Food Brings Us Together: Meghan McNeil on Building Memorable Restaurant Experiences | Restaurants & Franchises Series

Anthony Codispoti: Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codispoti and today’s guest is Meghan McNeil, the general manager of Maple and Ash. Founded in 2015 and based in Chicago, they are a modern steakhouse known for high quality meats and unique dining experiences. Their mission is to create unforgettable moments for guests, offering an unparalleled blend of culinary artistry and warm hospitality. Under Megan’s leadership, Maple and Ash has expanded its brand reach and developed bold, innovative menu offerings. Over the past 10 years, Megan has played key roles with various high profile restaurant concepts, honing her expertise in leadership, menu design and customer satisfaction. She’s dedicated to elevating the dining experience, ensuring every guest feels like a VIP. Her achievements include guiding Maple and Ash through notable industry recognitions and spearheading successful initiatives that keep patrons coming back for more.

Megan’s passion for food, combined with her commitment to an elevated service approach, make her stand out in the culinary world. Before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Add Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in extra cash flow by implementing one of our innovative programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible.

To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefitsagency.com. Alright, now back to our guest today, the general manager of Maple and Ash, Megan McNeil. I appreciate you making the time to share your story today. Hi, thanks for having me. Alright, so let’s go back to, I don’t know, kind of the genesis. Like, how were you attracted into the hospitality industry? What drew you in?

Meghan McNeil: Yeah, so I’ll be perfectly honest. I started off as a hostess at a small Italian restaurant when I was 16. It was my first job and that just kind of happened that way. It was close to my high school and that’s where we started. And then I spent kind of like the rest of the time trying to get out of the restaurant industry. When I went to college, I wanted to be, I wanted to do event planning. So that kind of was in the same world. But so I went to school for communication studies and I worked in restaurants from 16, honestly, until now. But like I said, I spent a lot of time kind of trying to get out of it. I think that at that time in the world, it wasn’t really like, you know, people didn’t see it as much of a career as it is now, especially in Columbus, Ohio.

It just wasn’t the same. And so, so yeah, I was a teller at a bank. I sold wedding dresses. I did all kinds of other stuff. I worked at a preschool.

The whole time was still working in restaurants. So like I said, trying to find my niche and find something else. And I finally realized like, well, this is what I love to do and this is what I’m good at and I’ve been doing it for a long time now and in a lot of different veins. So, so yeah, I kind of, I fell into restaurant management at one point and it just kind of stuck and that was like, you know, my early twenties.

Anthony Codispoti: So, so it was like a magnet that just kept drawing you back.

Meghan McNeil: Yeah, I couldn’t, I couldn’t get away from it. I couldn’t get away from it and and it just kind of kept developing and I was working at a restaurant in Delaware, Ohio called 1808 American Bistro. I started there when I was like 20. I had just turned 21. I started working there and I was serving and I was still going to college.

And then I stayed there for a while and I, and after I graduated, like I said, I had a communication degree and my boss at that restaurant hooked me up with a wedding planner in the city and I, and I kind of did an internship with her. So I was like trying to find that. And then he kept talking to me about like needing an assistant and he was almost like, it was almost like a joke, but he’s like, I really need an assistant.

He’s the chef and owner. So I was like, okay, well, whatever, I’ll do that. That sounds, that sounds good. Let’s try it. So I still, I kept serving and I was his assistant for a long time.

By the time I left 1808 in Veritas, I had been there for like collectively eight years. But so his name is Josh Dalton. He owns some restaurants in Columbus. And I, I honestly owe a lot of where I, where I’m at to him. He taught me a lot by making me learn a lot myself and like, yeah, figure it out, figure it out. So that job really like kind of solidified how much I love this industry and like why I love it.

I got to work with food a lot. He also owned Veritas. So I did a lot of events with Veritas, which was like a small 18 seat restaurant. It was called Veritas Tavern at the time. It was, yeah, like I said, like 18 seats, five tables. I forget all the logistics, but it was, yeah, it was very small, but they were doing like big things. And they were getting recognition from Columbus being out in Delaware. So, yeah, we just kind of like kept chugging along and we ended up rebranding Veritas and moving it to downtown Columbus.

And that was kind of the last big project I worked on with him. But throughout my time, throughout my time there is really kind of where I like learned more about myself and my management style and like what I really love about the industry, which is food and that it brings us all together. And I always say this and it still rings true with being at Maple and Ash and being with the Maple hospitality group that I’ve been with for six years now. People are always going to go out to eat, whether it’s someone dies, someone graduates, someone gets married, it’s Tuesday, like whatever it is, people are coming out.

And we get to be a part of that and we get to meet all these people. And I mean, I don’t know a lot of people that food isn’t a big part of their life. That’s just kind of like the circle that I’ve surrounded myself with.

I’m engaged to a chef. Like that’s just part of my world. But I do, I think that whether it’s a huge part of your world like me or whether it’s, you know, you’re just a regular person that works wherever you work, it brings us all together. And that’s kind of, you know, Josh helped me learn that about myself. And so yeah, that’s kind of where I like was like, okay, this is where I’m meant to be. And that kind of just evolved over time.

Anthony Codispoti: So you said this is where you learned more about yourself. This is also where you learned sort of how to develop your own management style. How would you describe what that is?

Meghan McNeil: Yeah, I would describe my management style as firm but fair. I definitely don’t like assert my authority on people hardly ever. But I feel like I treat people with respect and I lead by example. So I in turn earn respect from them. And yeah, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, you know, sniff out the if there’s something that’s not right, we’re going to get to the bottom of it.

But you know, one of the one of the one of our pillars that Maple Hospitality Group is fail fast. And I talk about it a lot because it’s my favorite one. Because the whole point is to like get people to feel empowered to make decisions. And and that the company does that for me and I in turn do that for my for my employees as well. But yeah, I want I want to give people the I want to make people feel empowered to make decisions and know that they know what they’re talking about. But I also want to hold people accountable. And if you’re not if you’re doing something that you’re not supposed to be doing, you know, we’re going to get there. And I also like to I like to talk things through with people. I, you know, I still to this day, we’ll talk to a manager of like, you know, if they go and deal with the guest recovery situation, I’ll be like, tell me about that. Like what happened?

