#79, Mark Pascal & Francis Schott, hosts of The Restaurant Guys podcast, owners of Stage Left Steak and Catherine Lombardi restaurants, New Brunswick, New Jersey

Francis, and, later Mark, have been friends of mine for a long time; we must have bumped into one another in Manhattan or at a Tales of the Cocktail event in New Orleans, but it was our mutual friend Dale de Groff who persuaded me to make the trek out to NJ to see their restaurants, which are incredibly successful and a mainstay of their community. Their two places were also some of the first fine-dining restaurants in America to take craft cocktails seriously; they hosted literally the first cocktail-pairing dinner anywhere on the planet outside Manhattan at Stage Left, which was maybe only the second cocktail-pairing dinner ever, with Dale, back in the late 1990s. Mark & Francis have also just rebooted their podcast, The Restaurant Guys, which originally ran 2005 - 2013 and was just about the first restaurant podcast there was, welcoming guests like Anthony Bourdain (yep!),  Thomas Keller, Dale, Danny Meyer, Dan Barber and Jacques Pepin, among many others. They're now putting out one new episode per week and one archived episode per week, and there's a Regulars option where you slide them a few bucks a month and get extra episodes and invites to IRL events. (also, shop the TRG merch, it's hilarious!)We sat down to chat about what's really important in the restaurant business (clue: it's not the actual business itself), what places have impressed Mark and Francis lately, and what advice they'd give a young ambitious bartender from their lofty vantage point. Enjoy!The Restaurant Guys podcast website: https://www.restaurantguyspodcast.com/podcasthome, with links to all episodes, both new and archived. Also on Spotify & Apple podcasts, obvs. The Restaurant Guys on IG: https://www.instagram.com/restaurantguyspodcast/Become a Restaurant Guys Regular: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2390435/subscribeStage Left Steak on IG: https://www.instagram.com/stagelefteats/Catherine Lombardi on IG: https://www.instagram.com/catherinelombardirestaurant/  (Get in touch with Duff!Podcast business enquiries:  [email protected] (PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is. They need to be able to hang. Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.)  And our AI automatically deletes pitch emails that are clearly written using AI. Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: [email protected] on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/ Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos Old Duff Genever on Faceboo...