John Aldape

That said, probably the most important lesson is to be true to yourself and be good to the people around you. You never know when paths will cross again and your reputation will travel more than you know.

Yard by yard, life's hard." Try to approach big problems piece by piece so they are not overwhelming and allow for small successes to build to overall success and victories.

You can't teach a positive perspective or aptitude.

Everyone has a unique worldview and it's important for me to be able to transfer my excitement to others effectively. Being open to other people's perspectives often opens them up to seeing things from your perspective.

My business partners are relentless in our pursuit to be a standard setter in the hospitality industry. In our effort to get there, we are often reflecting on how we can be better. It's important to be ambitious and set goals that are often aspirational to raise the bar and continue to grow.

I grew up camping, fishing, hiking and spending a lot of time outdoors. Spending time in nature and away from technology is very grounding for me and helps me see things from a healthy perspective. I always feel better after a hike or after just being around plants and trees.

We really try to simplify our objectives to be focused on our guests, our team and our goal of inspired hospitality. Our teams are tired and often feel overworked and underappreciated. I try to be real with everyone and not make excuses for what we need to improve, there is always room to improve. That said, more often than not our team mates need someone to listen to them and validate how they are feeling and sometimes simply need encouragement to carry on. We all appreciate encouragement even if we don't think we need it.

Prior to becoming a manager I explored going to culinary school and couldn't consider adding more student debt after undergrad and decided to try to learn the business as a manager with Lettuce. I was lucky to have a path within LEYE that I had access to Rich Melman and many other partners within their organization. I met my current business partners there, learned how LEYE operates and met a ton of incredible individuals along the way (including my wife). I was with them for a long time and I learned more than I ever expected to. I now have aspirations to make our company a place where we can nurture young entrepreneurs and help others along a path in hospitality.

So often I heard restaurant folks talk about someday working in a "real job." This experience changed my perspective and I understood this industry to be incredibly powerful to have an impact in people's lives that could last a lifetime. I was hooked.

I've opened multiple restaurants and never could have done any of that on my own. Most recently, in 2023, we opened Kindling Downtown Cookout & Cocktails in Willis Tower. It was a challenging opening, as all of them are, but through the efforts of our opening team and all of the leaders who have been a part of this team since, we have a restaurant that we are incredibly proud of.

Many families I know don't communicate well and have all kinds of resentments and "baggage." The truth is we choose to do this work and we don't choose our family. I don't like to think of myself as a parent in my work relationships, but more so a teacher/coach/mentor.

It's not always easy to be honest in every situation but easy isn't usually the best path.

We were all questioning everything during that time and while we had to close most of our establishments and furlough so many of our employees, we were able to provide food and connection to a number of people in the industry that really helped our team move forward and really connect with the service of hospitality in its core. That time really gutted our industry and we've been rebuilding since. Our charity work is something that people mention to me in interviews still to this day.