Kevin Boehm, Co-Founder of Boka Restaurant Group
This conversation is part of The CEO Series by Executive House. Watch the full interview on YouTube.
How would you describe your leadership style?
My leadership style has evolved a lot over the years, because there’s certainly a transition from managing two people to managing 2,800. In the early days of being in the restaurant business, I was very much lead by example. I was part of the restaurant every single night. I was in the middle of the action. I think today it’s more about being a teacher, being a mentor. The things that I do are different these days. It’s a smaller group of people I manage: the people that are managing everyone else.
What’s your advice to someone starting a business?
I think when starting out any business in this day and age, you have to be all in. You have to be great at everything, and if you don’t love it, you’re not going to be great at everything.
What’s your advice to someone starting a restaurant?
The restaurant business has changed a lot since I started. I think everything has progressed a bit. Looking at design, looking at food, and looking at hospitality, you have to check all three of those boxes. People are always kind of surprised that I bring up design within that, but in this day and age, where everybody’s so visually stimulated all the time, you have to create layers in everything that you do within a space. Otherwise, people get bored very easily.
Why is Chicago a great place to open a restaurant?
Chicago’s an amazing place to open up a restaurant, I think the best place, and that’s because of the people that live here. Midwestern people have a strong work ethic. They’re good people, and they’re just likable people. People talk about Southern hospitality all the time. I think Midwestern hospitality is better, because it’s more real. I think that Midwesterners are no-bullshit people. They come in, they work, they do their job, and that’s what you need to build a great restaurant. You need people that don’t talk about it. You need people that execute.
What’s a challenge of running a restaurant in Chicago?
The weather in Chicago makes it a little challenging sometimes. It’s unpredictable. Obviously, when it’s minus 10 and it just snowed 10 inches, that’s not good for the restaurant business. So sometimes it’s hard to schedule, and it’s hard to run a business when Snowmageddon comes.
Are there any Chicago business trends you’re excited about?
I like the fact that the world is becoming a healthier place, that Chicago’s becoming a healthier place. I see those trends happening within restaurants, where people are cooking healthier, and I certainly see that in the amount of wellness that’s opening up here in Chicago.
What does the process look like when you’re opening a new restaurant?
When we open up a restaurant, there’s a critical path that is about the 850 things you have to do to open up a restaurant. Before we get to those 850, it’s an exercise usually in myself and Rob and maybe one of our chef partners sitting around a table and just having a creative, spirited discussion about what we think the restaurant should be. From a design aspect, from a location aspect, from a cuisine standpoint, what’s the tone of the restaurant? I love those meetings. All I ever wanted from the time I started in this business was to be able to be at that table with the people that I thought were the best, and now I get to do that. It’s pretty exciting.
What do you look for when hiring?
We hire people much more emotionally than we do technically. My interview process is kind of silly, usually. I just try to get them talking. I often start with, “What did you have for breakfast this morning?” I just want to know: Are you smart? Are you a good person? And can you mix it up with me?
What do you think about hiring friends and family?
I opened my first restaurant with my girlfriend. We were partners in my first restaurant. She’s great and talented and all that, but it’s not a good idea to mix emotion and all that hard work together. I think that pretty much killed the relationship. Hiring friends and family, it’s risky. I hold my true friends and family and the people I love in as high regard or higher regard than I do my businesses, so you never want to put those things at risk. That part of my life, the people that I love, is very important to me. That all being said, I will hire my kids, because they need to come and work for me, and we’ll make it tough on them.
What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received?
People ask me all the time what’s the best business advice I ever received, and I don’t know if this is technically business advice, but it’s something my mom said to me when I was 15 years old. She told me at the beginning of the summer in 1985 that I had to get a job, and three weeks after the summer had started, I went to her and said, “Mom, could I have $5 to go to Dairy Queen?” And she told me no. She said, “I told you to get a job three weeks ago. I didn’t raise you to be lazy, and just like God, I only help those who help themselves.” My mom was one of 14 kids, grew up on a farm, was a hard worker. I got a job three weeks later. I’ve never not had a job since. And her primary motto around the house was, “Work hard and be a good person.”
What’s your proudest moment in business?
My partner Rob Katz and I won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurateur in America at the James Beard Awards last year, and it was an incredibly proud moment, not just for myself and for Rob, but for the entire company. That award is not about one year of work. It’s about a lifetime of work. Being up on that stage with Rob and being able to speak to all our peers, it was an incredibly emotional moment. There were tears shed. It was an emotional moment for Rob and I, where all these memories of everything that has happened since day one started flooding back. It was a pretty incredible night. It went late.
What three CEOs would you want to have dinner with?
I love creatives, so I think I’ve got to say Elon Musk. That’s a guy who thinks way out of the box. I’d have to also say Michelle Gass, who’s the CEO of Kohl’s, who’s been able to navigate the murky waters of traditional retail and still find success with that. And I’m fascinated by the early days of technology, and since Steve Jobs has passed, I’ll let Bill Gates come to the table. He’s also fascinating and a great philanthropist, and he has a really interesting brain. I’d just love to sit and talk with him for a while.