And how did and how did you work through it? And it’s not because I want to check them. It’s because I want to learn and I want to know kind of how did that go? And, you know, what can what can I learn from this? What can we do differently?

So, like I said, firm affair. I definitely try to like be one with my team and build people up and make people feel empowered to kind of make their own decisions and do their own thing and coaching them along the way.

Anthony Codispoti: And would you give a lot of credit then to Josh, Josh Dalton, who like was he did he sort of teach you these ideals or did you just sort of see these kind of evolve in yourself?

Meghan McNeil: I think I kind of saw them evolve in myself. I think I I’ve witnessed a lot of I mean, I’ve witnessed a lot of leaders. And I kind of noticed the things that made me feel good and the things that did not make me feel good.

And I also witnessed like when I when I saw the best result from other humans was like when these this was the way that they were treated. Transparency is also a huge thing for me or for me, I guess I should say, you know, I just like to like to put it all out there. And sometimes I might share too much, but I think that it’s important that we’re all on the same page and that, you know, I think if we we treat our staff well and we, you know, level with them and we’re, you know, no one’s like afraid or anything like that. I think we’re going to get the best result. And in turn, our guests are going to get the best result. Okay.

Anthony Codispoti: So born and raised in Columbus got first job, you know, 16 year old as a hostess kept trying to leave the industry. Kept gotten pulled back in. Finally realized I love this. This is what I want to be doing. How did the opportunity come about to move to Chicago?

Meghan McNeil: So I. Okay. Well, I was going through a divorce and I had always loved Chicago. I always wanted to live here. And I was kind of like, I think now’s the time that sounds good. And I had grown a lot in my role with Josh. I had gone from his assistant to still his assistant, but also basically like general manager of that restaurant for, I don’t remember what my title was, but that’s essentially what I was doing. And I think I just kind of got to the point where I’m like, I have really grown a lot.

And I think I’ve kind of done what I can do for right now. And I wanted to try something new. And I, my fiance now, he was a good friend of mine at the time and he already lived in Chicago. And he was working at Maple and Ash and they had just opened the Eta concept, which is no longer a part of Maple Hospitality Group, but it was for some time. And they had just opened in like July and I came for, they needed some help. And he was like, I’m going to connect you. And I came for an interview with Danny Grant. And next thing you know, they were offering me a job. I was like, this is unreal.

I can’t believe this is happening. It was a floor manager position at a buck town. And that’s, and I’ve been with this company ever since. So, so yeah, that’s kind of how the jump to Chicago came about. I just kind of took a leap.

Anthony Codispoti: So how many years then have you been with Maple and Ash?

Meghan McNeil: Like six and a half. I’ve been with, I’ve been with Maple and Ash a year. My headphones fell out. I’m sorry. I’ve been with Maple and Ash about a year and a half. And I was, but I’ve been with the company as a whole for about six and a half years since September of 2018.

Anthony Codispoti: And the parent company is known as what then?

Meghan McNeil: It’s known as Maple Hospitality Group. Okay. Originally when I came on, it was What If Syndicate. And then there was a bit of a split a couple of years ago. And then Maple Hospitality Group is kind of what came out of that.

Anthony Codispoti: And how many different restaurant concepts fall under that umbrella?

Meghan McNeil: Currently, we have the Maple and Ash brand and we have Monarch and Casacu in Dallas. Monarch is like an Italian upscale Italian restaurant. And Casacu is a sushi concept that is like right above it.

It’s like a swanky cocktail bar and, um, and sushi concept. And then we have Maple and Ash. So we have a Maple and Ash in Chicago. We have one in Scottsdale and there’s one opening up next month, basically in Miami.

Anthony Codispoti: Are you involved with any of those other locations or your focus is right there in Chicago?

Meghan McNeil: Currently, my focus is Chicago. We’re actually, I’m a part of our advanced operations team. We call it Advanced Maple Ops. So I am a part of the conversations with the other restaurants and we’re kind of currently working on a new role for myself. So I will be kind of moving away from just the Chicago market and we’ll be expanding a bit to be company wide, but my home is definitely here. And I won’t be going anywhere as far as Maple Chicago goes. That will definitely always be my home base.

Anthony Codispoti: Okay. So tell us about the Maple and Ash concept. I’ve never been there before. Many of our listeners haven’t been. What can they expect from the ambiance to the food, the entire experience? Yeah.

Meghan McNeil: So we, we definitely pride ourselves on hospitality and creating amazing guest experiences. We really want to make people feel connected to us and great relationships are being built. We also, the environment itself is very like sexy and cool. We cook almost everything over our wood-fired hearth. And when you walk into the restaurant, you’ll initially, the one in Chicago, you’ll like initially walk through the bar when you’re being led to your table and we try to take everyone past our open kitchen. And the hearth is the center of that. It’s very cool.

It’s obviously got flames going and the kitchen’s back there working hard. So that’s a great thing to walk people by. And then we like to take as many people as possible through our atrium, which is kind of the focal point of the restaurant. And it’s, you know, it’s definitely a desired place to sit. Ever is amazing, but that is definitely like our most desired place to sit. When you sit down, you’re greeted with a welcome cocktail. We call it our Amuse Booze. And then you get a nice little snack.

Currently, that snack is housemaid chips and a French onion dip with caviar. So it’s like a, it’s like a fun play on a classic, just like you would be receiving when you enter your friend’s home. We like to greet you with, with a little treat and to get the party started. So, so, yeah, that kind of can tell you what, what our, our goal is. And that’s to give people a really awesome experience with amazing ingredients, amazing food and make you feel like we’re inviting you into our home. That’s really, that’s really the, the main, our main goal is for you to feel super comfortable.

Anthony Codispoti: So I’m looking at your website here and trying to get an understanding of the vibe. I get the sense this is a place where you’re kind of dressing up a little bit. This is a nice night out kind of an experience.

Meghan McNeil: Absolutely. And I think a lot of, it’s a great place for celebrations. We do a, we do like a customized happy birthday menu, happy anniversary menu. They’re kind of all printed out. We do them custom with names.

