Restaurant Owners Uncorked is a Top-5 Worldwide Hospitality Podcast. Successful independent restaurant owners and franchise CXOs share their stories, advice, wisdom, lessons learned and more. Hosted by Schedulefly (www.schedulefly.com), a restaurant employee scheduling business with super simple software + legendary customer service, serving over 5000 restaurants, breweries, coffee shops, hotels, hotels, and other badass hospitality businesses.
All content for Restaurant Owners Uncorked is the property of Schedulefly and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Restaurant Owners Uncorked is a Top-5 Worldwide Hospitality Podcast. Successful independent restaurant owners and franchise CXOs share their stories, advice, wisdom, lessons learned and more. Hosted by Schedulefly (www.schedulefly.com), a restaurant employee scheduling business with super simple software + legendary customer service, serving over 5000 restaurants, breweries, coffee shops, hotels, hotels, and other badass hospitality businesses.
Episode 616: Building Community, One Table at a Time: Ken Stemke, Main Street Social, Libertyville, IL
Restaurant Owners Uncorked
54 minutes
1 month ago
Episode 616: Building Community, One Table at a Time: Ken Stemke, Main Street Social, Libertyville, IL
Wil welcomes guest Ken Stemke, owner of Main Street Social in Libertyville, IL, an upscale Italian-American restaurant with its own wine label. Ken traces his hospitality spark to bussing tables in high school, then a 35-year career in banking that armed him with the financial discipline many restaurants lack. He shares how a seasoned team, empowerment, and a recent, internally driven menu refresh (60+ dishes tested) improved culture and guest experience. The convo dives into COVID cash-flow planning, POS frustrations, the importance of listening to staff and guests, policy headwinds like tip-credit changes, rising costs/tariffs, tech overreach, and why independent restaurants—and local coalitions—are essential to community life. Key TakeawaysBanking → hospitality advantage: Ken’s finance/accounting background gave him crucial cash-flow and planning skills most operators need but often lack.Seasoned staff pays off: With servers averaging ~40 in age and long tenures, May Street Social avoids much of the turnover drama.Empowerment drives innovation: Shifting decision-making to loyal team members led to a broad menu refresh without outside consultants.Manufacturing mindset: Treat each dish like a mini job—know costs, margins, and process control just as in production.Plan for storms: During COVID, Ken worked off daily cash-flows and prebuilt “Plan A/B/C” responses to policy changes.Policy ripple effects: Eliminating the tip credit (e.g., in Chicago) raises labor costs significantly and can hurt independents more than chains.Tariffs & uncertainty pinch demand: Cost shocks (produce, glass, wine) and scary headlines can temporarily depress traffic.Right-sized tech: Restaurants should resist feature bloat; deploy only tools that simplify ops (Ken is doubling down on using Schedulefly fully).POS matters: Weak reporting and lack of integrations create friction; handhelds and better data can smooth service pacing.Community is the moat: Independent restaurants anchor local identity; forming downtown/indie coalitions amplifies marketing and advocacy.
Restaurant Owners Uncorked
Restaurant Owners Uncorked is a Top-5 Worldwide Hospitality Podcast. Successful independent restaurant owners and franchise CXOs share their stories, advice, wisdom, lessons learned and more. Hosted by Schedulefly (www.schedulefly.com), a restaurant employee scheduling business with super simple software + legendary customer service, serving over 5000 restaurants, breweries, coffee shops, hotels, hotels, and other badass hospitality businesses.
