Two pizza guys with two unique journeys: John Puckett founded Caribou Coffee, grew it, sold it, and then bought into a Neapolitan Pizza joint called Punch. He shares Punch’s growth and the choice to grow it slowly into a dozen locations. Fascinating story of how Punch’s business flipped from mostly dine-in, to mostly delivery during the pandemic. Plus, Chris Kolstad made mistakes as a young man - how he went from prison to a business owner of the Pizza Man in suburban Columbia Heights, Minnesota.

You can’t talk about food and restaurants without talking about the farm. There may be nowhere quite like Wise Acre Eatery, a Minneapolis restaurant that sources 90% of their produce and proteins from the owner’s farm. Scott Endres and Dean Engelmann explain perhaps the shortest version from farm to table in the country. And Erika and Brandon Goette grew up in rural Minnesota - they explain how they decided as millennials to start their own farm and sell directly to consumers through Goette Farms.

More than professional critics, food influencers may really be impacting what restaurants we eat and how we enjoy food. Kim Ly Curry has been named one of the top 100 food Instagrammers in the country. This Twin Cities mom has nearly 52,000 followers on IG. https://www.instagram.com/kimlycurry/  JD Hovland is a computer engineer who has exploded on TikTok with his restaurant tours - 43,000 followers. https://www.tiktok.com/@jdhovland. We talk ethics, strategy, and how they got their starts.

Christina Ngyuen and Birk Grudem fell in love at her vintage shop. The veteran bartender and self-taught cook opened a food truck selling an Argentinian-inspired sandwich - Hola Arepa was born. How this power couple went from a truck to two locations and several James Beard Award nominations. Plus: Sameh Wadi was the youngest and first Palestinian-American chef to battle on Iron Chef in 2010. He opened and closed a fine dining restaurant, Saffron, then a food truck, which graduated to a restaurant World Street Kitchen. We talk the future of dining in a post-pandemic world.

How did the suburb of Robbinsdale, Minnesota become known for high-end, experimental cuisine? Mike Brown and his partners built the first iteration of Travail Kitchen with the money in their savings, using sweat equity to refurbish a restaurant. Today, his team has been James Beard finalists, bringing the most expensive tasting menu experience in town. Plus, a suburb north of St. Paul and Minneapolis only had chain restaurants - how Carly Gatzlaff brought critically acclaimed food and a sense of community to Shoreview with her restaurant Churchill St.

Stephen Hesse worked in some of the best restaurants in the Twin Cities before opening his  Mexican-inspired restaurant Pajarito. Today his Eclectic Culinary Concepts owns 13 restaurants including a chain of suburban pub-style restaurants. How’d that happen? Plus Joe Ehlenz and Brad Nordeen went from city restaurants to an East Metro tourist town - bringing craft cocktails and high-technique to Stillwater, Minnesota and Hudson, Wisconsin.

It’s the luck of the Irish - the drink of the Irish! Irish Whiskey is a key part of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations - meet two founders on this episode of DeRusha Eats. Kieran Folliard started as a pub owner in Minneapolis, created a whiskey and ginger ale cocktail that went crazy, and then founded his own Irish Whiskey. After Folliard sold Two Gingers, he founded an even better whiskey - Red Locks. And direct from Slane Castle in County Meath, Ireland, Alex Conyngham talks about the history of rock and roll at his family’s estate and the future of his Irish whiskey brand, Slane, in partnership with American whiskey legend Brown Forman.

Bottoms up: this episode of DeRusha Eats is all about bourbon and cocktails. Luke Castle was a bourbon aficionado with a real job who bought his favorite liquor store, Ace Spirits in Hopkins. What’s the future for this highly allocated and sought after spirit? Jesse Held was one of the bartenders who helped usher in the era of the craft cocktail in Minnesota. Now he owns his own distillery and restaurant, Earl Giles. What’s the future of fancy cocktails? 

Like many downtowns, Minneapolis has struggled to regain a working population in the years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two restaurateurs are doubling down: Brent Frederick’s Jester Concepts has a steakhouse, an Italian restaurant in a hotel, and a North Loop upscale restaurant. Now he’s leading the rebirth of a restaurant that soared to heights before the pandemic, Butcher and the Boar. Plus, Vincent Francoual has been the premier name in French cooking in the Twin Cities, his self-named Vincent A Restaurant was among the top restaurants in the state. Now he’s a dad and running a French bistro named for his young daughter, Chloe.

It’s all about beef - from the rancher specializing in regenerative agriculture and grass-fed beef to the multi-unit burger restaurant guy who grew up in the business. John Abdo is the President of My Burger, a local chain of burger restaurants, with ambitions of blowing up. Matt Maier started supplying grass fed beef to restaurants, now Thousand Hills Lifetime Grazed beef supplies grocery stores and co-ops all over the country.