And that’s something that people can like request upon when they make their reservation, they can kind of put that in there. So it’s definitely big for celebrations. We do have a lot of regulars that come in like frequently, just for like regular nights out. But, but yeah, it’s, it’s absolutely a place where I think, you know, people like come to be seen and, and come to have fun. But we also try to take the, the like pressure out of that part of it. And again, it’s like you’re meeting up with your friends, your, your, you know, we’re there to say hello to you and make you feel welcome. But it’s definitely a, it’s definitely a place where you’d want to look your best and, and, you know, come to have fun.

Anthony Codispoti: I am looking at this fire roasted seafood tower that seems amazing. I was going to ask, is that your favorite thing on the menu?

Meghan McNeil: Actually, it is. I know that’s probably like, of course it is, but it’s definitely my favorite thing next to the Wagyu beef carpaccio, which is insane. But the seafood towers 100% is it’s so unique to because, you know, a lot of places have seafood towers, but most of the time they’re cold towers, which is obviously amazing and delicious as well. But ours has definitely got a little extra love with the fire roasted elements and the chili butter. And it’s, it’s, it’s rich, but it is very good.

Anthony Codispoti: So lobster, king crab, golf shrimp, manila clams. I don’t know what manila clams are, but I’m sure that they’re even better than regular clams. You got roasted oysters, seared scallops. Yeah.

Meghan McNeil: You’re talking about boxes. It’s phenomenal. We also do, we call it a pasta back. We, it’s, we serve it with our, our edgaf menu, which is kind of like our plan, a tasting menu.

But we also, it’s available upon request. And basically when you’re like almost done with the seafood tower, you have all that delicious butter left in, in the tower that sits on the table and we bring out a pan of pasta, housemade pasta. And we add it into that sauce and then we serve it back out. So it’s kind of like getting every last drop. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: So awesome. Question I want to ask right now is what key decisions or actions do you feel like helped you secure this role? Listening to your story up to this point. I almost get the sense that you feel like beyond lucky to be where you are. Yeah.

Meghan McNeil: I, I definitely don’t, I think that I do this a lot and I don’t want to take away anything from myself because I have worked hard and, and I, I definitely feel deserving of it. But however, I do feel insanely lucky. I, the getting the opportunity to start at Eta and be with, with this, these owners and be a part of this team was really like, I couldn’t have asked for a better place to land. It really aligned with myself, with my management style, with my personality, just like so many things about it felt right. And I have, and I always tell people this, like when I’m interviewing new managers or anyone really, if you, like the opportunities with this company are there. And if you come in and you work hard and you, you know, you are yourself and you, you know, you kind of take the bull by the horns, the opportunities will come. We’re, we’re growing and there are definitely, there are, the opportunities are definitely there. But yeah, I, I, I came in and I, I aligned myself with the brand and I learned as much as I possibly could.

And at the time that was Eta, but I’ve done the same thing when I came to Maple. And, and if I don’t know the answer, I ask for help. And I just kind of, I don’t know, I chug along. I think that this industry is definitely a place where if you are not in it 100%, you can’t do it. It’s, it, you have to be passionate about it. You have to love what you’re doing. It’s, it’s hard. It’s opposite hours of most of your, you know, of most other people, you know, and you have to find a place that feels like home.

I know that sometimes it’s like not the best thing to call it a family or, or say things like that. But in this industry, you are spending a lot of time in, in this environment and with these people. And so at least finding people that you really align with and, and like the core values are you align with.

Is really important. And I feel lucky to have found that like immediately upon entering Chicago because there are so many amazing restaurant groups. But, but yeah, I feel, I do feel really lucky, but I, there has been a lot of hard work that has gone into it and a lot of like self reflection.

Anthony Codispoti: I’m going to guess that if I were to interview the folks that you work for, that they would probably say something very similar about how lucky they feel to have found you.

I mean, the length of time that you’ve been there and the way that you worked up. And now it sounds like there’s a new role kind of evolving for you. It sounds like a pretty good match. Yes, I think so too.

I feel, I feel that way as well. So when you joined the Maple Group, you already had significant restaurant experience under your belt. What was something about leading a high profile restaurant like this that maybe still caught you by surprise? Yeah.

Meghan McNeil: I, I, that is something too, just about the industry in general is that it, it’s always different. And, you know, I think I was really nervous going into Maple and Ash. I, I felt almost like I don’t know what I’m doing because I’ve never worked in a steakhouse before.

I had some fine dining experience with Veritas and, you know, I’ve worked in a couple different styles of restaurant, but steakhouse is not one of them. And Maple is like, all, you know, all its own. It’s, it’s very unique. So I think the thing that surprised me the most is how much everything translates. It’s, it, it is very different.

It is very unique. But once you’ve like been in a lot of these scenarios, you learn the steps of service in that restaurant. And you learn the clientele. And then you can take everything that you already know how to do and put it into place there. So I think honestly, that was the biggest surprise to me is that, oh, I can do this. And I do like it.

And it’s, you know, it’s different. I, I wouldn’t have necessarily thought like, oh, that’s that I want to go work in a steakhouse. That’s not necessarily where the trajectory was for me. It’s not that I didn’t want to.

It’s just not necessarily something that was on my radar. And then once the opportunity arose, I was excited to, to try it. And I was nervous and all the things. But yeah, I think that that is definitely like the most surprising thing to me is how much everything translated.

Anthony Codispoti: So is it because that hospitality and food prep and food service and food delivery kind of follows a relatively standard framework? Obviously, something’s a little bit different here versus there. But you know that you’ve got, I know, you know, the food has to be accounted for and it’s got to be prepped and, you know, it’s got to be ready and it’s got to be hot and all get together at the same time. And you’ve got to take care of your customers and deal with, you know, people who get a little upset. Like it’s all kind of the same rough framework, just with, you know, a little bit of customization around it for the brand.

Meghan McNeil: Absolutely. And there are definitely things that are different. You know, like when I was at there, the expectation is higher at Maple and Ash than it was at Eda. And it’s not because it’s, you know, it’s not that Eda was like a worse product or wasn’t, wasn’t great, but people are spending a lot of money to come to Maple and Ash.

