403: Being Thoughtful with Nick Arnerich

In this episode with Nick Arnerich, we discuss how he got into the industry, creating opportunity for those on your team, discipline, never stop believing, surrounding yourself with people that will encourage you to grow, humility, visioning, planning, learning the culture of a restaurant no matter how good you are, Nick's biggest lessons learned from Thomas Keller, the importance of knowing and breaking down the numbers, challendges of transitioning from a GM to a Direct of Ops, asking questions before jumping to conclusions, the benefits of starting as a pop-up, how to create an "impactful" restaurant, the challenges of running a scatch kitchen, the importance of hanging onto your "core" employees, supporting your community with your restaurant, and advice on openign a restaurnat with a significant other. 

Nick grew up in Portland, Oregon and spent most of his first years at his parent's restaurant Delevan's. Over the last 15 years, Nick has worked in some of the most acclaimed restaurants in the country including The French Laundry. Most recently Nick was Director of Operations for the Delfina Restaurant Group in San Francisco. In 2013 Nick relocated to Portland to pursue his dream of owning his own restaurant, and the Renata was born. In addition to the Renata, Nick and his wife, Sandra, also own the Figlia.