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Dan Jacobs is a chef and restaurant owner in Milwaukee, where he co-owns Dan Dan and EsterEv, and a familiar face on shows like Top Chef and Beat Bobby Flay. He's spent decades in professional kitchens, from short-order cook to hotel sous chef to independent restaurant owner, and is an outspoken advocate for independent restaurants and for awareness of Kennedy's disease, the neuromuscular condition he lives with. Susan and Dan talk about concepts, costs, and Kennedy's disease.
What You'll Learn
- What hotel kitchens taught him about trading freedom for structure - Why he pushes every 25-year-old on staff to start a 401(k) now - What Kennedy's disease does to the body, and how it's reshaped his kitchen life - Why Dan Dan and EsterEv worked when so many concepts flop - How restaurant margins slid from 20-30% in the '90s to barely double digits today - How rent, labor, and food costs outpaced the price of a burger - How a busted HVAC system and a pandemic doomed one restaurant and saved another - What to grill your landlord about before signing a lease - How Dan spots a cook with real potential in about five seconds
Key takeaway: Independent restaurants survive on gut instinct, thin margins, and giving people what they really want, and Dan Jacobs keeps building his that way even as Kennedy's disease changes how he works.
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Dan Jacobs https://www.chefdanjacobs.com/
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