And so the expectation is higher. And, you know, there are, we’re doing like similar volume that we were doing at Eda. It’s definitely busier, but the amount of people coming through the building is relatively similar. But the amount of dollars is a lot more and people are, you know, people save up and we frequently talk about this at pre-shifts. You know, we do have a decent amount of people that are there every week, multiple times a week that, you know, come and hang in our lounge that have full dinners, you know, that do a wide range of things at Maple multiple times a week.

But there are also those people who save up all year to come have their birthday dinner. And we want, I want everyone that comes in to feel the same amount of love and the same amount of excitement. And that also comes from the top down. That’s something that is very ingrained in us at Maple Hospitality Group, and it always has been. But yeah, I think too, something else that was nice for me going in to Maple and Ash as the GM is that I had already worked with a company for so long that I had that good foundation of like, I understand what the expectations are.

Not not necessarily from the guests or in that realm, but like from my bosses and from the company as a whole. So I had like a little extra layer of like, oh, I don’t have to figure that part out because I know how to I know how to be a GM in this company. So I was able to focus on learning, learning our guests and and kind of the ways in which Maple is different than any other restaurant I’ve worked in.

Anthony Codispoti: You know, Megan, a lot of our listeners are looking to make their own mark. What advice would you give to folks who are trying to advance their career in this industry?

Meghan McNeil: I think one big thing is is not to give up, obviously, which sounds so silly, but after I said it out loud, but is to really like find your place and, you know, wherever you’re working.

And this kind of goes for anybody, I guess, but wherever you’re working, there’s an impact that you can make. And so like figure out what that is and figure out how you can make sure that it feels important to you and and, you know, don’t be afraid to go with ideas. And and and like I said, to find a place where you feel comfortable to do that because not you’re not going to feel comfortable everywhere. And I think if I think the self reflection piece and like understanding if like if you’re comfortable where you are. And and also not being afraid to take a little risk like I, like I said, was nervous to go to Maple and Ash, but I’m so glad I did. I could have easily been like, I can’t do that.

That’s out of my wheelhouse and, you know, gone to do something different. But now I have this amazing experience under my belt. So like it I think everything I’m about to say is so cliche, but taking risks and not giving up and just like really finding, you know, finding yourself. I do think it’s I’ll be 35 in March and I feel like I’m finally like, OK, I know I know who I am. And I at 22 I for sure thought I knew who I was and now I’m like, no. So I guess just like not being afraid to evolve, taking risks and really just kind of trying to find your place in it all.

Anthony Codispoti: And the other thing that I like that you said sort of at the beginning of that answer was figure out how you can offer value. You know, what? Yeah. What is it that you can bring to the table every day rather than a, you know, what can I take?

It’s like if you can show up and bring value to the company and your co-workers and your bosses and your customers. You know, I hear the story over and over again from folks. The rest of it tends to take care of itself. Yeah, absolutely. How much involved are you in sort of, I don’t know what I would call the growth of the business, making sure that there’s people in the restaurant every night, you know, marketing, whatever it is that you guys are doing sort of behind the scenes to make sure that you got butts in seats. Yeah.

Meghan McNeil: So as the general manager, I’m pretty involved in that. We have marketing meetings every week and we have, I’m in constant communication with the marketing team. The nice thing too about our company is that we do have the autonomy to like do cool things that we want to do and bring new ideas to the table.

And, you know, we are constantly working on how can we bring people in and get new people to come, obviously, and continue to get the people who do come in to come back, like making return guesses. Very important. But I get to be a part of those conversations. And that’s another thing that I do love about the company that I work for is that we are a part of that. And it’s not just, it’s not just, you know, somebody from the top who’s not in the restaurant every day telling us what we need to do.

They absolutely want us to be a part of the conversation. And like I mentioned before too, I am on our Advanced Maple Ops team. So we talk about it at a little bit of a higher level, which is the other GMs aren’t necessarily on that team. But even if they, even for the GMs that are not, they’re still a big part of the conversation. And we definitely are heard as far as like, that won’t work in my market.

You know, obviously, because what works in Chicago doesn’t necessarily work for Scottsdale. So we kind of like work together as far as like, oh, we’re going to do this new cool thing. Is that something that would work for you guys there? And then maybe it’s like, well, we’ll tweak it a little. So we’re definitely a huge part of the conversation. And and it’s fun to like come up with new events or, or, you know, we just developed a, we’re calling it Nightcap at Maple and Ash. We just developed this for our lounge to just kind of keep people wanting to stay longer. There’s lots of different avenues in our restaurant and you can come and have a beautiful, filling, full, luxurious dinner. And then you can instead of, you know, going to a bar down the street, you can just pop into our lounge for a totally different experience.

And you didn’t have to go far and you get to stay hang out with us. So we just developed that. And that was a joint effort between multiple people on our corporate team, the marketing team, myself, my other managers. It was kind of a collective effort of like, what, what can we do to to work on this initiative?

Anthony Codispoti: That’s so cool. I love that. You’ve already got them there. How can you get them to stay longer? Because you’re right. That’s a very common dining experience. You have a nice dinner. You’re having a good time. Hey, let’s, let’s go get a drink somewhere and continue the fun.

Meghan McNeil: Why do you have to like go across the street or find new parking or grab a cab across town? You can just stroll into the lounge, you know, right? Absolutely. Just right down the hallway. So what are maybe some fun things like that that you guys have tried and found success with to get people in the door in the first place. Yeah, um, well, something we also have a, um, a first floor restaurant called eight bar. Um, we recently kind of rebranded that it was, it was around pre, um, pandemic. And then during the pandemic, that space transformed into just Maple and Ash patio. Um, and we did rebrand it in July.

Back to eight bar with a little bit of, um, an elevation to it revamped the whole menu. So one thing that we did down there, I just want to highlight cause it was, it’s, um, it’s a nice little happy hour. We do hand rolls and chicken karage and, um, some like mini martinis, which a lot of places do that, but, um, it’s, it’s definitely a fun thing. So we started doing that for eight bar to try to get people in. We also do, um, tower hour in upstairs at Maple and Ash. So those amazing seafood towers that we were talking about earlier, we have a smaller version of them that are $45 for, um, open until six PM every day. So, um, and then we also have, uh, discounted cocktails at that time as well.

