EPISODE · Jun 4, 2026 · 43 MIN
#104 Dave Kwiatkowski: Pioneering Bars & Optimist Society
from Serves You Right · host Andrew Roy
Most bartenders dreaming of ownership get the equation backwards. They obsess over the menu, the concept, the aesthetic…and treat money and timelines as details to sort out later. That instinct is exactly what kills bars. Dave Kwiatkowski, founder of Detroit's Sugar House and the Detroit Optimist Society restaurant group, has opened around ten properties in fifteen years, everything from classic cocktail bars, a tiki bar, a molecular mixology spot in an alley, a '70s dive, to even a brand-new gay bar called Trombone. His hardest-won lesson has nothing to do with technique. It's that the corner you cut to "just get open" becomes the floor caving in two years later. In this conversation we dig into building a bar empire in Detroit (not New York, not Chicago, and that's the entire point), the home-grown pipeline that turns basement bar backs into the best bartenders in the city, surviving a pandemic with 250 people on payroll, and why passion is the only honest reason to do this work. Expect to Learn:The budgeting mistake Dave has repeated on every single build in 15 years, and what it actually costs himWhy he bought a bar before he'd ever worked a shift behind oneThe one window of time every new owner wastes and can never get backWhat COVID revealed about the management layer he never neededThe hiring system that quietly produces "the best bartenders in Detroit"Links:Captain McBoozy — Dave's personal Instagram\Detroit Optimist Society — the restaurant group (Instagram)Sugar House DetroitService starts now.Follow the show: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTubeI talk to people in and around the service industry space. I'm looking to hear from the people I wish I could have talked to when I was coming up in bars. Said another way: I am trying to make sense of this wild, beautiful mess that can be a life working in bars, and help others that are feeling similarly confused and/or lost. Check out the Podcast Website Here and get in touch with me!Classic Episodes You May Like:Doug Frost MW MSJeffrey MorgenthalerET: Entrepreneur (and creator of Surfer on Acid)Edward Slingerland's Masterful work on IntoxicationAndrew Hurley of Vegas.WineChris Tunstall of A Bar AboveTony Abou-GanimBobby "G" GleasonAs always, I’m just here taking notes, trying to figure out what it all means.Cheers
What this episode covers
Most bartenders dreaming of ownership get the equation backwards. They obsess over the menu, the concept, the aesthetic…and treat money and timelines as details to sort out later. That instinct is exactly what kills bars. Dave Kwiatkowski, founder of Detroit's Sugar House and the Detroit Optimist Society restaurant group, has opened around ten properties in fifteen years, everything from classic cocktail bars, a tiki bar, a molecular mixology spot in an alley, a '70s dive, to even a brand-new gay bar called Trombone. His hardest-won lesson has nothing to do with technique. It's that the corner you cut to "just get open" becomes the floor caving in two years later. In this conversation we dig into building a bar empire in Detroit (not New York, not Chicago, and that's the entire point), the home-grown pipeline that turns basement bar backs into the best bartenders in the city, surviving a pandemic with 250 people on payroll, and why passion is the only honest reason to do this work. Expect to Learn:The budgeting mistake Dave has repeated on every single build in 15 years, and what it actually costs himWhy he bought a bar before he'd ever worked a shift behind oneThe one window of time every new owner wastes and can never get backWhat COVID revealed about the management layer he never neededThe hiring system that quietly produces "the best bartenders in Detroit"Links:Captain McBoozy — Dave's personal Instagram\Detroit Optimist Society — the restaurant group (Instagram)Sugar House DetroitService starts now.Follow the show: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTubeI talk to people in and around the service industry space. I'm looking to hear from the people I wish I could have talked to when I was coming up in bars. Said another way: I am trying to make sense of this wild, beautiful mess that can be a life working in bars, and help others that are feeling similarly confused and/or lost. Check out the Podcast Website Here and get in touch with me!Classic Episodes You May Like:Doug Frost MW MSJeffrey MorgenthalerET: Entrepreneur (and creator of Surfer on Acid)Edward Slingerland's Masterful work on IntoxicationAndrew Hurley of Vegas.WineChris Tunstall of A Bar AboveTony Abou-GanimBobby "G" GleasonAs always, I’m just here taking notes, trying to figure out what it all means.Cheers
NOW PLAYING
#104 Dave Kwiatkowski: Pioneering Bars & Optimist Society
No transcript for this episode yet
Similar Episodes
No similar episodes found.
Similar Podcasts
No similar podcasts found.