Welcome to the final episode of Season One of Maître d’ Diaries.

Like most restaurants, the podcast has taken much longer to get up and running than we could have imagined, with lots of starts and stops, largely out of our control. To wrap up Season One we figured it would be a good time for you to get to know us better.

Dante and Erica are old friends who met at the Four Seasons Hotel Boston in the 90’s. We followed our hospitality dreams to NYC, worked in some of the finest restaurants in the city, were here through 911, and within years of each other left New York to move back to our respective home states (Hawai’i and Pennsylvania).

Working fine dining restaurant operations can take its toll on a spirit and a life, and we each had our own cocktail of reasons for leaving town.

Then, “just when we thought we were out…” we were unable to resist the allure of the city we love. Now we are both back, rolling up our sleeves and pitching in to do our part in post-Covid New York restaurant life.

We started the podcast as a way to build community and foster conversation amongst other FOH folks. We are having a wonderful time reminiscing about restaurants in the 90’s and 2000’s, for sure, but we are also enjoying real talk about the state of hospitality today, and gazing forward at what it can be in the years to come.

Join us as we interview each other, and find out how Dunkin’ Donuts and TGI Friday’s figure into our pasts.

#hospitality #restaurants #restaurantpodcast #restaurantlife #maitred #foh #service #nyc #nyrestaurants #86list #soigneryourself #wecantransferthis #werebooked #maitred

@dante_camara @ericawcantley

Aloha and welcome to our first Pop-Up episode of Maitre d’ Diaries the Podcast, where we record interviews from our visits to colleagues in restaurants around the country and the world.

On Dante’s most recent visit home he had lunch at Fete in Honolulu with his dear friend and sustainability proponent, Natalie Aczon, after which we had the pleasure to interview the co-owner of Fete, James Beard Award-Winning Chef Robynne Maii.

Dante has been boasting about Robynne and her husband Chuck Bussler’s restaurant Fete since it opened, and he was bursting with hometown pride two years ago when Robynne won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northwest & Pacific.

Robynne and Dante have more than Honolulu and a love of sustainability in common, though. During our chat we discovered that both Dante and Robynne boast Rocco di Spirito’s Union Pacific as their first job in New York City. Listen in to hear about how she came to work at the world renowned Kitchen Arts & Letters, how it connects to her unique New York 911 story, what made Robynne and her husband Chuck decide to move back to Hawaii and open Fete, and much more!

@robynnemaii @asknataliehawaii @fetehawaii @chuckbussler @beardfoundation @roccodispirito @kalnyc @mattsartwell @zunicafe

Aspen Maye, Food & Beverage Manager at the Arlo Hotel in Williamsburg, is relatively new to the hospitality business, but she’s a quick study and has already put a lot of thought into how to run a door, make people feel welcome, and add some silliness into training her front of the house team. Listen in as we learn about the 10 to 5 rule, what a Sasha Bar is, and why Aspen thinks everyone should work in hospitality for at least a year. (We wholeheartedly concur!)

We are so honored to welcome Drew Nieporent to MaÎtre d’ Diaries!

Drew is one of America's great restaurateurs. He has been an integral player in the NYC food world landscape for decades, supporting the community, making connections, and always bringing the good time and warm welcome.

Drew has played a significant role in shaping the dining scene in this country into one of our premier cultural, artistic, and recreational pursuits, with iconic venues including Montrachet, Nobu, Batard, Rubicon, and Tribeca Grill.

A stellar career like Drew’s doesn’t happen by accident. Augmenting his studies at Cornell, he worked his way up from the bottom studying the rise of McDonald’s, learning fine dining service on international cruise ships, and working with the great showman Warner LeRoy at Maxwell’s Plum and Tavern on the Green.

Listen in as we chat about those early days, how his father’s job impacted his choice of profession, how Drew met and ended up hiring David Bouley as the first chef at Montrachet, the storied evolution of the 239 West Broadway space, how Drew feels about Instagram and what restaurant behavior he’d like to see 86ed!

Maître d's may be the gatekeepers, but here at Maître d' Diaries we will frequently step away from the door and talk to front of the house hospitality professionals who play all different roles in executing the service in restaurant operations.

Join us this episode for our chat with Maddy Maldonado, the beverage director of Jose Andres' Mercado Little Spain at Hudson Yards on the West Side of Manhattan.

Maldonado grew up in New Jersey, the daughter of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, surrounded by the wonder of food, love, and warmth while she helped her mother host large family gatherings. Maldonado first caught the hospitality bug doing pick up work with a caterer: listen in as she tells us how helping out at a party in the home of a wine collector with a 1,000 bottle cellar sparked a mentorship that led to a lifelong passion for learning and teaching about wine. 

Welcome to the first episode of We're Booked! where each season we will chat with people who write books about restaurants!

Where better to kick off this deliciously decadent series than at the venerable Kitchen Arts & Letters, the world renowned bookstore opened in 1983 by the legendary Nach Waxman?

For almost four decades Waxman was a veritable biblio-maître d' whose by-hand sales and curation made Kitchen Arts & Letters a beloved and important gastronomic library and research center. 

Join us in the stockroom at KAL--goosebumps!--as we chat with managing partner, Matt Sartwell, about the history of the store and some of our favorite books about restaurants.

It's been quite a year for Chef David Viana and Managing Director Neilly Robinson, partners in New Jersey's Heirloom Kitchen, Heirloom at the St. Laurent Social Club, and the systemically innovative, vibrantly delicious, Lita.

Last summer we visited David and Neilly six weeks after Lita, their Modern Iberian Restaurant in Aberdeen Township, NJ, opened. Since then, Esquire Magazine and the James Beard Foundation have recognized Lita as one of the country's Best New Restaurants.

We agree, and we think Lita also boasts an important new approach to restaurant staffing. You're going to want to hear about how Viana and Robinson are blending BOH & FOH to foster growth and career sustainability for their team members.

Join us for our chat about the vision and intentionality behind this beacon of exciting hospitality and its creators' game-changing model for sharing the wealth. 

One fine August afternoon Dante & Erica met up at Cafe Spaghetti and had the fortuitous pleasure of running into chef/owner Sal Lamboglia, who gave us a preview of their new venture, Swoony's.

Of course we pulled out the microphone to record the impromptu visit! Listen in to hear about Sal and Dante's meeting at Andrew Carmellini's A Voce and the inspiration behind the newly opened and already warmly embraced Swoony's on Columbia Street, a block away from Cafe Spaghetti.