So it’s really like giving people a, um, a chance to like try that out and, um, have a couple drinks before, before dinner or before heading home or whatever it is. Tower hour has been awesome. Um, I know the, the Maple and Scott sales tower hour is like insanely busy. Ours is great.

Ours is busy as well. So that’s been a fun thing. Um, last year we did a, um, which this isn’t necessarily bringing in new people, but I, but this was a fun thing that we tried out for the first time. Um, we did an event called taste the list. Um, and this was really developed by our, um, uh, wine and beverage director, Amy Munwiler.

She had this idea and she, it was like really her brain child and she loved it. Um, but we have a courtyard space and what we did was like, we basically set it up, um, with a bunch of different tables of a bunch of different, um, of our vendors that we get our wine from and people, uh, could purchase tickets. They came in and they got to just like taste around the room and taste our list. And it was, um, you know, all highlights of our wine list. They could buy bottles after, if they wanted to, we did it like in the spring. It was so fun and it was really targeted towards like people who use, we used to use people, but we definitely saw some brand new faces and, um, so yeah, I will say too, it is, um, it is an interesting thing to try to, to do these different events and bring in new people and not be gimmicky.

Like, you know, you want to be true to your brand and true to, true to the restaurant and just like really highlight what you do really well as opposed to like trying to do all these random things. Um, but we do definitely try to like have fun with certain holidays. Like, we’re throwing a Gallentine’s brunch, um, which we did last year, which was so fun. Um, that’s on February 16th. So like right after Valentine’s Day,

Anthony Codispoti: um, so gallantines, this is kind of go out with your girlfriends kind of a thing.

Meghan McNeil: Yes. Yeah. And we bring in like a fashion illustrator. She’ll be in the, in our lounge where this year we’re doing, um, a lipstick print reader, which I’m really excited about. It looks so cute. A lipstick print reader. You like kiss a piece of paper and she reads it. It’s like a tarot card.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I had a heater until like last year. So I’m like, we got to do this. And then we have, um, a DJ come. So, uh, yeah, it’s just really like, and again, we’re not doing anything different as far as like food or beverage goes. We’ll have a couple like beverage features for Valentine’s Day, but we’re just like doing what we do really well and adding some extra fun to it. Um, and we do like a Santa baby brunch every, um, around Christmas time. My fiance loves that one. He’s a big Christmas fan and we bring in like the best Santa. He’s awesome. We bring in a jazz band and again, brunch is brunch.

Meghan McNeil: You’re still getting your amazing

Anthony Codispoti: brunch spread from people in ash, but exactly. Exactly. So yeah, like I said, finding ways that we can be true to who we are, bring in new people, bring people back, um, get people excited, but not go too far away from, from ourselves. So mini martinis, is it just a smaller version of a martini? Is there anything else that’s sort of different about?

Meghan McNeil: Okay. Nope. It’s just classics that are small.

Anthony Codispoti: Okay. And same shape of the glass, just very, very tiny.

Meghan McNeil: Yeah, they’re actually in our, they’re just in like a smaller coupe glass.

Anthony Codispoti: Okay. Yeah. Um, can drink more of them. Right. Well, you know, that’s the thing is, I mean, a martini usually is a little bit of a stronger drink, you know, depending on where it’s poured. And so, yeah, sometimes you aren’t sure if you, you know, want to commit to that much of a drink. So, right, a little one and then, oh, right, fun is going. So yeah. So, um, people kind of like to know a little bit behind the scenes, especially if they’re in the restaurant industry and, you know, kind of looking for some tips. Like, is there a particular tool or a piece of software or a framework that is really helpful to you in running the business? Yeah.

Meghan McNeil: I mean, there’s a few. Um, I would, I love our, um, reservation system. We use seven rooms, um, which I had never used before, uh, coming to Eda. We used it there as well.

Um, it’s really intuitive. Um, there, we have a lot of capabilities with, um, like posting tickets for events that we’re doing or, um, adding upgrades. If people want to, um, like those birthday menus that I was speaking about, that’s like an upgrade. It’s a free upgrade, but that’s something that we have the ability to add in.

Um, we also, uh, that the nightcap that I was mentioning, we added some packages to that, like a champagne and caviar package and a martini tree package. And those things are like super easy to add into our reservation system. Um, and like I said, it’s very intuitive. Um, it, it’s kind of like, obviously our host team does a great job of plotting the day and all that, but it, it really allows us to plan well.

And so I love seven rooms that, that works really well for our concept. Um, and then I don’t use this anymore, but I absolutely love toast. If you are a, if you are opening a restaurant or you are, um, a manager in a position of getting to have a say in what point of sale system that you use, I’m obsessed with toast.

I love it so much. Um, we use it at Eda. The, um, apparently the capabilities with like how we fire to the kitchen don’t mesh at Maple and Ash, so we can’t use it there, but the reporting side of things is amazing. Um, it’s so user friendly. Their support is great.

So I’m going to toast plug because I love it that much. Um, that, that’s been a, and also too, that software really helped me. Um, I feel like it helped me build my confidence too, because I came into Eda and I had used breadcrumb before, which is really similar. Um, but I came into Eda and everyone’s like, wow, you’re a toast whiz.

And I’m like, sure, okay, but I just tried a little and it was easy. So it worked. Um, so yeah, I would say, uh, we also use, uh, restaurant 365, which has a lot of capabilities with reporting and I, it makes it easy to like dig into a certain GL code and things like that. So, so those, um, those three are probably the things that have helped me a lot.

Anthony Codispoti: That was a pretty glowing recommendation for toast.

Meghan McNeil: You’d almost think that they were, uh, a hidden sponsor. I know. Sorry if I shouldn’t have done that. No, no, I asked. This is the information that we want. This is valuable people who are listening.

Um, so maybe let’s talk about a book or a podcast or a course that has been helpful to you that might be helpful to some other folks that are listening. Yes. 100% unreasonable hospitality. Um, I, I also love setting the table, which I think, you know, a lot of people, if you’re in this industry at this point, you should have read it if you haven’t do it. Um, but, and even if you’re not, honestly, um, but unreasonable hospitality, I loved it’s, uh, it came out recent or more recently, I guess.

