the hardest part of the work that guests don't get to see?
Jake Kelly:I think it is the emotional management. It's the ego massaging. It's the day to day navigation of hundreds of different personalities Yes. And your needs and wants.
Aidan Descourouez:To our palate cleanser, can you tell me about a time that spontaneity led to something unforgettable?
Jake Kelly:When I was working at Elska, being the only bartender there, you know, you pretty much didn't get a night off. You were only off when the restaurant was off. Yeah. But there was one night, I think, my entire two and a half years there where we were slow enough that Kyle offered to cover the bar and I could have the night off. Yeah.
Jake Kelly:So what did I do with that night off? I went to Elska. There you go. And I had dinner there. And it was a wonderful meal.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. Obviously. Yeah. But at one moment in particular, they had secretly sent out a line cook to the McDonald's around the corner because they know I'm obsessed with Big Macs. And they brought a Big Mac in, they broke it down and plated it up all fine dining chef y like, and brought it out as like a supplement course for me.
Aidan Descourouez:That's awesome.
Jake Kelly:And like, just the extra efforts that they went to for something that they know Had a big meaning to you. Right? Yeah. Was it was really special.
Aidan Descourouez:That's great. Sounds like a little Love and Madison Park accident Now, going on over there at for our dessert, what does good taste mean to you?
Jake Kelly:I think having good taste is having perspective and it's caring. It's caring about everything that goes into a product or an It's okay to have an opinion. It's okay to have a strong opinion. I think that's how the best things happen. It's okay to be discerning about what you like and what you don't like.
Aidan Descourouez:And then lastly, Ardijastif, if you could leave our listeners or viewers with one lesson from your journey, what would it be?
Jake Kelly:I think where I've come to now in my career is resilience. Gotcha. Showing up every day. And especially showing up after a hard day. Yeah.
Jake Kelly:That's something I learned a lot from through Peter. You could have a really bad day, but it's over and it kinda doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is how you show up the next day. And I think your guests will respond to that. I think especially your staff will respond to that.
Jake Kelly:Yeah. They will see you continue to show up and they will start to follow suit.
Aidan Descourouez:Thank you so very much for your time today, Jake. This has been great. Is there any last minute things you wanna say about Bizu yourself? Wanna plug yourself? Where can people find you?
Aidan Descourouez:Where can they find Bizu? Anything of that nature?
Jake Kelly:I think we know we know where BZU is. This is true. We are in Full Market. We are open seven days a week. We do not take reservations, walk in anytime.
Jake Kelly:Yep. It's a vibe. The way I love to describe BZU is that it's always golden hour in here.
Aidan Descourouez:Heard.
Jake Kelly:And we do everything very intentionally to make it feel like that.
Aidan Descourouez:Well, thank you so much for your time today. This has been fantastic. I'm Aiden Dusk Gray and this is All In Good Taste.