Uptown Kitchen & Taphouse- Seth McDaniel

In this week’s edition of the Flavors of Northwest Arkansas podcast, we’re up in Rogers at the Uptown Kitchen and Taphouse talking with Co-owner/Operator Seth McDaniel... but before we hear from him?!?! FOOD NEWS!! 72 restaurants are participating in Fayetteville Restaurant Week. We’ll tell you how Black Apple Hard Cider is celebrating their 10th birthday on Sunday. The Fayetteville Farmer’s Market will have a Watermelon Fest soon. Happy first year anniversary to the Leroy! We’ll tell you how and when they’ll be celebrating it. Nomad’s Southtown will be open a bit longer. The newest Slim Chickens has opened at their first location. We’ll explain. Someone tried to make Richard’s Country Meat Market a drive-thru this weekend. Seth McDaniel was an information systems consultant for Hitachi for years. It kept him on the road constantly, and he got tired watching his kids grow up on a webcam, so he got out. What led him to wanting to open a kitchen and taphouse? It’s an interesting story and has everything to do with his travels. Seth had zero restaurant or bar experience, other than sitting on the other side of it, so he bought into a chain that was different. VERY different. In fact, it was only an unproven concept at the time. It included 100 beers on tap, and he ended up being one of the flagships for the chain, until he broke away from that chain. He’ll talk about that process and how he was able to do it. That’s how Uptown Kitchen and Taphouse was born. Seth will talk about its growth, and HIS growth in the restaurant business. In many cases, he had to learn the hard way and he talks about it next, here on the Flavors of Northwest Arkansas.