And I listened to it actually on audio book last year and I, it was so cool because it’s, I obviously could relate to a lot of it and it was cool to hear his story. Um, and, but also too, I think that it would resonate with a lot of people, like no matter what industry you’re in. Um, and the idea of like unreasonable hospitality is honestly in the bigger picture is just like thinking outside the box, like be unreasonable and, um, you know, like do, do cool things and try new things.

Um, and like how can you push the limits? It’s really like the overarching, you know, I don’t want to speak for him, obviously, but overarching theme of the book. I, I loved listening to it. I, um, I think that it inspired me a lot.

It was very helpful. So, that’s definitely a high recommendation for, from me. Um, I do like love podcasts, but I mostly listen to like smart lists.

So, um, not necessarily like business focus, but, um, I will say too, I have been loving masterclass. Um, it not even necessarily for like work, but just like something that I’ve been really trying to focus on for the last couple of years is like self care and, um, positive, like self talk. I think, uh, for me specifically, I get in my own head a lot.

I was very nervous for this today and as we’re moving through, I’m like, this is just, I’m just talking about my life. It’s not, you know, but, um, but yeah, I think that I do think it’s also important for the industry as a whole to focus on self care and self love. And, you know, there’s a lot of drugs and alcohol and there’s a lot of temptation and there’s a lot of things that if you don’t make yourself a priority and you don’t make your health and all that a priority, it would be very easy to get lost in the sauce, as they say. Um, so, so yeah, that’s been something that, um, over the last couple of years specifically for me, just, you know, getting in a good routine for myself. My younger sister just became a restaurant manager and that was one of the biggest things that myself and my fiance said to her was like, get a routine, figure out what it is. It’s going to be different every day, but like, you know, you know, you know what you’re doing on Thursdays and, and it just helps keep you grounded and, and keep you sane, to be honest. So, um, yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: Are there specific things in your routine that you try to do every day or most days?

Meghan McNeil: Yeah. Well, definitely make working out a priority. I do not work out every day. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that, but, um, but definitely making, uh, making working out a priority for me, honestly, mostly for my mental health, like getting a good workout in makes me feel great.

Um, and, yeah, I guess just like taking, taking time for myself. I try to like do the same morning routine and nighttime routine, like the same supplements and like my coffee is like my favorite part of the day. I got a Nespresso for Christmas and I couldn’t be more excited. Um, so like just honestly, something again that I’ve been focusing on over the last couple of years is like, I’m again, probably going to sound cheesy and stupid, but is like romanticizing things. Um, like everything is exciting and my coffee and my Treboni creamer in the morning is the thing that makes me excited. Um, so yeah, just like trying to enjoy all the things and, and have fun with everything.

Anthony Codispoti: I think it’s great when we can find wonder in the world around us and the small things like your coffee brings you so much joy. Yeah. Yeah. Right. That’s fantastic. Uh, you know, the book that you mentioned, uh, unreasonable hospitality, I’ve had a lot of my guests recommend that and folks who aren’t even in the hospitality industry.

I, what the first time I heard about it, one of my guests, it was, uh, Adam Morgan. He’s not, he’s not in hospitality. He’s got a tech company. He sent me a copy of the book cause he’s like, everybody I meet, I think it’s so powerful. I love that. I send people a copy of this. I, and I heard you say that you drew a lot of inspiration from it. Can you think of maybe an idea that you got from that book that you were able to kind of bring into real life? Yes.

Meghan McNeil: Okay. Um, they, he was talking about this position that they had have maybe at, um, I believe it was 11 Madison park called the dream leavers. And that is basically like part of their door team and they focus on like, how can we make cool, like different experiences for people? I think one of the things he talks about is like, they heard, um, they overheard a table talking about that they had tried all these great restaurants in New York, but they hadn’t gotten a like a street hot dog.

So they, somebody went out and got a street hot dog and they like presented it fancy on a plate. And, um, and so like the dream weaver position of just, kind of focusing on those unique guests experiences is definitely something that I’ve tried to implement at Maple and Ash. We, we haven’t like fully figured it out yet, but we definitely are like working towards that. It was, it’s just like a good reminder that that’s what it’s all about. And like, let’s have some fun with these people and let some, like take some context clues and get to know for our host team specifically, like get to know them while you’re walking them to the table. We can learn a lot in that two minutes and we can really make, you know, turn some people’s days around and experiences around and all that stuff. Um, one other thing that I thought was really cool from was called a hangover kit.

Um, and they basically it’s just like a little bundle of stuff that you might need if you have indulged a bit too much the night before. And so we did start doing that at, at Maple. Um, we don’t do them a lot.

We don’t give them out a lot. And it’s definitely like a, you want to make sure you’re giving it to the right crowd. You don’t want to offend somebody or, you know, whatever. But, um, but like just kind of, I guess the overarching thing that I, that I took away from the book was like having and, and, and also something that I’ve learned from Maple in general, um, Maple hospitality group as a whole is like, let’s have all these things in our arsenal. Let’s like have all these little things that we can pull out and do for people because then you’re, you’re giving unique experiences to everybody, but you’re not reinventing the wheel every time.

If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. Like, you know, that, that kind of thing. But, um, just like continuing to try new things. And if it works, it pops in the arsenal. If it doesn’t work, then you don’t do it again. So just kind of that mentality is what I probably took away from the book the most. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: It’s fun to experiment with some of those creative ideas. Yeah. Yeah. Megan, I, in my own personal experience, I’ve found that a lot of my growth has come from some of the bigger challenges that I’ve gone through. Personal stuff, professional stuff. What’s a challenge that you’ve gone through? How did you work through it? And what did you learn going through it? Yeah.

Meghan McNeil: So I mentioned this a little bit earlier, and this is obviously a very personal thing, but, um, I did go through a divorce. Um, I was married when I was 23 and I got divorced when I was 28. Um, and, uh, honestly, that was a huge challenge for me because like I said, I thought I knew who I was at 22. And as you grow, you, you do change. And unfortunately we just didn’t grow in the same direction. And, um, and I think the, one of the largest challenges for me in, aside from just that in general, was I had to like be true to myself. And it’s very hard to do that. It takes a lot of courage and, um, you know, our lives were obviously very intertwined and our families are very intertwined.

