Brick & Brand

Before Campfire, Providence, and Marrow Fine, there were two creatives building furniture by hand.

Barbara Rouke & Jason St John, co-founders of Bells + Whistles, join Brick & Brand to share how they grew from hand-built furniture into an award-winning design firm behind some of the country's most talked-about restaurants. We get into turning an old mechanics shop into a destination, working with top chefs (and when to push back), where operators should never cut corners, and the lesson they'd tell their younger selves.

The best spaces aren't just designed. They're built by people who care how you feel when you walk through the door.

Bells + Whistles | Interior Design

Most people don't look at a sandwich and think, "I can disrupt this." Marc Howland did.

In this episode of Brick & Brand, we sit down with Marc, Co-Founder and CEO of Breadless, the Detroit-based fast-casual brand built on a simple idea: ditch the bread and keep everything people love about a sandwich. He takes us from Wall Street and Harvard to the counter at Jimmy John's, and back to the early days of selling sandwiches out of brown paper bags in Detroit gyms.

We also dig into Breadless's shift to national franchising, how Marc's private equity background shapes his approach to unit economics, and what makes a great Breadless location.

Breadless

What happens when a former sports and CRE broker teams up with an architect to build a Dallas office from a blank canvas?

Sara Bodzy and Aarohi Pilankar launched OTJ Architects' Dallas office from scratch, and they're breaking down how they did it. Two different backgrounds, one shared vision, and a partnership with serious fire.

We talk winning clients in a relationship business, protecting great design without wrecking the economics, what separates authentic mixed-use destinations from manufactured ones, and how opportunities for women in architecture and CRE are changing.

Design isn't just about buildings. It's about people, business, and what makes a place worth coming back to.

OTJ Architects

He came to America as a teenager with nothing — and built a global steakhouse empire.

Salim Asrawi left Lebanon as a teenager, chasing an opportunity in hospitality. Fast forward: he co-founded Texas de Brazil, opening the first location in Addison, Texas back in 1998 — and turned it into a global brand with locations across the U.S. and international markets.

On this episode of Brick & Brand, Salim breaks down the real story behind the growth: the risk of betting everything on that first restaurant, the real estate strategy behind scaling an experiential concept, and how he thinks about expansion into new markets today.

Nearly 30 years in — we ask him what he's learned, and what he'd tell the kid who was just getting started.

This is the American dream, built one restaurant at a time.

Texas de Brazil

Most CRE founders build the brokerage. Kirsten Flory built that — plus a podcast, books, and an online course — at the same time.

She's the Founder and CEO of Foundations Commercial Real Estate, based in Lawrence, Kansas. In this episode, we get into why she bet on herself, why she's teaching people to do what she does for a living, and what "winning" really means once revenue isn't the only scoreboard.

If you're building something bigger than a job title, this one's for you.

Kirsten Flory

Foundations Commercial Real Estate

Boxing has always had an image problem. Spartans is changing that.

Boxing can feel intimidating. Like it's only for fighters, athletes, or people who already know what they're doing.

Spartans Boxing Club flipped that idea on its head.

"Boxing without bruises."

This week on Brick & Brand, Russ Harrison takes us inside the thinking behind one of the most creative fitness concepts we've come across — and how that simple shift in perception became the foundation for a global franchise.

From changing the narrative around boxing to building a brand that can scale across cultures, this conversation goes way beyond fitness.

It's about taking something that felt exclusive and making it accessible to everyone.

Spartans Boxing Club

570+ locations. 17 countries. And Pepper Lunch is just getting started in the U.S.

In this episode, we sit down with Dana Hathaitham, Director of Real Estate & Development at Pepper Lunch, to talk about what it really takes to scale a global restaurant brand in America.

From picking the right markets and sites to winning over landlords, finding franchisees, and building a brand people remember — Dana gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the business of one of the fastest-growing restaurant concepts in the country.

Pepper Lunch Restaurants

Terry Montesi has spent 30 years and over $5 billion building the retail destinations people actually remember — and in this conversation, he tells us how.

As founder and CEO of Trademark Property Company, Terry has developed 24 million square feet of some of the most celebrated mixed-use and retail properties in the country. But this isn't just a real estate conversation. We got into the bets that worked, the ones that didn't, what separates a great shopping center from one that simply fills space, and what he thinks the best retail destinations in America will look like in 2035.

If you're building anything — a brand, a business, or a place — you need to hear this.

Trademark Property Company

Bagels aren't supposed to be pretty — Jeff Crabiel is proving that's exactly the point. From 20+ years in hospitality to founder of Nashville's buzziest new concept, Jeff joins Brick & Brand to talk building Ugly Bagel from farmers markets to 4 locations in under 2 years, why "ugly" was a brand strategy (not an accident), and the franchise plan that's about to take this concept nationwide.

Ugly Bagel

Garrett Reed spent years helping grow Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, and Corner Bakery before developing 200+ restaurant locations across 37 states. So when he decided to take Layne's Chicken Fingers — a Texas A&M cult favorite with a fiercely loyal following — and turn it into a national brand, he wasn't guessing. He had a blueprint.

This week we're getting into the strategy behind one of the most exciting chicken concepts in the country, what smart expansion actually looks like, and why Layne's is just getting started.

You won't want to miss this.

Layne's Chicken Fingers