When you first started out, did you think you’d reach this level of success?
There’s a great part in the movie Broadcast News where William Hurt says to Albert Brooks, “What do you do when your reality exceeds your dreams?” And Albert Brooks says to him, “You keep it to yourself.” That’s basically what’s happened in my life. No, I didn’t think past one restaurant at the very beginning. There was a moment in the mid-’90s where I wrote down my absolute dream, which was having nine restaurants, and I wrote down what they were all going to be. So the fact that we’re at 21 restaurants now and 2,800 employees, that’s just way beyond what the imagination of a kid from Springfield, Illinois, could ever have.
Who are you most grateful for?
I’m grateful for a lot of things. I think mainly my family, the fact that the universe allowed me to slow down long enough to have a great wife and three amazing children. And I’m thankful for the fact that I built this group of people around me that are amazing people. I have my family, and then I have this other family of all these incredible friends that I have, and I never take that for granted. And lastly, my team of people. Rob and I and the chefs get more notoriety and maybe are on camera more than other people, but the lifeblood of this company is the 2,800 people that work for it.
What do you like most about the restaurant business?
The restaurant industry is different than most industries. In most industries, you don’t get this initial feedback right away of how somebody felt about the experience they had. We get this ringside seat every single night to first loves, first dates, marriage proposals, anniversaries, birthdays. And if you’re really paying attention, you can catch some of that positive energy. It kind of just floats right out there in the air.
What are your biggest concerns when you’re opening a new restaurant?
When you’re opening up a restaurant, there are countless concerns. I lose a lot of sleep. I used to lose a lot of pounds. It’s easier these days. But really what you’re doing is taking what you think would be a great restaurant, that art inside of you, and putting it into a space. And the biggest concern is, is that going to resonate with folks? Is what you thought was great going to resonate with people? So those first couple weeks are dicey, man. I don’t sleep that much. I read everything of what people think about the restaurants. And I’ll be honest with you, it’s rough. I’m still sensitive when it comes to that stuff.
From your first restaurant to 2,800 employees, what’s your biggest takeaway?
My very first restaurant was two people, and so the only thing I had to worry about being great on a nightly basis was myself. When I started to have to manage people, I wasn’t a great teacher, and it took me a few years to figure all that out. So I think my biggest takeaway now is that education and mentorship are the most important things when you’re going to grow a company.
What are the biggest operational challenges in running restaurants?
Operational challenges all come down to human resources: finding enough people to execute the ideas. HR is always the biggest operational issue within a restaurant.
How is technology changing the way people dine?
I think what’s happening right now is that younger people, for meals that they consider utility, quick service meals, fast casual meals, don’t want to engage with a human being. So I see this separation between the utility meal of people going in and ordering off a kiosk, and the experience that we give in our restaurants, which is more about human contact. What we have to do is continue to create spaces that make people feel comfortable, that make it feel exciting, and also have these incredible people that are charming and compelling and tell a great story, and make sure that experience feels so much different than the experience where there’s no human touch.
Where does technology help the hospitality side?
I think technology is amazing when it walks hand in hand with the human touch. OpenTable’s amazing, because there are these informational screens that tell us all this information about people before they walk in, but that’s only fed by us recognizing these things when they’re at the table. When we’re able to walk up to a table with a child that has a peanut allergy, and we’ve created a menu for them already that only has the stuff they can eat on it, there’s this instant bond of trust that exists between us and that table, and they’re going to want to come back. The only way we knew that is we stored that information, we printed that shit off, that shit goes to a server, that shit goes to the kitchen, and then there’s a protocol.
What’s the difference between running a restaurant group and running a single restaurant?
I think we live in a world right now in the restaurant business that, unfortunately, is kind of grow or die. You need infrastructure, you need support, and it helps to be able to leverage all those things by having multiple restaurants. It’s tough to be a one-horse town. It’s tough to be on an island these days. But you can do it. My first day in the restaurant business, in my one little restaurant, I reached down to put a piece of bread in the oven, and the oven blew up in my face and caught my hair on fire.
Who’s your favorite Chicagoan of all time?
My favorite Chicagoan, it’s a tie. It’s Sophia, Lola, and Luca. It’s my three kids. You want an honest answer? That’s it. It’s my three kiddos.
Who’s your favorite Chicago athlete of all time?
My favorite Chicago athlete of all time, without question, is Walter Payton. I grew up in the 1970s. I would come home from church, and I would keep track on a piece of paper of how many carries and how many yards he got. I loved everything about Walter Payton. He was the heart and soul of this town back then.
Cubs or Sox?
It’s not even close. It’s Cubs. I am a crazy Cub fan. I have been my whole life. In 2016, I went to all the playoff games, home and road. I got to throw out the first pitch one time, which is the most nervous I’ve ever been in my entire life. And I threw a good pitch. Threw a solid pitch.
What are your three favorite restaurants outside of Boka Restaurant Group?