They still are in some ways. Um, and so like for me, coming to the conclusion of like, this is the only choice that I have and this is the best decision for me. And then what am I going to do with that afterwards was it was the hardest thing that I’ve ever had to do. And then on top of that, deciding to move to Chicago, um, I was terrified. It was, it was terrifying, but I, I think I just kind of in that moment was like, I have nothing to lose and I have everything to gain. And I, I knew I needed to make a change and, um, and I did that. And then when I got here, I realized like I can do anything. And I know, again, I know that sounds cliche or whatever, but, um, you know, if you take a big leap like that, it really does, I never would have dreamed that I would move to Chicago, that I would have lived here for six years now and love the place I’m at in my life and feel fulfilled personally, professionally, you know, all of those things I didn’t, I didn’t realize that, that, that I could get to this place. Um, so taking that risk was, was huge and it was scary and it was very hard and very emotional, but I, um, but yeah, I, I I’m so thankful for where I’m at because of it.

Anthony Codispoti: What you just described are three of the biggest stressors that happen in life, happening back to back to back. You’re the horse moving to a new city, starting a new job. These all happened in very close time to each other. Yeah. Who or what were you able to lean on and find support during this time? Yeah.

Meghan McNeil: I mean, my parents are insanely amazing and, um, it was hard for them too when I made that decision and I think, um, it was hard for them to separate like how they felt and how I felt. And so they, you know, kind of had to realize like, okay, this isn’t about us.

We’ll feel our own feelings, but we need to be supportive and they 100% were, um, in every way. Uh, so that was huge. Um, and, and then also my, uh, old boss, Josh, that I had mentioned before, um, he had, you know, always like just throughout not necessarily this specific thing that was happening, but just throughout my, um, my time with him, he really, you know, taught me to like trust my, my own gut and trust my instincts. And so that was amazing. And then, um, my now fiance, who was a good friend of mine at the time, like knowing that I was going to come to this city and be able and like I already had a friend was, was amazing. And somebody who understood my work and what I was going to be doing and kind of like knew some of the same people and all of that, um, those are definitely like the people I have amazing friends. Like every, every one of my life has been, has been really supportive for the most part. I, like I said, with everything I feel really lucky. And when I think about it, I’m like, wow, you know, I, I, I’ve definitely been, been very blessed. But, um, but yeah, those are definitely the people that impacted me the most.

Anthony Codispoti: What advice would you have for somebody listening that’s going through their own struggle right now and not sure how to get through it? Yeah.

Meghan McNeil: Um, that one’s tough because I feel like thinking back, I don’t even know how I did that. Like I don’t even, it feels like a whole other lifetime ago. Um, but kind of along the lines of the same thing that I just said is like, you’ve got to really like a lot of self reflection, a lot of like, what actually do I want? Because that’s kind of where I, I kind of came to was like, I’m doing a lot of stuff because it’s what everybody else wants me to do. And I needed to figure out what I really wanted to do and what was going to fulfill me and make me feel good.

And, um, and I, you know, I also had a lot of my identity wrapped up in, you know, who I was as a wife and who I was in the job that I had, back home. And so yeah, I had to just kind of like reflect on myself and what do I want out of this and what do I think I’m going to gain? And so I think just being really honest with yourself and that’s going to be hard.

And, but I think that is like my biggest piece of advice is really take a look inward and, and, um, and be true to what you really want and try to eliminate as much of the outside noise as you possibly can.

Anthony Codispoti: You touched on something that I’ve noticed in my own struggles and in talking with other people about things that they’ve gone through is, um, what an impact sort of that loss of identity component can have on someone. And you just mentioned, you know, a lot of your identity was wrapped up in being a wife and a lot of your identity was wrapped up in the job that you had at the time. And now you’re transitioning away from being a wife and now you’re transitioning away from being in that particular job.

And it can be really, what’s the word, destabilizing, confusing. Like this was how I fit into the world. This was my role. This is, you know, this is the role that I play.

And, and, and now that sort of lattice that infrastructure is gone and you’ve got to figure out a new world and you got to figure out a new place in this new world. Yeah. Yeah.

Meghan McNeil: Yeah. I mean, you said it really well. And I think that luckily for me, I started this new job that took up a lot of my time and it also gave me all of my best friends that I have now in Chicago. I met at ENA. So like it gave me a new sense of purpose. It gave me a new thing to focus on. And I just realized how much I loved it. But yeah, that was definitely jarring to go from feeling like, you know, you know, exactly what the next 10 years look like to I have literally zero clue what the next 10 years look like. But for me, that was honestly exhilarating.

I had, from a very young age, I thought, you know, I’m getting married young, I’m having a lot of kids, I’m, you know, doing XYZ and I am not having any kids and I didn’t, you know, like that, that didn’t pan out the way that I thought it would. But I, like I’ve said, I’m very happy with where I am. And I feel like I went through all of those things and I, I wouldn’t change any of it. I, I, you know, yeah, I went through all that stuff. And I think that it’s kind of helped me discover who I am.

Anthony Codispoti: So you, you are here in part because of what you went through. Absolutely. Yeah. So Megan, every successful business, successful restaurant has a great team behind it. Almost by definition, it has to. Yeah. What is your approach to attracting and retaining good talent?

Meghan McNeil: Yeah, so I mean, again, it makes it easier being with Maple Hospitality Group being at Maple and Ash. It’s a very desirable place to work. I think that our, I think that our culture is great. We obviously, we, I shouldn’t say obviously, I guess you don’t know, but we treat our staff very well. We’ve really taken the last few years to better our, our benefits and all of that stuff. So that, that piece of it is like, well, people want to stay once they get there because, because it’s a great place to be. But for me, kind of going back to, so a couple of things, kind of going back to what I mentioned about my management style is, you know, really leveling with people and like, we’re all on the same page and, and under, and having like an open door policy when I first started as the GM at Maple and Ash, there had been a lot of turnover within the management team.

And so I knew that that was, that was hard on the, on the hourly staff for sure. And so one of the things that I really wanted to do was like, I opened it up to one on ones with anyone who wanted to talk to me. I didn’t make it required, but anybody, anybody that wanted to sit down with me, I opened up that door and, and we chatted. And I learned a lot from that. And then I was able to implement some things that were not hard to do.