I eat a lot of Japanese food. I think B.K. Park’s really talented. I love Juno. I love what Erling Wu-Bower is doing over at Pacific Standard Time, and I love the company One Off Hospitality. We’re good friends. And my third favorite restaurant is one of the greatest restaurants in the world. It’s right next door to Boka. It’s Alinea, and I’m actually going there tonight.
Thin crust or deep dish?
I don’t understand why we have to make a choice between thin crust and deep dish. Can’t we go on our mood that day? Sometimes I like thin crust, sometimes I like deep dish.
Would you call yourself a food snob?
I don’t like the term food snob, and I don’t really like the term foodie at all. But I do have an expectation of a high level of ingredients and execution by chefs, and I curate the food that I eat based on that.
What’s your last meal on earth?
My last meal on earth is definitely going to be sushi. I am a huge Japanese food guy. I eat more Japanese food than I do anything else. So I would sit down for some three-and-a-half-hour omakase, and then I guess you can kill me afterwards.
Do you have a daily routine?
I have weird daily routines, and I change them every single year. I am a New Year’s resolution guy, and I look and I kind of change my life and tweak the recipe a little bit all the time. I’m super into wellness. I meditate in the morning and I meditate at night. I participate in a lot of intermittent fasting during the week. I try to hit a yoga mat at least four times a week. And I wake up in the middle of the night every single night of my life, sometime between 2:00 AM and 3:00 AM. Sucks.
Do you have a great celebrity story?
A few years ago, The Rolling Stones came to Momotaro. I got a ride up in the elevator with them. They actually dined in our office. It was like 100 degrees that night, and I decided to get Mick and Ron Wood their first two drinks. Ron Wood said, “Can I get a Red Bull?” We didn’t have Red Bull in the house, so I had to run across the street to another restaurant. By the time I got back, I was in full sweat, because I was in a black suit. So I went to pour the Red Bull for Ron Wood, and he was like, “I’m sorry. I meant a sugar-free Red Bull.” So I had to go back out, and by the time I came back, I’d completely sweat through my shirt, and I think Ron Wood just thought I was nervous being around The Rolling Stones.
Who’s your favorite person you’ve ever served?
I think my favorite person that I ever got to serve was Barack Obama. He walked in and greeted my partner Rob Katz and I, and he said, “Gentlemen, the restaurant business is a tough business. You seem to have navigated it well. Congratulations.” I don’t know how good my Obama impression is, but it was a good moment.
Do you have any guilty pleasure foods?
I have some guilty pleasures when it comes to food. Probably the biggest one is a big roast beef from Arby’s. I think it’s delicious. I don’t know what to tell you. And Haribo gummy bears. I don’t like sweets that much, but about once a month I’ll get a craving for Haribo gummy bears. There’s a large bag of gummy bears at my house, and I’ll ration myself, like, six to 10 of them.
Can you show us around?
The space we’re in is Momotaro. It was actually nominated for Best Design in America at the James Beard Awards in 2016. We work with an incredible company called AvroKO, which basically has a historical narrative that all the design ties back to, this one being the economic miracle in Japan after World War II and the obsessed Japanese salaryman. This is actually a replica of the Tokyo Stock Exchange from years ago, and instead of the stocks inside these slots, it’s our beverage menu.
This wall is supposed to represent the obsessed Japanese salaryman. This was actually four art students doing a million pen marks on these bathroom walls to create this art installation.
This is the izakaya down here. A little Japanese pub.
Is that Mick Jagger?
It’s freaking weird. And the crazy thing is, five days later, all of U2 was here. Bono was awesome. Maybe my best experience.
One night we had Jonah Hill, Conan O’Brien, and Aziz Ansari all at Girl & the Goat at the same time, at separate tables.
This is our boardroom. This is basically a fictitious corporation that we came up with, with all these fictitious Japanese workers. There are actually three non-Japanese people on the wall. There’s me in that bottom row, second over. There’s Jed Hoyer, the GM of the Cubs, who’s a good friend of ours. And my partner Rob is somewhere. It’s like Where’s Waldo. There he is.
Is this space open to the public?
Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, it’s open up here, à la carte.
This is actually where Mick Jagger and Ron Wood signed on their way out. Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs is a big thing you can win, on the cover of Food & Wine magazine. Stephanie won it in 2011. Giuseppe won it in 2008.
What do you like about the office?
It’s comfortable, it’s casual, it’s not too buttoned up. There’s good energy in here. And it looks like a Mad Men office, but if you look real closely, none of these bottles have been opened. It only appears that way.
This is a gift that keeps getting gifted around every year at the holiday party. It’s our version of the bread machine that Will Ferrell keeps giving to everybody in Old School.
This is a great story. This is me, Rob, Ian, Theo, and Jed the morning after the Cubs won the World Series.
What do you do for your company holiday party?
A year ago we took over all of House of Blues. We had 3,000 people at House of Blues for a massive party. This year we changed it up a little bit and did individual holiday parties everywhere.
That’s the morning after we won the Beard Award. And Boka has gotten a Michelin star, I think, nine straight years now. Those are some of them.