It was like very simple things, but it just needed somebody to, to hear that they, that it was needed and then make it happen. So I think, you know, being, being present with your team, listening to what they need and being, you know, approachable and available is huge. One other thing as far as like hiring goes, I bring in everyone, like I, I’m actually currently looking for a manager and actually two, but I’m looking for managers and I printed off, there was, I printed off like 40 resumes. And, you know, of those resumes, some people appear more qualified than others. Some people, you know, somebody might, in my position might look at that and be like, why are you even calling that person?

But I think it’s really important to talk to everyone. You never know. You never know based on a piece of paper. And I also say you never know based on one interview. I’m, I told my, my current management team, like, listen, we’re going to be meeting a lot of people over the next few weeks. I’m bringing in pretty much everyone that I talked to for a stash, which is kind of like a working interview.

They come hang out with us for a few hours during service. What’s it called? It’s called a stash. Okay. Yeah. And it’s essentially a working interview. And I, I tell people when I’m interviewing them that these like sit down interviews with myself, with the director, with all these people, like that’s for us. That’s for us to get to know your knowledge and, and get to know, you know, your background, that kind of thing.

But the stash, while we are learning from it as well, it’s really for them. I want them to come in and see what a busy service is like at Maple. And like, does this feel like a place that you want to be? Get to know the team a little bit, ask questions. So I think those are really important. And again, I can learn, we, you can learn from that coming in. And we can learn a lot more by you getting to know all these people rather than just me talking to you for 30 minutes. So, so that’s, I think, a big piece of something that I try to live by when hiring is like, don’t judge a book by its cover, and bring in as many people as possible. It gets everybody more experience. And it also, you know, you might meet somebody that you didn’t know was going to be the one and then they are.

Anthony Codispoti: So I think that’s great. You know, in my own career as a business owner, that’s something that I’ve put a big emphasis on is there’s some people interview well, there’s some people who don’t interview well. And the performance in that doesn’t necessarily translate into how they perform as a team member and how they perform in their work.

And so my environments are a bit different than yours. But I always try to find, you know, are there some test tasks that I can pay somebody, hire them to do so I can see the quality of their work, see how they interact, what questions they ask, and just get a better idea of that dynamic. And so I love that you guys are incorporating that same kind of thing into the restaurant. Yeah, I think it’s awesome. One more question for you, Megan, but before I ask it, I want to do two things. First of all, everyone listening today, I know that you love today’s content because Megan has been an awesome guest. Please hit the like, follow, share, subscribe button on your favorite podcast app. So you get to hear more of these great interviews. Megan, I also want to let people know the best way to get in touch with you.

Meghan McNeil: What the brand or to continue to follow your story or the Maple story, whatever your preference is.

Meghan McNeil: Yeah. So Maple and Ash Instagram, at Maple and Ash is our Instagram handle. You can follow along with a lot of stuff there. You’ll see things about our new openings, which there’s multiple coming this year.

I’ll only say Miami because I don’t want to share too much, but there’s definitely a lot more coming. So follow us so you can find that out. And I mean, on my business cards, I put my cell phone number, which I won’t share here, but we’re very open and I would love to hear from anybody, somebody that’s going to visit Chicago or that lives here that hasn’t tried Maple and Ash, please reach out to me. It’s just endmcneal at mapleandash.com is my email address.

I get a lot of emails. So I’m there to that one. And yeah, I’d love to hear from everyone. I do think that I recently had in the woman that does my mom’s hair, Lisa, she came to visit us at Maple and she’d never been in before.

She brought her mom and her sisters and they just had the best time and it’s so fun to bring people in who haven’t necessarily had a dining experience like what we offer and to just like see it on their face when we’re just doing what we do every day. So yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Anthony Codispoti: Okay. So last question for you, Megan, as you look to the future, what are some of the most exciting changes that you’re looking forward to, whether that’s for the Maple brand or for the industry in general?

Meghan McNeil: Yeah, so I’m excited for all talk about the Maple brand first. Obviously, so excited to see new markets and hopefully get to travel to those markets and kind of see how it all translates and how it all works. Because like I mentioned before, you know, Maple and Ash and Scottsdale, it’s the same, but it’s very different because it’s for that market.

The Maple and Ash in Miami, based on the renderings and the videos that I’ve seen so far, it’s going to be absolutely gorgeous. So I’m excited to see what we can do as a company with our growth. So that’s very exciting. And I’m excited for the next couple of years in the restaurant industry.

I think it’s going to be, I think it’s going to be a little challenging, but I think it’s going to be amazing. Obviously, we’re like in our session right now, and especially a place like Maple and Ash, people don’t have to spend their money on that. So really focusing on hospitality. And we say it a lot at work, but like getting back to the basics and, you know, focusing on what people really love about dining out and making them feel good is going to be so important because there are one lots of places to choose from, but two, people are being cautious with how they’re spending their money. And I want you to feel, I want people that are coming to Maple to feel valued and that we appreciate that and that they’re getting, you know, what they’re paying for. But I do think something that, you know, when I was thinking about this kind of question, I think during the pandemic, some of the like special touches as far as hospitality go, got a little lost.

Rightfully so, it kind of had to happen. Like, you know, QR codes for menus and things like that. I really enjoy the, I really enjoy the, the like more old school mentality and, you know, getting a real menu at a restaurant. Obviously, not knocking anyone that uses the QR code, especially for certain concepts, it’s absolutely awesome and it works really well. But for a place like Maple and Ash specifically, it wouldn’t make sense for us to have a QR code on the table and be, you know, doing all these other stuff, all these other things. So I’m just kind of excited to see how that evolves.

Like, do people lean, lean more into the old school way of things? Do we see kind of more, there’s a really cool company called Sunday that does the QR code thing super well. I’m hoping to maybe work with them someday for our eight bar brand. So yeah, there’s just like, there’s a lot of cool things out there and I’m excited to just kind of see how those evolve and learn more about them and just kind of see what’s coming.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, I can tell you love to experiment with new ideas. Yeah, have some fun and let’s see what works. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Well, Megan, I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it. Absolutely.

Meghan McNeil: Thanks for having me. This was fun. I love podcasts. So I was like, all about it.

Anthony Codispoti: Terrific. It was my pleasure. Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.